The bug is super fun, but I also find the Intel response to be fascinating on its own. They apparently didn’t replace everyone’s processor with a non faulty version who wanted it, resulting in a ton of bad press.
To contrast, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Amazon Colorsoft launch, which had a yellow band graphics issue on some devices (mine included). Amazon waited a bit before acknowledging it (maybe a day or two, presumably to get the facts right). Then they simply quietly replace all of them. No recall. They just send you a new one if you ask for it (mine replacement comes Friday, hopefully it will fix it). My takeaway is that it’s pretty clear that having an incredibly robust return/support apparatus has a lot of benefits when launches don’t go quite right. Certainly more than you’d expect from analysis.
Similarly I haven’t seen too many recent reports about the Apple AirPod Pros crackle issue that happened a couple years ago (my AirPods had to be replaced twice), but Apple also just quietly replaced them and the support competence really seemed something powerful that isn’t always noticed.
The Kindle and AirPod cases are not really comparable since those are relatively minor products for the respective companies.
On the Apple side the iPhone 4 antennagate is a better comparison since the equivalent fix there would have involved free replacements for a flagship and revenue-critical product which Apple did not offer.
Intel on the other hand did eventually offer free replacements for anybody who asked and took a major financial hit.
Maybe but by that argument 99% of the affected Pentium users could have happily used their computers until they became obsolete. The bug went completely unnoticed for over a year with millions of units in use.
The media coverage and the fact that "computer can't divide" is something that the public could wrap their heads around is what made the recall unavoidable.
Intel's own marketing hype around the Pentium has played into it too. It would have been a smaller deal during the 486 era.
I had the first gen white MacBook with the magnetic closure that resulted in chipped, discoloured topcases. I had it replaced for free like three or four times over the lifespan of that computer, including past the three year AppleCare expiry.
I really respected Apple’s commitment to standing behind their product in that way.
I thought the response from intel was to invest a lot in correctness for a while and then deciding that AMD were not being punished for their higher defect rate and so, more recently, investing in other things to try to compete with AMD on other metrics than how buggy the cpu is.
I read a claim that they had gutted their verification team several years ago in response to Zen since they claimed that they needed to develop faster and verification was slowing them down. Then not that long ago we started hearing about the raptor lake issues.
I work adjacent to CPU verification, and let me tell you, those verification guys do file a LOT of bugs (and thus make a lot of work debugging and fixing issues). Some days I do wish we could just get rid of them, surprised that Intel really went ahead and did it.
For the most part, this wasn't an individual problem. Corporations purchased these pretty expensive Pentium computers through a distributor, and just got them replaced by the vendor, per their support contract.
I've been in some consumer Apple "shadow warranty" situations, so I know what you are talking about, but IMO very different than the "IT crisis" that intel was facing. "IBM said so" had a ton of IT weight back then.
Only up to a point. If one is abusing it, expect getting locked out. I buy enough stuff from Amazon that they don't mind me returning something once in a while.
To contrast, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Amazon Colorsoft launch, which had a yellow band graphics issue on some devices (mine included). Amazon waited a bit before acknowledging it (maybe a day or two, presumably to get the facts right). Then they simply quietly replace all of them. No recall. They just send you a new one if you ask for it (mine replacement comes Friday, hopefully it will fix it). My takeaway is that it’s pretty clear that having an incredibly robust return/support apparatus has a lot of benefits when launches don’t go quite right. Certainly more than you’d expect from analysis.
Similarly I haven’t seen too many recent reports about the Apple AirPod Pros crackle issue that happened a couple years ago (my AirPods had to be replaced twice), but Apple also just quietly replaced them and the support competence really seemed something powerful that isn’t always noticed.
Colorsoft: https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/amazon-kindle-co...
AirPods Pro: https://support.apple.com/airpods-pro-service-program-sound-...