There’s a general perception that the Apple Watch hasn’t exactly taken off in a big way, at least not yet. I’ve never seen anyone wearing one. Or at least it wasn’t noticeable, not that I’ve gone out of my way to look.

In any case, IDC, part of the International Data Group that used to publish Macworld as a print publication, reported poor sales of the Apple Watch in the September quarter of 2016. Their surveys conclude that sales declined some 71% and it was the result, according to IDC, of an “aging lineup and an unintuitive user interface.”

Now I won’t comment on the latter, since I haven’t had enough experience with them to comment in a meaningful way. But watchOS 3, with loads of improvements, only shipped towards the end of that quarter, and the interface improvements may render IDC’s statement about usability moot.

It does make sense, though, for Apple Watch sales to be at a low ebb considering the product was first introduced in the spring of 2015. Anticipation of a new model could have also hurt sales.

Of course, we can only guess real Apple Watch sales. Apple buries the numbers in an “Other” category with other products on their financial statements. That decision was announced a the beginning; it wasn’t the result of any single unfavorable quarter. I suspect a lot of it had to due with the fact that Apple didn’t expect sales to take off very quickly. If sales were really terrific you’d see the numbers from Day One.

That’s just a theory, but why else would Apple keep the figures a secret? To spook Google and Samsung — or even Fitbit? Hardly. I’m sure they are perfectly capable of coming up with reasonable estimates of Apple Watch sales.

In any case, it’s clear that Tim Cook didn’t take kindly to IDC’s revelations, even tough they are probably correct. Instead, he wrote, in a statement to Reuters, that, “Our data shows that Apple Watch is doing great and looks to be one of the most popular holiday gifts this year. Sales growth is off the charts. In fact, during the first week of holiday shopping, our sell-through of Apple Watch was greater than any week in the product’s history. And as we expected, we’re on track for the best quarter ever for Apple Watch.”

Nothing in that statement actually refutes the IDC report, although some members of the media appear to believe he’s doing just that. Instead, it’s clear Cook is focusing on demand for the new models, introduced in late September,  during the holiday quarter.

From my vantage point, I don’t think it’s quite enough. While it’s fine for fitness-related activities, I would be far more interested in an Apple Watch when it’s fully separated from the iPhone except when you need the larger display, or to use functions that don’t require conniptions with the interface. It’s not as if you can type a decent-sized message on one, though Siri works well enough for a phrase or two.

Regardless, it’s early in the game to fret over Apple Watch sales, or argue whether IDC’s estimates — and they are estimates — are correct, or whether Tim Cook is actually lying about how well it’s doing.

My good friend Kirk McElhearn has written a column on the subject at his Kirkville blog, and he clearly isn’t buying what Cook is selling about the Apple Watch. He concludes, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain if he won’t announce sales figures. He’s just spinning.”

That comes close to saying that Cook is lying, because he’s asserting several alleged facts. So is “sales growth…off the charts”? Did it achieve record sales “during the first week of holiday shopping”? There is no middle ground here. He is either making statements based on actual sell-through or he isn’t. There is no room for equivocation.

Understand that Kirk has long been skeptical of what Apple marketing does. In the course of his regular appearances on my nationally syndicated radio show, “The Tech Night Owl LIVE,” Kirk has asserted that he believes Apple deliberately constrains production at the beginning of a product cycle so they can boast that demand exceeds supplies. I don’t pretend to have any insights about this, but when shipments are delayed for a few months. it has to hurt potential sales.

If you order an iPhone 7 Plus now, nearly three months after it was first announced, Apple is quoting deliveries by December 22, but that’s cutting it close. Why would Apple take such a chance if it wasn’t the result of higher-than-expected demand, or some combination of demand and production hangups? The MacBook Pro, announced near the end of October, is still backlogged by up to three weeks for models equipped with the Touch Bar.

Holiday sales are critical to Apple. It makes no sense whatever to hold back deliveries just to look good. Yes, Tim Cook wants to put a positive face on less-than-favorable news, but there is no actual evidence to disprove what he said about Apple Watch sales. He isn’t actually refuting the IDC report, only reporting preliminary sales for a different timeframe, the start of the holiday shopping season.

According to a published report from one of those ill-informed online pundits, he canceled his order for a fully-outfitted 15-inch MacBook Pro because of the expectation of poor or reliable performance. But it’s not as if media reviewers have said as much. Indeed, most have given these notebooks high marks, so there must be more involved, and that’s why I’m raising the issue.

You see, something smells.

But let’s look at the facts and see where one’s suspicions might be triggered.

According to the article, the blogger in question, who shall remain unnamed for reasons that will become clear shortly, writes that he placed an order for a 15-inch MacBook Pro in October. He was upgrading from an aging Mac mini, evidently, though moving to a high-end notebook from an entry-level system would seem a curious choice. But there’s no accounting for taste, and so I’ll accept the decision as important for this particular person.

If it’s real of course.

Then comes the second act, where the blogger starts to feel qualms about his decision. But it seems as if there’s some sort of disconnect here. Let me explain why.

As many of you know, the larger MacBook Pro uses two graphics processors. For regular use, it’s the built-in Intel HD 530 integrated graphics. But when more power is called for, it’ll switch to an AMD Radeon Pro. This setup is designed to maximize battery life. Your computer coasts with integrated graphics unless a specific app needs more graphics horsepower.

So where’s the problem?

Well, it seems as if he once owned a Windows laptop with a dual-graphics setup featuring an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M. But he encountered “constant driver problems” resulting in system hangs. Perhaps they occurred when the processor switch occurred, although that’s no altogether certain.

All right, things happen, but remember that we’re dealing with a Mac, not a Windows notebook. It was 2012, according to the article, and the discrete graphics chip was made by NVIDIA, not AMD, so why assume a connection? More to the point, this isn’t Apple’s first rodeo when it comes to handling graphics processor switches. In 2012, Apple released a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display that used an Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated chip plus a standard NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M for higher performance requirements.

Were there problems in managing the switchover? Were there system crashes? Of course. Defects with NVIDIA chip in the 2012 MacBook Pro called for occasional logic board swaps. But that’s four years ago, and millions of customers of these dual-graphics notebooks are using them with great reliability. So why assume a 2012 defect, or a similar problem, still exists in 2016?

Indeed. the blogger seemed blissfully unaware that Apple has been building dual-processor notebooks for several years, but there might be another cause for concern, and that’s published reports that some owners of the new MacBook Pros have faced possible graphics problems. The issues include screen artifacts and crashes. They don’t appear to impact everyone.

Now there’s one more element to this story, and it makes the blogger’s decision even more curious.

As a result of the problems he had with his Windows notebook, and these reports, he decided to cancel the order for the 15-inch Macbook Pro. Just to drive the point home, the article includes a screenshot displaying the cancellation message from Apple. It seems forced, as if the writer felt that the reader might disbelieve such an order and cancellation really happened.

Even if the whole thing is a put up job, I won’t dispute the fact that an order was placed and later canceled. I’ll accept the screenshot as genuine. Perhaps the blogger was willing to temporarily sacrifice a credit card authorization to prove a point since that money would be returned to his account in a few days.

The upshot?

Well, he opted to purchase a 13-inch MacBook Pro instead, since it only has a single integrated graphics processor. That, to him, would avoid potential reliability problems.

But here’s the kicker. Although these graphics problems do appear to exist, if the blogger did his research, he would have realized they aren’t confined to a dual-processor 15-inch MacBook Pro. According to the AppleInsider article on the subject, “Perhaps most telling are similar issues seen in 13-inch MacBook Pro models, both with and without Touch Bar. Since the 13-inch variants rely on a different graphics processing system than their larger siblings, specifically Intel’s integrated Iris graphics chips, the problem can likely chalked up to faulty software.”

In other words, this doesn’t appear to be a problem restricted to Appl’es dual-graphics systems. Clearly, if the blogger actually checked, he would have realized this. Then again, he didn’t realize that a dual-graphics system wasn’t something that Apple originated on the current MacBook Pro.

Or perhaps it was a case of selective research to prove a point and enhance the claim that Apple builds defective gear. Or just more hit bait, and that’s what I’m leaning towards. I’d rather not think the blogger isn’t capable of discovering facts that you can search online in just a few minutes.

Update (12/7/2016): According to a published report from AppleInsider, the forthcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update will address reported GPU issues on the new MacBook Pros. That goes to make our unnamed bloggers reasons for canceling his order even less credible.

Once upon a time, I placed an order for a brand new car intended to showcase an innovative engine technology that promised to revolutionize the industry. It was the early 1970s, and I was anxious to acquire a Mazda RX-2, with the Wankel rotary engine. It was due to arrive in the northeast U.S. as a 1972 model. A dealer in the Philadelphia area advertised that it was coming real soon now. It did, months later than they originally promised; at least they didn’t request a deposit to hold one.

Days after the first stocks appeared on the dealer’s lot, I purchased a yellow 1972 RX-2. As some of you might recall, for a vehicle with a state-of-the-art engine, it was really nondescript, not externally dissimilar from compact cars from Toyota and other makers of the time. But I was the first on the block with this “exotic” machine. It wasn’t the first time that I confronted missed deadlines when I wanted to buy something new.

Segue to the 1990s, when I purchased a brand new PowerBook every year or two. In every single case. the one I wanted wouldn’t arrive until weeks after I placed an order. Apple wasn’t so good about meeting product deadlines then, and maybe things haven’t changed all that much.

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We all know about software bugs that can cause creates, the failure of apps to launch, and sometimes booting problems. Eventually the developer or the hardware company will, one hopes, come out with a fix that will set things right. Well, more or less, because bug fixes sometimes make things worse, or do not fix the problem they were supposed to fix.

You would assume — or hope — that the bug itself is not going to damage your hardware. But that may not be quite true when it comes to the Late 2016 MacBook Pro. And therein lies a tale.

So shortly after the product began shipping in reasonable quantities, some users reported problems with the enhanced stereo speakers. So one or both speakers would suddenly produce a crackling or distorted sound. The previously high volume level was not so high. Not good, and once it started, it wouldn’t go away. You actually needed to have Apple replace the unit. It’s not that you can easily swap out the speakers.

That’s what the story says.

So what’s going on? Well, evidently this problem was triggered by defective audio drivers in Apple’s Boot Camp. That’s the software that allows you to run Windows natively on a Mac, and it evidently occurs after you install and start to use Windows 10 with Boot Camp. It doesn’t seem to happen when you use a virtual machine under macOS Sierra, such as Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion. It’s all about the software that allows you to listen to something on those speakers under Boot Camp.

According to published reports, Apple has released new drivers that supposedly fix the problem. They are available under Apple Software Update when you’re Mac is in Boot Camp mode running Windows. So it’s possible to get the fix, although it may be a good idea to turn the volume down real low on your new MacBook Pro until the drivers are updated. Or just use headphones.

Now it’s not that Apple is refusing to fix the problem. But once it happens, once you hear the loud crackling noise that triggers the damage, the speakers are essentially toast. You have to bring or send your MacBook Pro back to Apple for a replacement. It’s not that Apple appears to be refusing to admit the problem or replace your broken notebook.

But with supplies of the MacBook Pro highly constrained, you may return it only to wait a few weeks for the replacement. Or just get a set of headphones — or use external speakers — and put up with it until Apple has a replacement in stock for you.

Without direct exposure, I can only speculate on what might cause the problem. According to iFixit’s Kyle Wiens, during his recent appearance on The Tech Night Owl LIVE, the new speakers have tiny tweeters in them, which might make them sensitive to high energy audio spikes. I’m just guessing here. Perhaps one of those audio spikes is generated by the defective audio driver, and it’s sufficient to damage the tweeters, which probably accounts for the distorted and crackling sound, which is probably more prominent. or totally present, at the higher frequencies of the audio spectrum.

Now this isn’t the first time that Apple has released a new product that has bugs. Over the years, you’ll find various and sundry hardware defects. So there are some versions of the 27-inch iMac that have hinges that can break, which means you can’t tilt the display upward and have it stay there. Apple is fixing the problem on the affected units.

Over the years, power supplies on some Macs have been known to fail, and Apple has set up a number of Exchange and Repair Extension Programs to address serious defects. I found it with a Google search, though I suppose Apple could make the page easier to locate. Since Apple usually has contact information, in the form of an email address or telephone number, for registered users of a product, I’d think they could reach out to you directly if the serial number of one of these defective products comes up.

It’s a whole lot better if you own a car in the U.S., where the manufacturer has a list of registered owners and will contact them in the event of a recall. However, if the car has been sold or traded, the information might not be up to date, which means it doesn’t hurt to make sure the manufacturer knows that you exist when you acquire a used car. I still receive occasional recall notices about cars I haven’t owned for years.

As for Apple: The list of repair programs may not even be complete. There are supposedly products that are not listed, and it may take a while to determine if an occasional problem happens often enough to warrant a special repair/replacement program. So if you end up paying to repair or replace something from Apple due to a hardware defect of some sort, keep the receipt just in case. Apple is known to issue refunds once the repair or exchange program goes into effect.

So while the Boot Camp audio driver bug is downright annoying, it is not the first time — or the last time — that such things might occur. Indeed, when I consulted the list, I saw one or two of my Apple products listed there. But when I read through the listings, the exact models and/or serial numbers didn’t apply. Call me lucky, or maybe one of those special programs will be added later on.