Agreed that in a project managed shop, all the steps you mentioned would be followed... and rightfully so.
These threads all have a second purpose though, besides fixing the problem. And that is communication. We all know about the lawyers and the PR talking heads. These threads are calling for Apple to treat us not as numbers on a sales report, but as people. And with respect for the effort that it took many of us to pay the premium price for what really boils down to an Intel based laptop with a unix-like OS.
There have been many companies that have issued products, software, etc. that have proven faulty. The difference in perception regarding those companies comes from those that jumped right and did "damage control" and those that stuck with the silent treatment. A prominent printer manufacturer comes to mind over some of their all-in-one devices that simply quit working the first time a cartridge change took place. People were asking questions in forums around the world... but got only silence from the company. I only buy HP and Canon printers now.
Like many here, (I suspect,) I was a PC user since my first 286 machine. When the intel based Mac's came out, I waited for the first round to hit the market... sort of like the first year of a new car model... I always wait for the second year to see what flaws popped up the first year. So here's my brand new, (in April,) MBP 15" core 2 duo. Shiny... pretty... and now can't burn a cd!
The printer manufacturer I mentioned above ended up with class action lawsuits against it. I think I read a post in these forums where someone already mentioned that idea against Apple for this problem. Now come on... is it really necessary to have to go there? If Apple came out right now and said, yeah the firmware update caused problems and we're working on a fix. I would sit patiently and wait because I know they have the resources to figure it out. Or present a recall notice to the public. I believe the prevailing idea in business today is to do nothing, simply because it doesn't cost anything to do that. Wait long enough and the ferver and anger dies down. They loose some customer base but hey, new ones are switching to Mac daily and they already have the money from those that drift away, so what the heck.
The sad part of all this... it's not just Apple. It's our whole business society. And bottom line there is that businesses are run by people, so in fact, we're doing this to ourselves.
