Macworld’s Dan Moren warns that if Apple does not pull its software socks up,  the next big thing won't matter.

After waffling a bit about how Apple is so expensive that only the rich can afford it and has started to roll out features to selected areas, which is a story, Moren said that software was letting Apple gear down.

“You go to use a feature and it just doesn't work. Sometimes there's no explanation as to why; other times, there's just a cryptic error message that provides no help at all,” he wrote.

While holding onto the illusion that surely “Apple engineers do their best to test their features with a variety of hardware, in different places, with different settings” and that “nobody expects Apple to catch everything” Moren could not work out why Apple is so hostile to people pointing out flaws.

“One thing Apple could improve is the ease for users to report issues they encounter. Too often, I see missives posted on Apple discussion boards that encourage people to get in touch with Apple support  which often means a lengthy reiteration of the old troubleshooting canards. While these can sometimes solve problems, if not actually explain them, it's not a process that most consumers are likely to go through. And when those steps don't resolve the issues, users are often left with a virtual shrug.”

While Apple does provide a place to send feedback about products, it's explicitly not a way to report problems. Making it easier for users to report bugs and unexpected behaviour would go a long way to helping owners of Apple products feel like they're not simply shouting their frustrations into a void (aka Twitter), he wrote.

“ If Apple can't improve the reliability of its software it at least owes it to its users to create more robust resources for helping them help themselves. Because there's nothing more frustrating than not understanding why a miraculous device that can contact people around the world instantaneously, run incredibly powerful games, and crunch data faster than a supercomputer of yesteryear sometimes can't do something as simple as export a video of a vacation,” Moren wrote.

Readers have waded in pointing out that Apple does not seem to be interested in prioritising important issues such as things like breaking notifications and Safari tabs.

“They're in a position where engineering resources desperately need to be closing gaps, not creating huge new ones," the reader wrong.

It seems that cracks are starting to appear in Apple’s fanbase. Maybe it has been holding them the wrong way for too long.