Is the quality of Mac decreasing?

I'm not sure it's really a valid question. Not only are the chips different, but the technology has changed radically in almost every aspect form 1984 until now. If you look at PowerPC chips in the G4 and earlier, they are relatively simple processors. The PowerPC in the G5 was more complex. Intel chips are just about the most complex devices ever assembled.

More complexity means more ways to fail and a shorter MBTF; that doesn't necessarily mean lower quality, however, just like comparing cancer rates between 1900 and 2000 doesn't indicate the population is getting less healthy today (in 1900 they didn't live long enough to see high cancer rates).

The overall quality of modern chips is higher than ever before, but when you cram one billion transistors into a circuit at 23nm gate line widths...your failure rate is just going to go up regardless of the quality controls.

Well, take "valid question" as being in a scientific sense of the term. Ie, to be valid there needs to be only one independant variable against which you can measure changes in a dependent variable (unless you want to deal with co-variants).

You're quite right that the question is worth asking - I just don't think you can answer it with a simple measure of year vs # of failures.

.. I wonder if anyone has compared six sigma yields for computer chips and calculated system reliability over the decades i.e. 80's, 90's and then 00's. It's true, every 18 months, chip densities have doubled, if you beleive Moore's Law, but then again manufacturing processes have improved as well. One could assume then, that chip yields and failure rates could be at least equivalent during these periods. The O/S and application software is much more complex compareably. Therefore, I would expect SW crashes to be more prevalent than hardware.. but my experiecne with all my SW is very good. I've experienced some hardware failures on my MBP e.g. video and Apple replaced it. However, by-and-large, I have not experienced any significant HW failure rate increases between my Mac c. 1984 and my MBP c. 2008. Touch wood. 🙂

Regarding more recent Macs I also had a G 5 logic board failure after Apple Care expired. In addition a MacBook Pro that had the Nvidia graphics failure 1 month before the expiration of the warranty which was fixed by Apple. My trouble free Macs have been a G 4 12", MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air, all of which we use frequently.

I don't think there are any conclusions about actual failure rates to make. I do believe that the emergence of help forums has made the publication of problems more popular so as to suggest an increase.

I would actually think it be the other way around, due to achievements in engineering. However, I haven't used enough Mac computers to provide a solid opinion. My 2 year old Macbook pro should have at least another 4 or so (used as a desktop), but is in need of a memory upgrade. I know my university uses the older white iMacs (ones new enough to have C2D and run Lion), which run great.

GilTaylor wrote:..

MacBook Pro Titanium (DAMAGED- Screen failure)

There is no MacBook Pro Titanium; the Titanium PB was discontinued nine years ago. The youngest G5 iMacs and Powerbooks are 6 years old.

My data is too comlicated and vast to just walk away from. 🙂

All hard disk drives fail eventually. Don't rely upon a single Mac to store what you need.

I've never had a Mac fail, maybe I'm just lucky. Both my HP laptops were junk in two to three years. The first was at the repair shop during much of its warranty period. Its motherboard failed after three years. The second had its display fail at two years.

I have come to expect a Mac to be economically viable for about eight years. The limiting factor in their useful life is not hardware longevity, but advances in technology that often did not exist when they were designed. Arguably, such advances are only accelerating. Facebook, for example, barely existed six years ago. Same for YouTube. The iPhone is not even five years old; the iPad, two.