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Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
You may not like it, but the company who would know the real statistics about failure rate is the hardware manufacturer itself, and then it is whether or not you believe them. If you don't believe them, you better be able to back it up completely because like anything when you call an individual or even a company a liar you better have some substantial proof.
Yes, because companies always speak directly and use no "spin" at all to make things seem favourable.
In case you didn't smell the sarcasm, have a read of this:
Microsoft PR guy talks to JournalistThis has been my most recent PR shadowboxing read involving a Microsoft rep, and its also one of my most enjoyable reads. Because he uses a whole lot of oxygen without producing information. Its truly amazing stuff.
Look, I'll even do a translation of his speak into layman's terms for you.
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Q: What is the post-mortem on Xbox 360 manufacturing? How has it turned out for you?
A: Like any other post mortem, there are some things you would have done differently that you learned and that you incorporate back into your processes. Overall, it was really smoothe compared to the complexity of the product we were building.
Spin-removed answer: "We're not telling you details because any faults will be jumped upon by the media."
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Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it.
Spin-removed answer: "You think I'm going to say anything that isn't a glowing summary of the product I represent? Get out of town!"
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Q: I’ve heard varying accounts of what is considered a normal return rate. Some people say that 2 percent is normal. Sometimes 3 percent to 5 percent is considered normal. Back to that question, can you address whether you are within those rates or within a normal rate.
A: We don’t disclose the actual number.
Q: Normal compared to the Xbox?
A: We don’t comment on that.
Spin-removed answer: "DIVERT ALL POWER TO THE DEFLECTOR SHIELDS, SPOCK!"
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Q: What explains this anecodotal evidence that it’s out of whack, compared to the Wii or the PlayStation 3 or other consoles.
A: I would go back and say the vast majority of people love their experience. We continue to go back and address all of these issues on a case by case basis. There is a vocal minority out there. We go off and try to address their issues as quickly and as pain free as possible.
Spin-removed answer: "Look at that blue car. See how I showed you something irrelevant to your question and managed to avoid answering it. Yeah, that's why I'm a VP and you're just some guy. You truly are a terrible journalist"
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Q: Can you say anything about the yield? Do you have a good yield? Can you say anything about the yield?
A: The important thing here is that each product that comes out of the factory is rigorously tested. To ensure highest quality for our customer.
Spin-removed answer: "Considering we 'designed' and 'fabricated' the chip ourselves, there's no way I'm telling you about the results. Unless they were good, then I'd be on the rooftops right about now telling everyone."
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Q: If you have a high defect rate, won’t that ruin the business model? Won’t that ruin the profit?
A: I would say we don’t have a high defect rate. The vast majority of people are really excited about their product, and that we are targeting profitability for next year.
Spin-removed answer: "With a well-placed 'not' I managed to avoid your subtle trap. I may not be familiar with profitable products but I did get a few tips from my friends about how to make some money on the street soliciting my body - which I'm also excited about, but of course you didn't ask about this venture - so instead I'm going to work on the 360 by daylight to maintain this ruse."
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Q: If you make a jump in a chip generation like that, from 90nm to 65nm, does that give you the opportunity to do a lot of things like totally resetting the quality level, totally resetting the costs?
A: Whether it is 90nm or 65nm, we have a high quality bar we target.
Spin-removed answer: "Suck my left nut, bookworm. Do something we might both enjoy for once."
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Q: Does the quality automatically get better if you go from 90nm to 65nm?
A: The quality is good at both of those.
Spin-removed answer: "I choose to sit on the fence as long as you buy my product. It may look uncomfortable but I sleep surprisingly well."
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Q: It seems like the obvious chance to do something new. For example, does it give you a chance to do the Xbox 360 Elite?
A: You know the business as well as I do. The design is essentially the same clock for clock as the previous version. It has to perform similarly to what was done in the past, as we go through this thing. We continue to drive the same levels of quality, to increase the quality if possible, and to ensure the customer has the best experience possible.
Spin-removed answer: "I don't know what you know about digital microelectronics, but I'll bet its minimal. So let me go back to talking about quality."
Aside: Having done a course in digital microelectronics recently which covered the effects of the scaling of feature size on a processor(say, from 90nm to 65nm, roughly a 25% drop in feature size) then it affects a lot. For example:
"The trends in circuit design in the past indicate the clock speed of a new processor will typically increase by the factor that the feature size decreases."
So either he knows a lot more about circuit design than my lecturer (who actually did this thing for a living until recently) or he's full of it.
But hang on a second. I'm getting a dose of that feeling, what is it, empathy perhaps? That feeling where you want to try and understand the other side of the argument, no matter how convoluted or nonsensical it is? Yeah, lets call it that.
If a hypothetical situation arose where Microsoft was designed the chip that powered their games console (just like now), then I should have no reason to worry, right?
Surely there's some sort of magical process which
tests a design thoroughly and proves that a chip will work before it is fabricated, given that it has a clock period of approximately 0.3 nanoseconds (give or take a few hundred picoseconds) and that it is a tri-core chip (haven't actually seen one of those in production environments either, precendence or insanity?) which would require more complex testing than a standard processor.
And then I should trust that the custom chips are put under burn-in procedures to ensure that they are all quality processors and that they will operate correctly for a sufficient period of time as to enable me to play Microsoft-branded games for a few years until I get bored of it or see the next Xbox console is eminent.
But then why are there so many people having problems with their units (I have seen a 360 brick, and it was a pain for my mate to get it sorted out because the retailer wanted to send it away to get repaired through Microsoft - two degrees of bullshit instead of the usual one).
You see the reason why people are annoyed at their 360s dying in the first place? Perhaps because Microsoft refuses to acknowledge their is a problem in the first place. Perhaps they are ducking at every hint of trouble because their fortune wasn't made in the hardware market - and now that they are trying to do it largely on their own they are seeing problems with the manufacture of their system.
Perhaps their "internal testing" isn't that stringent. Perhaps there is a problem with the burn-in process of their custom chips (look it up). Perhaps they're not sure of the definitive cause of the problem. Perhaps there are multiple problems and they'd rather not talk about it.
Their PR people are just doing their job, but for once I'd like to see a PR person be frank with the media. Perrin wasn't frank - she was uppity and egotistical.
Anyway, the review continues on like this for a bit ... quality is something we strive for ... the majority of people are loving their systems ... et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. You see what I'm getting at.
When people like this are
Corporate Vice President, Gaming and Xbox Product Group then I hope that they are at least able to speak person-to-person. But of course this guy decides to be a PR guy instead.
Topic: Microsoft showing their true colors once again. (Read 85880 times)
