Apple catches flack for iPhone bar fiascos, more

Tis the season for year-end "best of" and "worst of" lists, and while Apple has finished 2011 with a number of triumphs that landed it on nearly everyone's top-10 for Christmas presents, it was not without a few missteps -- two of which are included in CNN's list of top 10 "tech fails" of 2011. The company's "sins" are minor compared to fiascos like the Netflix/Qwikster debacle or RIM's various Blackberry woes, but they were enough to make the list.

Apple's ongoing issues with battery life for some users of the iPhone 4S was one of the "fails" mentioned, though CNN described it as "a minor fail wrapped inside an epic win," referring to the record-setting sales of the smartphone. The issue, which appears to be software-related, didn't affect all users but was a stubborn problem for enough customers that Apple issued an update to iOS 5 intended to fix it. It appears to have solved the majority of user complaints but not all, and Apple is still investigating the issue.

The other "fail" for the Cupertino company is listed as its repeated inability to keep prototype iPhones safe in California bars. The more famous incident happened in 2010 when a lost iPhone 4 unit was pilfered and then sold to Gizmodo for an industry expose that resulted in probation and community service for two men, but the incident was eerily repeated in 2011 when an Apple engineer testing the new iPhone again lost track of it in a different San Francisco restaurant.

In the 2011 version, Apple's own "Find My iPhone" technology was used to trace it back to a private residence, but despite questionable police assistance in the investigation the prototype was never recovered. Surveillance footage from the restaurant was also mysteriously wiped, hindering efforts at prosecution. As CNN observes, "perhaps there is some connection between drinking and losing things."

The list also includes as a single item the Twitter missteps of the famous, most notably former Congressman Anthony Weiner's mis-sent illicit photos and faux pas tweets by Ashton Kucher and Gilbert Gottfried. It notes the more recent outcry over GoDaddy.com's support of the misguided SOPA legislative effort and the resulting backlash, but did not pick up on the very recent dust-up involving Ocean Marketing's Paul Christoforo and his "customer service" representing the N-Control Avenger joystick.

Other items on the "fail" list included the long-awaited but disappointing release of Duke Nukem Forever; the long-term outage and repeated occasional outages that plagued Sony's PlayStation Network, and PayPal's accidental shutting down of a Christmas charity effort by satire site Regretsy.

Some of the biggest "fails" in the unnumbered list, however, were representative of ongoing issues: for example, RIM's continuing problems with its management and products, which included massive service outages, lost e-mail, the delay of next-generation phones and the failure of the Playbook tablet in the marketplace. RIM's stock, currently at $14.66, has lost 75 percent of its value this year.

The list also took to task the overall failure of all non-Apple tablets, mentioning HP's ability to move units once they were slashed to fire-sale prices. It noted that Amazon may have "cracked the code" by creating an e-reading-centered utility tablet at a significantly lower price point than the iPad, but recent figures from Amazon indicate that while the Kindle Fire is popular, it is not yet a genuine rival in terms of sales.

The ongoing fallout from the series of bewildering moves from Netflix and the backlash of its subscribers was seen as one of the top tech "fails" of the year in the CNN list, and has been widely reported elsewhere as a prime example of corporate cluelessness. The company announced in July that it would raise prices, then details showed that it was penalizing DVD renters in favor of streaming users.

When the base protested, the company announced it would split the services into two separate companies (the DVD-by-mail operation gaining the new moniker Qwikster), requiring different accounts for each. Three weeks later, after many apologies, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings reversed himself and undid most of the changes after losing tens of thousands of subscribers. The stock subsequently plummeted and Hastings has taken a $1.5 million pay cut in an effort to staunch the perception of mismanagement.

By Electronista Staff