Microsoft is to blame for faulty hardware and lack of testing

Taken from: http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/L3R2T2S6?page=1

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, declined in an interview to say what specifically caused the failures or how high the failure rate has been, but Asian manufacturers of the Xbox 360 who have been pressured by Microsoft to lower costs by as much as 15% say that the problem is caused by poor Microsoft design and the Company buying low cost components in an effort to beat Sony.

Recently Microsoft adopted various strategies to be more cost competitive with its Xbox 360 game consoles, with moves including asking for a price reduction from Taiwan-based component makers and working with Lite-On IT for its add-on HD-DVD drive, according to sources in Taiwan.

One Asian manufacturer that SmartHouse spoke to on Friday said "Microsoft have known of this problem for a long time. They are trying to blame component manufacturers but it was a combination of bad design and them (Microsoft) wanting everything cheap. This is what caused the problem along with them wanting to beat Sony to market. A lot of manufacturers were pushed to deliver components without much testing of the components working together inside the console".

Wasn't this known from the start? I mean, I think everyone knew it was Microsofts fault, it can't be someone elses.Fyper

Yes, however when the 360 failures became overwhelimingly apparent. Peter Moore stood up and had the gaul to blame it on the manufacturer's of the components. This pissed off the manufacturers and this is just one of them sounding off against Microsoft for their bull**** comments made to protect themselves.

So if consumers paid some extra money, they would have a much more stable x360? If that was the case, I wouldn't be wasting my money with in-store warranties. I prefer the first choice.

Of course there is another way to look at it. Microsoft is so greedy they can charge a x360 made with low-quality parts at the same price of a x360 with quality parts.

well if u think about it, this is all he said she said. It all depends on who you want to believe. I mean its pretty easy for a company to immediatly blame it on microsoft because ever since the malfunctions Microsoft has lost alot of its credibility. It truly matters on who you believe in this whole argument. But who really cares? I mean, Microsoft is now working to fix the problem and it is apparent they know they did something wrong because they extended the warranty which will cause them to lose alot of money.

Oh and by the way...this is extremely old and I doubt most people care anymore since they figured out long ago that it was Microsofts fault.

Well, *obviously* if you ask the manufacturer, they're going to say it was Microsoft's problem. So that doesn't mean much. And since only a portion of 360s are failing, it could very easily have been a manufacturing problem. If it was a design problem we'd be seeing a larger portion of units failing. It could have been a testing problem as well, when Microsoft changed some of the parts. It could have been a problem at assembly, with one process having a flaw, while the others didn't.

So to say it's obviously Microsoft's fault is a little questionable.

The only unquestionable thing about this whole fiasco is that whether or not Microsoft was responsible for the failures, they ARE responsible for fixing them. And I have little to complain about here. Microsoft expanded the 90-day warranty to one year early on, knowing there were issues. And now, once they finally have a grip on it, they are not only extending the warranty to three years, they're reimbursing people for the repairs they paid for.

The only failing I see is that they've been too slow in fixing consoles, and too slow in acknowledging the depth of the problem. But given time constraints, I'm not really surprised. Microsoft is a big company, and making these changes take some time. But there is no real excuse for taking a year-and-a-half to figure it out.