A petition calling for the company to release anti-glare screens has been running for four years – garnering more than 1,400 responses - and complaints have risen since the new range was launched this week.
The majority of responses on the MacMatte petition came from existing Apple owners, who said they would not upgrade until there was a matte screen available, and were being forced to switch to Windows PCs.
“My old iMac won’t cut it any more, so I have to supplement it with a Windows PC here at home,” wrote Preston. “I want a new iMac as bad as anything, but I will not buy a glossy screen."
Posters complained of getting headaches from the glossy screens, and said the reflections were a distraction – and the call came loudest from professionals that have long used iMacs for design and graphics work.
“Why is it the new iMacs still don't have an option for anti-glare," posted Johanness. "Does Apple not realise that there are power graphic users who require this? And that this is the sole thing holding them back from buying this product? Apple – get with the program, or have you so lost touch with the people who have been your greatest ad campaign over the years?”
There are add-ons on the market that remove the reflections, but consumers resent paying extra and say they also change the overall performance of the screens.
“The after-market solutions suck, and change the actual colour in the process,” said Johanness. That is unacceptable when you are doing pixel by pixel photo editing.”
Fuzzy feedback
The lack of attention to customer feedback shown in the forum flies in the face of Apple's recently stated intention to listen to customers.
The company recently announced an Apple Consumer Pulse programme that it said would make it easier to satisfy the needs of its customers.
“We love feedback,” the homepage for the initiative says.
“Apple Customer Pulse is an online community of Apple product users who provide input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.”
Not so, says the organiser of the MacMatte petition, claiming: “It contains currently 1,424 customer comments on an issue that Apple has not listened to its customers on for around four years.”
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
