Corporate Idiots vs. Consumer Sheep

I am just livid. Where do I start?

There are just so many sources of corporate idiocy and arrogance that it is hard to find a starting point.

But let's start with Palm and the Treo 700p.

1. Palm releases the Treo 700p as its new flagship smartphone early last summer.
2. Everybody hails it as the best overall smartphone out there.
3. As the 700p gets more and more owners, slowly and deep within the bowels of website forums rumblings begin of problems with the 700p.
• There are significant lags in switching between apps.
• There are numerous freezes (sometimes as long as 15 seconds), hang ups, and resets.
• Bluetooth pairing is inconsistent or nonexistent with headsets and handsfree sets.
• There is skipping in audio when playing mp3's.
• I am sure there are more but this is what I could think of off the top of my head.
4. As these rublings get louder and louder to the point of a roar, Palm then begins to respond:
• There are no known issues with the Treo 700p.
• There may be some minor, isolated issues with the 700p that are due primarily to user error.
• Some minor and isolated issues are noted with the 700p due to the shared architecture between the 700p and the 700w (windows mobile version of the Treo).
• We are becoming aware of some isolated issues with the functionality of the 700p.
• We ackowledge that there are some minor issues with the 700p and we will issue a patch soon to repair these issues.
• We have come to understand that the issues with the 700p are more significant than can be repaired via a simple patch. Our engineers are in the process of developing a full firmware update maintenance release to repair these issues. The update will be available at the end of Q1 2007.
• We have missed the Q1 2007 release date, as issues have proven more complicated to solve than expected. We expect the MR update to be availble at the end of April.
• We have missed the expected release date of end of April. We will inform you at a later date when the update should be available.
• We can now report that that MR update will be available to consumers the week of May 28.
• There has been a slight delay in the MR update. The Sprint version of the update will be made available the following week. We do not have a release date identified for the Verizon version of the update (no explanation. ever.).
• The Sprint version of the update is now available for download!
5. Now watch the fun....
• Loads of people download and begin to update their Sprint Treo 700p's. And promptly Treo after Treo is getting trashed or "bricked" only to have to be completely replaced by Sprint or Palm.
• After only two to three days, the Sprint MR update is pulled from Palm's website.
  
• A couple of weeks go by, and they make it again available.
• Sprint customer begin to successfully install the update, only to find MORE problems with the Treo AFTER update.
1. Treo's are now making unidentified tones for no reason, EVEN IF THE PHONE IS COMPLETELY MUTED.
2. Sprint customers begin to notice that ability to connect to the data network is highly inconsistent or completely unavailable post-MR update.
• Still no word from Palm about Verizon update.
• Weeks later, Verizon update begins to slowly show up with technicians in stores to update their phones in stock. Many Verizon Treo owners have their 700p's update in store by technician, ONLY TO HAVE THE SAME SET OF PROBLEMS noted by Sprint users (unidentified tones, little to no data network connectivity), including many for whom the update did not solve many of the pre-MR update problems.

I'm one of those lucky Verizon Treo 700p owners who now gets to sit and wait to receive their replacement Treo because the maintenance update created more problems than I had BEFORE the update.

This is a great way to treat your customers and test your product, huh? Well, now check this one out...

Now on to Microsoft...

Man, I love my Xbox 360, but let's face it. It has been plagued with hardware problems from the beginning. I got my original 360 on Launch Day, and I am already on #4 due to hardware failures - one disc drive failure and two red ring of death. I have friends that have gone through 7-8 of them already.

Microsoft has had an eerily similar position as Palm had above for the Treo 700p:

1. There are no problems with the Xbox 360. Hardware failures have been due to user error - moving the console while playing, poor ventilation of system resulting in user-created overheating.
2. We are tracking hardware failures on the Xbox 360. Hardware failure rates are well within the typical 3-5%.
3. We understand that due to some QA problems in some of our factories, some launch units have had some concerns with overheating. Customers with units purchased in the first three months of Launch can have their units repaired or replaced for free.
4. We now realize that the hardware failure rates for the Xbox 360 are higher than expected and something we are prepared to rectify. "We have heard our customers' complaints." (Note this is 18 months after launch, and closely following industry reports of 33% and higher hardware failure rates.) As such, we are extending the warranty on all Xbox 360 units to three full years.
5. And the final nail. Microsoft today admits that ALL Xbox 360's are defective.

So here we have two major companies with major hardware releases that are to be their flagships, and they utterly screw them up. Furthermore, they LIE about it for well over a year. At least Microsoft is making repairs and extending warranties to three full years. Palm, the crappy people that they are, not only denied it, but when they finally did admit it and released updates, released such poorly tested updates they created even bigger problems than the ones the updates were to fix!

And the saddest part? We'll keep buying them. There will always be a 360 in my home (until Microsoft releases another console). As much as I have wanted to dump my Treo, it simply remains the best overall smartphone on the market. I can't make myself dump it for another manufacturer. So I am no better. The Corporate Idiots know our country is full of Consumer Sheep. They know that if "they build it, we will buy."

Just ask Palm.
Just ask Microsoft.
Just ask Apple.

Admit it, we are all a bunch of spineless technological gadget sluts. We get angry about defective product, complain about it, and never do anything else. We take their abuse over and over, and we must like it. Because we keep coming back for more.