The stories of the Xbox 360 failure rate, thought to be in the range of 1-in-6 to 1-in-3 units, is getting much press. Microsoft has now lost $7 billion on the Xbox and the 360.
I am beginning to wonder if Microsoft applied its software philosophy to this chunk of hardware: don't worry about shipping a good product, just ship something, and we'll worry about fixing it later -- should anyone squawk. In the meantime, we tell everyone how great it is, and trust that they believe us.
(Irony flashback: When the Xbox 360 was first introduced, Microsoft extolled its cluttered "Japanese-like" styling, which, curiously enough, looked so very different from the Japanese-styled game machines, the very clean Wii and PS3. Despite the styling meant for Japanese minds, the 360 is selling a distant third in Japan sales during June: Nintendo Wii -- 270,974; Sony PS3 -- 41,628; Xbox 360 -- 17,616.)
Industry analyst Carl Howe says, "This exercise does prove, though, that building great consumer electronics products takes much more than lining up some smart designers and efficient Chinese contract manufacturers. Designing for reliability and manufacturability is an engineering art, and like any art, proficiency comes from long and usually painful experience."
Comments