Apple's Software Quality Crisis: When Premium Hardware Meets Subpar Software

As a long-time Apple user, I've always appreciated the seamless integration of hardware and software that is the signature of the Apple ecosystem. However, recent experiences with my iPad Air 11" M2 has left me questioning whether Apple has lost sight of what once made their products exceptional.

A Brief Timeline

• November 6, 2024: Visited the Apple Store in Turin with my new iPad Air 11" M2 experiencing significant lag and overheating when using Notes and Freeform with Apple Pencil Pro.
• November 13, 2024: Received a replacement unit after store representatives suggested a hardware swap.
• February 27, 2025: The replacement unit is now exhibiting identical performance issues.

Premium Hardware, Struggling Software

In November, I visited the Apple Store in Turin to address persistent issues with my iPad Air 11" M2 running iPadOS 18.1. Despite having cutting-edge hardware, I've been experiencing significant lag when using basic Apple applications like Notes and Freeform.

The performance issues don't stop at sluggish response times. During these standard use cases, my iPad frequently overheated, making it uncomfortable to hold and raising concerns about potential long-term hardware damage.

What made this particularly frustrating is that these aren't third-party applications pushing the hardware to its limits. These are Apple's own applications that should theoretically be optimized for their hardware.

The Apple Store staff were courteous and professional, following their standard troubleshooting protocols. After demonstrating the issues in person, the support representative suggested a hardware replacement. However, after further discussion, we both concluded this was likely a software problem rather than a hardware defect.

I think this highlights a growing challenge for Apple's retail support model: how do you troubleshoot software issues when the traditional solution has been to replace hardware? When software quality declines, the entire support infrastructure feels misaligned.

This experience feels symptomatic of a broader decline in Apple's software quality.

My replacement iPad Air 11" M2 with the Apple Pencil Pro is once again struggling with basic tasks. Despite multiple iPadOS updates since my original complaint (we're now on 18.3.1), the fundamental issues remain:

• Significant lag when using Apple's own Notes and Freeform applications: Input latency increases dramatically after about 5-10 minutes of use, with stroke rendering delayed by up to 5 seconds.
• Device overheating during standard usage scenarios: CPU temperatures reach concerning levels (based on device heat) during basic pencil input tasks
• Poor responsiveness with the Apple Pencil Pro: Palm rejection fails intermittently, and pressure sensitivity becomes inconsistent

This recurrence with a replacement device confirms what I suspected last November - this is a software optimization problem, not a hardware defect.

Details Worth Noting

• Thermal Management Failures: The M2 chip should throttle performance before reaching uncomfortable external temperatures, suggesting the thermal management system isn't properly engaging;
• Memory Management Problems: The gradual degradation in performance points to memory leaks or improper garbage collection in Apple's drawing applications.

Since my original complaint, I've discovered numerous forum threads and social media discussions from iPad users experiencing similar issues. This suggests a systemic problem rather than isolated incidents.

Most concerning is that multiple software updates have failed to address these fundamental performance issues while introducing new features that add more strain to the system (like Apple Intelligence, but that's a story for another day).

Reconsidering the "Apple Tax"

For years, many of us have willingly paid the "Apple tax", the premium price for Apple products justified by superior user experience, design, and ecosystem integration. But if software quality continues to decline, this value proposition becomes increasingly difficult to defend.

The persistence of these issues through multiple software updates suggests:

1. Feature prioritization over optimization: Engineering resources appear focused on new capabilities rather than fixing existing performance problems;
2. Inadequate performance testing: Real-world usage scenarios with Apple's own applications aren't being adequately tested.

As customers paying premium prices for Apple products, we at least deserve:

1. Transparency: Acknowledgment of known performance issues;
2. Focus on fundamentals: Updates focused solely on performance and stability;
3. Extended support: Consideration for extended warranties when software issues impact hardware lifespan.

The Apple experience was once defined by the joy of using products that "just worked." Today, that promise feels increasingly hollow as software struggles to keep pace with hardware capabilities. As users and customers, we need to vocally advocate for the quality-focused Apple we once knew.

After months of hoping for improvement, I'm faced with difficult decisions about my future in the Apple ecosystem. This extended iPad issue has severely damaged my confidence in new Apple products.

I call on Apple to return to its roots - creating products that prioritize user experience over feature checklists. The company that once proudly created products that "just work" needs to reclaim that ethos.