San Jose Mercury News reporter Dean Takahashi had a chance to press Todd Holmdahl, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Gaming and Xbox Products Group, over the production issues surrounding the Xbox 360 console. As expected, a key point of their interview was the now notorious 360 hardware failures. It's still not an issue Microsoft is quite ready to address, if Holmdahl's apprehension in disclosing the actual return rate of console hardware is any indication. Indeed, Holmdahl remained mum on several other topics discussed throughout the article, including the planned shift to 65 nanometer CPU production.
Q: Do you still say that is a normal return rate for the console?
A: We continue to say the vast majority of the people are really happy with it.
Q: Can you say anything about the yield? Do you have a good yield? Can you say anything about the yield?
A: The important thing here is that each product that comes out of the factory is rigorously tested. To ensure highest quality for our customer.
Q: If you have a high defect rate, won’t that ruin the business model? Won’t that ruin the profit?
A: I would say we don’t have a high defect rate. The vast majority of people are really excited about their product, and that we are targeting profitability for next year.
Q: Your returns as a category. Is there any No. 1 reason for a return?
A: There are no systematic issues. The vast majority of the people just love the product, have a great experience with it. When there is an issue, we get on it and address it as quickly as possible.
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Apparently, Honesty isn't one of Microsoft's priorities.
But I agree, he's obviously used to sugar-coating the truth....a lot!