Apple's Software Is In A 'Nosedive' That Is Deeply Concerning, Longtime Apple Supporter Says

Business Insider ^ | 01/05/2015 | Jay Yarow

[SeekAndFind]

Respected developer Marco Arment is worried about Apple's future.

In a blog post he writes: "Apple's hardware today is amazing — it has never been better. But the software quality has taken such a nosedive in the last few years that I'm deeply concerned for its future."

Arment was CTO at Tumblr before he left to start Instapaper, the first app that let users save stories to be read later. He also launched Overcast, an increasingly popular podcasting app. He records his own podcast, which has a devoted following in Apple and developer circles.

Arment is not an alarmist. He dislikes people who are alarmist. And he knows the reaction his posts will provoke, so he's generally careful with his words.

"Apple has completely lost the functional high ground," Arment says. "'It just works' was never completely true, but I don't think the list of qualifiers and asterisks has ever been longer."

Arment blames the prioritizing of marketing for the problems with Apple's software. Apple wants to have new software releases each year as a marketing hook, but the annual cycles of updating Apple's software are leading to too many bugs and problems, he says:

[TheBattman]

I’m not defending anything Apple in relation to your post... but the iPhone 4s has known battery issues - that for the last year and a half has seen lots of finger-pointing: Is it software (primarily iOS) or is it a hardware issue (what I believe).

My wife has a 4S that has a wacky battery - started with iOS 7, got marginally better for a short time when updated to iOS8 (which runs just fine on it), but it is back to the quick-drain, then once to 30%, might shut off at any time... Or will drop to 4% but immediately jump to 40% upon plugging it up. IT is really wacky.

[SamAdams76]

I went to the link and read the entire article, only to find out that the author presented absolutely no particulars to back up his vague assertion that "Apple's Software is in a nosedive."

What nosedive? Do you see a nosedive? I don't see a nosedive.

OK, so some guy in Salt Lake City had his iPad crash. And some iPhone 5 user in Tallahassee, Florida had to reload his iOS a couple of times.

When you put a billion devices out there, you are bound to have some placements go badly. And even if every device worked perfectly, you are still going to have a few attention-seeking cranks come out of the woodwork to tell us about their "bad experience."

Mercedes-Benz makes a pretty solid luxury vehicle but I bet there are some Mercedes owners who bitch and moan about this and that.

But getting back to the article, this Marco Arvent, "respected developer" and all, does not appear to have anything substantive to back up these very vague claims.

[Clara Lou]

My 4s had whatever the basic amount of space is. (I don’t do music. Did have some added apps and whatever photos I took on various vacations.) I never updated through iTunes. Only once did I ever have to delete anything to be able to do an update, and all I deleted was old texts I let build up.

I actually updated it to 8.1.2.

Sorry that I couldn’t be more specific.