Instapaper creator Marco Arment is certainly one of the most read and widely influential Mac and iOS developers around. And when he says that there’s something seriously wrong with the way things have been going with Apple’s software lately, many people will take note.
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In a new essay posted on his website, Arment offers a blistering critique of Apple’s latest software releases and then delivers the ultimate insult that would have made Steve Jobs weep: He compares some of the latest iOS and OS X software flubs to the mistakes that Microsoft repeatedly made with Windows.
“We now need to treat Apple’s OS and application releases with the same extreme skepticism and trepidation that conservative Windows IT departments employ,” Arment writes. “[Apple’s] software quality has taken such a nosedive in the last few years that I’m deeply concerned for its future. I’m typing this on a computer whose existence I didn’t even think would be possible yet, but it runs an OS riddled with embarrassing bugs and fundamental regressions. Just a few years ago, we would have relentlessly made fun of Windows users for these same bugs on their inferior OS, but we can’t talk anymore.”
Why is Arment so annoyed by the quality of Apple’s most recent software? He approvingly cites an essay by Geoff Wozniak, who recently converted from being a longtime OS X user to primarily using Linux.
“At this point, my default position on Apple software in OS X has moved from ‘probably good’ to ‘probably not OK,'” Wozniak writes. “They seem more interested in pumping out quantity by way of more upgrades. It’s death by a thousand cuts, but it’s death nonetheless.”
There have been several high-profile software flubs for Apple in recent months, including the disastrous release of iOS 8.0.1 that left users unable to make phone calls with their devices. However, it’s not clear who, if anyone, is really benefiting from these mistakes since Windows and Android both have reputations for being even buggier and more annoying to use. That said, Arment doesn’t see this as a good thing for Apple since it could gradually erode the company’s customer loyalty.
“I suspect the biggest force keeping stories like this from being more common is that Windows is still worse overall and desktop Linux is still too much of a pain… for most people,” Arment writes. “But it should be troubling if a lot of people are staying on your OS because everything else is worse, not necessarily because they love it.”
Read Arment’s whole essay at the source link below.
