what we’ve all been thinking, there may be “rot at Apple’s core” according to The Dallas’ Morning News Techblogger Victor Godinez. According to Godinez, the rot shows through because of shaky iPhone 2.0 software, the MobileMe fiasco (wherein loads of paying .Mac customers have lost emails or been frozen out entirely), and the ‘bundling’ of Safari and forced installation of MobileMe components alongside iTunes on Windows platforms. Linkbait? Maybe. My own personal experience while attempting to purchase a 3G phone seems to support the decay of a shiny Apple into a razor blade loaded Halloween treat.

While at the local Apple store, I considered picking up a new 3G iPhone. I dutifully went to the end of the line and asked the Apple store employee how long the wait would be and he informed me about an hour. Eeeesh. O.K. well, it’s Sunday and I have a good book in hand so, I’ll wait a while. After about fifteen minutes, another fellow queued up behind me. I noticed he had a small white tag which read “3G” in big letters. I asked him about it an he told me that I needed a ‘pre-qualification’ tag in order to be in the line I was in. Back inside the store to get the prequal tag, the manager pointed me back out to the line I was just standing in and told me I needed to ask the Apple employee for the prequal and that there was a ‘separate’ line in that line outside. “Really? I line to wait in line? It’s not like the Beatles are playing here.” Smug smug Apple certified smile and no vocal response, only a finger pointing me back outside. By now, five other people had walked up to the line. I decided to go read my book at home.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Apple is rotting away, growing moldy, wormy and ridden with holes. Rather, this is the inevitable slide that customer service takes whenever a huge success occurs. I simply cannot imagine anyone is more disappointed in the iPhone activation and hour plus wait for purchase than Steve Jobs. So, here’s hoping that the company can get through the growing pains of such enormous recent success and move back toward the solid company and customer service we all know and love.

A survey conducted on 7500 people attending Macworld this last January found that Mac users are:

less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large. 

This story, so called ‘survey,’ must die.  It originally gained some legs in the blogosphere after initial publication.  However, NPR/Marketplace recently ran a piece on the ‘survey’ reviving the notion that Mac users are pretentious, overly superior, organic food eating elitists who look down on the rest of the world. But the survey cannot really form an accurate picture of the ‘average’ Mac user. Rather, the survey, being conducted on Mac addicts who travelled thousands of miles to stand in line for hours to attend Macworld tells us what the average Mac addict personality is like. I did not attend Macworld.

I am, of course, very self-assured in the superiority of this analysis, and not the least bit modest about announcing that fact to everyone. Now excuse me while I go buy some free-range chicken for dinner.

Mindset Survey Press Release; NPR/Marketplace