I have had a very personal relationship with Apple. When I was growing up, that was the popular technology service to go to. It was cool, fun and modern and I definitely wanted to be a part of the cool kids club.
I was ten years old when the 6th generation iPod came out, and it was one of the best days of my life. The 2007 version of me could listen to Jesse McCartney and the Jonas Brothers all I wanted. There was no stopping this Joe-girl from getting her daily dose of “Lovebug.” However, I had no idea I would be caught up in an endless cycle of repurchasing chargers and other add-ons for Apple products.
Was this Steve Jobs’ intention the whole time? Did he just want to scam me out of money in order to keep me buying Apple products?
You know what was even better than the 6th generation iPod at the ripe age of ten? The iPod Touch.
It was selfie galore from then on out… until I shattered the screen and the camera broke. I had no choice but to mope and cry until I got my first iPhone. That was a total of three large Apple products in the span of two years. We cannot forget the number of chargers I had been through at that point. Keep in mind, this was only 2008, and I had a long way to go to get to where I am now.
Can you guess what happened next? You got it. I shattered the screen on that one, and I got another iPhone because now I was in group chats and getting my teenage girl gossip every night after school.
Forward to another couple of iPhones getting shattered, fixed and re-shattered and my purchase of a mid-2013 MacBook Pro, which I still have to this day– but do not be fooled, she has gotten her share of fixing up. My MacBook Pro has gotten its motherboard taken out and replaced and the screen stepped on and cracked— which has since been replaced. I’ve also gone through a series of different chargers because, just like the iPhone ones, the MacBook ones are somehow just as easy to break.
You know what really gets to me from the array of Apple products? The chargers. I think that they like to work for about six months and then suddenly break. They either completely snap in half or just do not do anything when I plug them into my phone. I know Apple knows it, too. It is probably an inside joke at their headquarters about how they like to make the lifespan of a charger six months at most.
Yes, I know I have the choice to switch to a different company but what am I supposed to do when I have basically grown up with Apple? Just completely forget about the good times we have had? It is a tricky situation and a love-hate relationship at the same time.
Either way, I am exhausted of Apple scamming me. When will they realize they need to make their products out of different materials? This goes especially for their chargers. I hope they come out with a metal charger soon, or I still have a long way to go, full of broken Mac accessories.
Jp • Sep 7, 2020 at 2:04 pm
I like Apple. For real. My husband and Apple go way back. But I’ve thought the same thing. I take care of my devices. But I don’t understand why it seems they’re so fragile. I’ve taken excellent care of my Apple Watch, yet someone accidentally dropped it while bring it to me and it shattered. I have family members and friends who have shattered screens. I think iPhones and Apple watches are meant to be carried around, and people are active while using them, so why can’t they just make the screens more durable? They’re so far ahead technology wise, so it seems they could come up with something, but instead of spending over $100 to fix my watch I might as well just get another one. And if you don’t buy a good expensive case for your phone, same boat—shattered screen. So maybe it’s just not possible, but I’ve had the same thought and just wanted to share since everyone else seems to take extreme offense to your article 😆 I’m not sure how expensive Apple Care is or if it’s worth having so that may be something to look into.
P.S. I have kids (as do plenty of Apple users), and I really wish chargers were more durable!
Le Bergstrom • Apr 30, 2018 at 3:46 pm
Vanessa, you are either remarkably clumsy or your less than perfect Apple experience was largely tongue in cheek, as it bears no resemblance to my own …. beginning with an Apple ][e in 1983, through eight subsequent desktops, six laptops, an iPod, five iPhones, three iPads, two Watches and a HomePod….. twenty seven devices in all.
I’ve never had a charging device break or otherwise fail to work, nor cracked a screen, but my ‘Cheeze Grater’ Mac Pro did die a year ago … after ten years of, essentially, daily use. And my iPhone 6 did not survive a full cycle in my washing machine.
None of the other twenty five devices ever failed to function normally. Some became functionally obsolete but most were simply passed on to others, mostly family, or are still in use.
Better luck with your next Apple adventure!
Fred M. • May 3, 2018 at 3:55 am
You wrote: “Vanessa, you are either remarkably clumsy or your less than perfect Apple experience was largely tongue in cheek…”
Or, more likely, she is careless to the point of negligence. This is, after all, someone who complained that a MacBook Pro screen cracked when it was stepped on.
After Vanessa “shattered the screen and [broke] the camera” of her iPod Touch at age ten, she said she “had no choice but to mope and cry until [she] got [her] first iPhone.”
And therein lay the likely cause of the problem. If I had been her parent, I’d have told her that she broke it by being careless, so I was not buying her a replacement. If the moping and crying became annoying, I’d have sent her to her room. If she later needed a phone for safety reasons, she’d have had whatever was cheap — like a flip phone. If she didn’t break that after a couple of years, I might have relented and bought her an iPhone for a combination Christmas/birthday/honor-roll present. I bet she would have taken much better care of that, and her subsequent devices.
You wrote: “my iPhone 6 did not survive a full cycle in my washing machine.”
In Vanessa’s mind, that would be another example of Apple products being too delicate.
P.S. You and I may be of similar “vintage.” I started an entry-level engineering position in 1980 and put together my first “real” computer, a floppy-based Ampro Z80 system with 64MB of RAM, a couple of years later.
Jeff • Apr 29, 2018 at 8:03 am
Dear Vanessa,
This is the first time I have commented on a post in in years. I was rather shocked to read the headline because having been an Apple user since the early 1990s I thoroughly believe in not only the usability, but the durability of their products. Given your age, you may not remember a time when many electronic products did not make it past six months. Apple came along and brought reliability, durability, usability, and style to consumer electronics. I still have apple computers that work that are more than 12 years old. There are currently other computer manufacturers who create products that may not make it two years. The perception that Apple is somehow trying to scam you, is simply that -a perception, and an incorrect one after that. It has been my impression over the decades that Apple is the one company you can trust to build the very best product they possibly can. This cannot be said of almost any other consumer electronics company I have ever experienced, although they might try they rarely succeed. I invite you to drive into the world of non-Apple PCs, and Android for a while and you will quickly realize the wrongness of your current opinion. I wish you luck.
Fred M. • Apr 29, 2018 at 5:22 am
Opinion: You should take better care of your Apple products
Apple isn’t “scamming” you. You break things because you don’t take care of them– and then you want to blame Apple rather than taking responsibility for your carelessness.
“until I shattered the screen and the camera broke.”
“Can you guess what happened next? You got it. I shattered the screen on that one,”
“Forward to another couple of iPhones getting shattered, fixed and re-shattered”
What will it take for you to learn that you can’t treat a glass-screened, mobile computing device like it’s a hockey puck?
“My MacBook Pro has gotten…the screen stepped on and cracked…”
Of course a MacBook Pro screen is likely to crack if it is stepped on. It’s a notebook computer, not a door mat.
——-
I’ve owned five iPhones, starting with the iPhone 4. I’ve also owned three iPads (1st gen, Air, and Pro 12.9″), a white MacBook, MacBook Pro 17, and multiple iPods.
I’ve also owned non-mobile Apple products including three Mac Pros (2008, 2009, 2010), a Mac Mini, an iMac Pro, two Apple TVs, and various accessories.
Here’s a full list of what broke:
Grey plastic bezel around MacBook keyboard (a known problem that Apple would fix for free)
iPhone 5S motherboard — destroyed when cheap Chinese car power adapter failed.
Aluminum wired keyboard — just wore out from so much use.
That’s it. I’ve never broken a screen on any Apple product I’ve owned. I’ve never had an Apple power adapter fail physically or electrically. I would often sell a device when I upgraded and it would look like new, often in the original packaging that I retained.
I’m an electrical engineer and I treat mobile devices properly. I don’t step on them, sit on them, stack things on them, drop them, drop things on them, spill things on them, or use them in situations where I’m distracted. They live in padded, protective cases. If I take one on my boat, it goes in a waterproof Pelican case (or similar).
If you can’t go for a few years without dropping and breaking a smartphone, don’t have children — it would be all too likely to end tragically.