The Lonely Apple Repairman?
I just read an article over at Forbes.com titled “The Lonely Apple Repairman?” that detailed the recent travails of the author, David A. Andelman, who had to wait 60 hours for his Mac to be repaired at the Apple store in NY. I can sympathize with his angst over the temporary loss of his ‘Net umbilical cord, even if I thought the article was a bit overdramatic.
The end of the article posed a question that routinely pops up from tech writers: shouldn’t computers be more stable by now? He points to one of the usual (straw man) suspects for comparison: the modern automobile. I have two arguments or comments for Mr. Andelman in response to his story:
First, cars haven’t changed all that much since they showed up a century ago. Every piece that has been added went through years of research and careful integration into the car. For safety reasons most people would argue that is a good thing. But from the standpoint of innovation, it really sucks. Computers, on the other hand, are all about innovation. Not only does the hardware continue to develop at an amazing rate, but the software may actually be outpacing the hardware.
I’m sure if we were to just stop making new bits and pieces for our computers and just spent all of our time refining what we currently have that we would have much more stable machines. But what a waste that would be. Stability is great, don’t get me wrong. And the software and hardware industries (but especially software) could certainly do a better job of creating more stable products, but there will always be a balancing act with innovation.
Second, knowing how to take care of my computer much better than I know how to take care of my car, I tend to experience more problems and sink more money into my automobile than I ever will on my computers. So it’s a spurious analogy at best.