Obama, Sebelius compare Apple's iOS 7 launch to Healthcare.gov rollout issues

In the rose garden of the White House, President Obama referenced Apple's troubles with iOS 7 in relation to Healthcare.gov's early glitches while remarking on the government shutdown.

"Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it," said the president.

"I don't remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn't," Obama continued. "That's not how we do things in America. We don't actively root for failure."

Obama's remarks mirrored those of Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius earlier Tuesday, when the former Kansas governor described her own experiences with Apple's new mobile operating system.

"I clearly have an iPad, and I also have an iPhone, and about ten days ago got the prompt that the operating system had changed and did I want to upgrade to the new operating system, and so I did, on both my iPad and my iPhone," she said, then continued "And then about five days after that, I got the second prompt saying, ‘Well, there’s a little problem with the iOS 7 system and now we have a ‘new’ new upgrade and why don’t you re-upgrade your upgrade.'"

"Apple, you know, has a few more resources than we have to roll out technology, and a few more people who’ve been working on the system for a while, and no-one is calling on Apple to not sell devices for a year or to, you know, get out of the business because the whole thing is a failure," noted the secretary.

Tuesday's mention was not the first for Apple in a presidential address. In February's State of the Union, President Obama singled out the iPhone maker's plans to bring some of its manufacturing back to U.S. soil.