[konstruktor]

In most markets, the law does not allow beta products and caveat emptor. Warranties against product flaws are mandatory. Personally, I would consider ghosting as shown by the OP a defect covered by warranty. In addition to that, a premium brand should treat early adopters well, especially those who bought the flagship product. This is the point OP seems to be making. However, due to their own design decisions, they have made this very expensive, which incentivizes them to provide shitty service, which is damaging their brand image.

[bilbo0s]

"...Warranties against product flaws are mandatory..."

If that were true...

the software industry would be in REAL trouble.

[Zr40]

Most open source software licenses contain all-caps legalese disclaiming all forms of warranty. See [1] and [2] for example.

[1]: http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

[2]: http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

[konstruktor]

For an example, see this summary of the baseline for warranties in the EU http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroa... I suppose the reason why the software industry gets around this is that you can't buy software but only license it.

[jarek]

Do you agree to an EULA when buying an MBP or another laptop, implicitly or otherwise? Serious question.

[konstruktor]

AFAIK, as a consumer, you cannot sign away these rights for physical products. For software, which you license, i.e. acquire usage rights, the situation seems to be different.