It isn’t about joining any club, it’s just not what you’d expect (or at least I didn’t) from Western Digital.
Every company, has its failures, or what they would like to call ''unforeseen issues" with their firmware or software.
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Apple with its iPhone
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Google with Android
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Microsoft with Windows
The list can go on.
The differences between these companies and Western Digital is the broad scope of their use. If there is a problem, the media hears about it and they need to make a statement, and work around the clock to fix them or offer a solution that actually works.
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Apple and its Antenna fiasco, or more recently their Map product where they were forced to make a statement and tell them to use an alternate product, like Google Maps and apologize.
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Android released 4.2 and there were some minor issues. While this didn’t make a huge splash in the media, they released 4.2.1 to fix it rather quickly.
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Microsoft and its quick security patches for things found.
Let’s face it, NAS products, or anything Network related are “niche” products. You either have knowledge on how to use them, because you’re somewhat versed in how a network works, or you are a person who just isn’t aware about a product of this nature and don’t buy them anyway.
The latter group rely on the former group to help them get things done. The former group are the group of people Western Digital has to worry the most about. Why? Because they are 100% of their customer base.
If you’re in the former group, like me, and are approached by friends that don’t know much (the latter group), you want to direct them to products that will just simply work. Afterall, you don’t want to be at their house time and time again trying to get the thing working.
So in essence, without the first group, WD wouldn’t have customers, just a bunch of returns.
Word of mouth is where its at with companies like this.
For instance, I previously told you about the WD TV Live SMP that I bought. Well because of what I said to 3 friends, they bought one too. These 3 friends would not have purchased anything had I not told them about it, because they didn’t know it existed.
Apple users, for the most part (sorry), are littered in the second group… Particularly iPhones. They just expect things to work, and when they don’t, they don’t have anyone to turn to, especially the first group who told them to buy an Android instead. They don’t want to be given the response “I told you so”.
Now I’m not saying Android’s simply work – but there are tons of workarounds and a massive developer community that make the things work that don’t or Android hasn’t thought of. iPhones don’t have that same luxury.
But to each their own. This isn’t a discussion about Android or Apple… this is simply a comparitive on how things are in relation to how WD handles its business.
So is there a club? No, but neither group should be lied to, especially about capabilities.
