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Microsoft Owns Up To 360 Defects
Next Generation reports on Microsoft's acceptance of responsibility for early 360 defects. While originally claiming that system failures were well within the norm for consumer electronics, they've now adopted a more service-friendly attitude. From the article: "Upon further investigation, it was further discovered that the bulk of the units were isolated to a group that was part of the initial manufacturing run of the console. Returns for repair are coming in for a variety reasons and it's a higher rate than we are satisfied with. We've made the decision to comp repairs for consoles manufactured before January 1, and provide refunds to the small group of customers who have already paid for repairs."
I own a 360 (and have never had any problems with it). I appreciate that MS rushed production to get it out a year earlier than the other systems, as I was jonesing for a new system. I also appreciate that this rush is what produced the defective hardware. Although the delay in compensation for repairs denotes a greedy attitude on the part of MS, I am not surprised. Corporations do not exist to serve the public good, and if you find this objectionable, then please avail yourself of a microeconomics textbook. You can't expect good intentions from corporations (and from people in general). You should be satisfied that they do the right thing, even if for the wrong reasons.
Having worked for several years, I understand how difficult it is to design products, let alone systems. Even with the best gameplan, you will spend most of your time debugging and firefighting. Hence the emergence of "in-programming", which since MS is eating all of the costs of repairs to defective 360s, is essentially what they did when designing the hardware. Put another way, would you rather wait an extra year for a rock-solid 360, or get one a year earlier, which will probably work fine, but may not, in which case you get a working one for no extra cost?
MS is a decent corporation with decent products. It could be better, but it could be way worse. The people who run it are not evil or contemptible. They are extremely busy and are trying to balance a lot of competing forces when developing and marketing products. Don't criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes.
Slashdot is a great site, but the inane and repititious MS-bashing here really brings it down.