Even with $200 billion, Apple still struggles with software development

Apple announced a quarterly revenue this week of $49.6 billion — over $10 billion of which was sheer profit. iPhone sales are up, and the Apple Watch is selling well. But even with this cash-soaked earnings call, Apple still had a shitty week.

What made it so awful? The new Apple Music service crashed on Tuesday afternoon taking the App Store and several other high-profile services with it.

All systems were operational a couple of hours later, however, Apple Music continues to suffer from more than just a momentary burp in service. It’s failing in many regards, irking even diehard Apple devotees like Jim Dalrymple. The tone of his Apple Music is a nightmare post is freakishly harsh, and 100% honest. This isn’t just bad news. The orchard is on fire.

Will this spell doom and gloom for the company? Certainly not. Apple Music will chug on and likely prove to be a success with the masses. On the whole, Apple is doing incredibly well, and deservedly so. My point is to draw attention to the fact that, even with literally all of the money in the world, it’s still incredibly difficult to design, build, and deliver user-friendly software.

This scale of development is a major challenge for any company. The problem for Apple is that they’re royally screwing up in an area where they were determined to be the best.

Apple is worth an absurd amount of money. When researching for this post, I found several mainstream publications with articles about how Apple is undervalued at $700 billion dollars; it’s really worth 1 to 1.5 trillion.

That kind of financial prowess is simply alien. It must be strange for the top executives at Apple. It’s a capitalist success story that eclipses all others, and it makes blunders like the nightmarishly bad Apple Music service all the more embarrassing.

Even with this mess, I still have faith in Apple. Their music service may not be right for Jim Dalrymple, and it may not be right for me, but in my opinion, they still make the finest computers and phones on the planet, and they will continue to do so.

However, the fact that Apple Music shipped in such a fragile, half-baked state proves that quality software development requires more than just endless piles of money and time. The management at Apple is responsible for ruining Jim Dalrymple’s week. Their music serivce either lacks ownership, or the captain at the helm didn’t notice the gushing flumes in the bow.

UPDATE – September 26th, 2015:

The troubles with Apple’s music service continue…

check this out: I downloaded an album from apple music before my flight, but it couldn't d/l one song. entire album disappears during flight

— Chris Ziegler (@zpower) September 26, 2015

@zpower i downloaded an album earlier this week *3* different times. went underground on the metro, lost service, lost album. each time

— Luke Zimmermann (@lukezim) September 26, 2015

@zpower i keep having to delete and redownload albums because they keep pulling incorrect songs with similar names

— a|ec (@alc_1dot2) September 26, 2015