by hutattedonmyarm on 10/29/23, 8:17 PM with 258 comments
by ttfkam on 10/30/23, 1:40 AM
• MST (DisplayPort daisy chaining) in MacOS. The hardware has supported it for over a decade. The OS is the weak link here. It's the difference between spending $75-$300 for a dock in addition to the cables and just connecting the monitors together along with a single cable to the first monitor.
• Non-soldered storage. Seriously. Storage is the most likely component to fail. SSDs only have so many write cycles.
• BIOS on a separate chip. To make matters worse, with the introduction of the T2 chip, the BIOS is stored on the SSD as well. This means if the SSD fails, you don't just lose your data; you have an expensive brick. You can't even boot to external drive anymore if one of the two SSD chips fails.
• Safer SSD chips. If a cheap capacitor fails on newer Macs, 13V gets shorted straight to the SSD. The SSD commonly doesn't survive this. And since the BIOS is on the SSD now… Literal ten cent part blows up your multi-thousand dollar laptop with zero warning.
by ChuckMcM on 10/29/23, 9:21 PM
One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This is a big improvement in my user experience.
Another of the things that have moved us forward is that power efficiency has gone up dramatically, as a result a smaller battery can give the same "run time" as a large battery of old without the bulk associated with the larger energy storage capacity.
Why not combine them?
Why not no battery in the device? Seal it against the elements. Then put in a pocket where a battery that is a wireless "charger" can drop into a slot on the device and provide the power. Current demands on a modern device are low enough that you just go wireless all the time for main power. Now your device takes a sealed "toaster pastry" sized unit that looks innocuous, but slide it into the slot and poof the device powers up, put it on a recharging mat and it starts charging up itself.
Now you have no exposed terminals to "short out", no worries about the battery in your device becoming a "pillow of doom"[1]. And you can carry a couple of extras if you're going to be away from power for a while.
You get all the benefits of replaceable batteries and none of the downsides with the possible exception of a "slot" in your device that looks funny when there isn't a battery in it.
I totally should have patented this :-)
[1] Just Google it :-)
by todd3834 on 10/29/23, 9:26 PM
by Animats on 10/29/23, 8:35 PM
by svnt on 10/30/23, 1:28 AM
1) They are no longer dependent on the loss of battery capacity to drive new device purchases — meaning this issue is effectively over. Batteries now last all day for longer than most new device users will keep a device.
2) Margins on services sold to hand-me-down family devices are a growing high-margin and young-user market and much of the market isn’t open to buying a device here — they will only use the service if they get a device for “free.”
3) The net outcome is an increase in service revenue and decrease in recycling costs for Apple.
All these trends will only accelerate from here.
by rezonant on 10/29/23, 9:05 PM
by makeitdouble on 10/29/23, 9:48 PM
It's weird people forget the main message Apple has been touting for years now: services revenue.
Even without removeable batteries, with right to repair device longevity will increase, and they've seen the writing on the wall for a long time.
Apple will continue increasing services revenue. They'll fight the bitter end for the 15/30% tax on everything, iCloud tiers, Apple Music, TV, etc.
If they find a blue ocean, it will be in services. Their entry into emergency satellite calls and other "wouldn't you feel bad being dead because you didn't pay us ?" push could be that.
by acdha on 10/30/23, 12:01 AM
Apple might have an interesting angle for embracing that because unlike their competitors they profit from the whole stack, have a robust service portfolio, and retail presence near a large portion of their customers. Turning device longevity into a competitive point really puts pressure on anyone who can't easily switch from Qualcomm's blink-and-you-miss-it support period or negotiate some kind of revenue sharing agreement between themselves, Microsoft/Google, and services like Spotify or Netflix, and unlike most other attempts to make it harder to compete with them this would actually be seen as a general good by almost everyone other than their direct competitors.
by pipeline_peak on 10/30/23, 2:17 AM
Yellow Tail Wine and Nintendo’s Wii were text book examples. They both found an untapped audience, novice consumers who don’t know nor care for over the top quality. In Nintendo’s case, hard core gamers valued graphics and performance as quality. To Yellow Tail it was Wine enthusiasts and their interest in vineyards, vintages, and hints of whatever.
Apple products are novice, but they aren’t cheap. The Chromebook is a better example of Blue Ocean. It does only what an entry level consumer wants in a laptop. It browsers the web, writes documents. Google said “hey, pretty much everyone who owns a MacBook but isn’t an artist or techie could use this”. Like MacBooks it doesnt require expertise, it offers a similar user quality experience, but unlike them it’s affordable because it doesn’t have unnecessary hardware specs and Swiss watch leveled build quality.
I don’t blame the author for not reading the whole ass book. But for god sakes, at least read the wiki page about it, don’t use a gaming magazine as your source. Because he clearly took the Wii example in the magazine and ran with it. He thought he could map it onto Apple products because what, they get rid of stuff and are innovative like the Wii was?
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the battery ramble irrelevant.
by Kon-Peki on 10/30/23, 1:34 AM
But regardless, easily removable batteries are going to create more e-waste, not less. Replacing a battery is perfectly doable right now, but there is a hurdle you have to jump over - you aren’t going to do it until you really need it. Once those batteries are easy to replace, people are going to be replacing them much more frequently, they’re going to be buying spares, etc. And people are going to be throwing old batteries in the trash without even thinking about it.
by Grustaf on 10/29/23, 9:58 PM
by warrenm on 10/29/23, 8:35 PM
IOW - the device becomes 30-50% lighter (on its own), and the buyer determines how heavy his/her experience will be based on which Qi-pack [s]he has chosen to run their phone
Want a 10,000mAh battery? No problem!
Want only a 2,000mAh battery? Again: no problem!
This even solves a problem Apple has let other vendors 'solve' with regard to cases - want an OtterBox? CrayolaCase? SiliconSoftie? Go get your case from any of a thousand manufactures
Apple could provide a pair (or trio, etc) of Qi-packs for their devices, and let other manufacturers go banana pants coming up with other options
This modularizes the iPhone in a smart way (not like that goofy Motorola method (which was reminiscent of IBM in the 80s open-standardizing the buses for their Personal Computer) whereby the only thing you "have" to get from Motorola was the core module
Apple's "core module" with such a program would still be iPhone ... and that is still the biggest differentiator Apple has vs the 80 scadzillion Android makers out there: iPhone is only Apple. Android is whomever wants to make one.
by ekianjo on 10/30/23, 10:18 AM
by mynegation on 10/29/23, 9:03 PM
by IshKebab on 10/29/23, 9:51 PM
Battery technology has improved so much that removable batteries are less desirable.
by omneity on 10/29/23, 9:32 PM
by lapcat on 10/29/23, 9:08 PM
Replaceable battery and matte display! I hate that these features were eliminated.
by FireBeyond on 10/29/23, 8:59 PM
> Lately, I’ve been thinking about the blue ocean strategy in the context of Apple. Like Nintendo ...
Well, Apple is certainly not differentiating on 'low price'. And I don't know that high margin is "innovative blue ocean".
by kristianpaul on 10/30/23, 11:59 AM
- Advance encryption in iCloud/iPhone its something not present in other products and services currently.
- FindMy network to find lost keys and iphone
- Private relay for more private browsing
- AirDrop for fast file transfer
by chaostheory on 10/30/23, 3:10 AM
by bonestamp2 on 10/30/23, 12:28 AM
by reactordev on 10/30/23, 9:56 AM
The point is, Apple has had a strategy for a while now. It’s not going to win against Android in the phone wars. It’s going to win in the AR/XR space if they can manage to get a decent wearable out and provide cores within cores within cores for AI NN’s.
by ksoped on 10/30/23, 6:36 PM
This whole paragraph is delusional. Apple users carrying and swapping out batteries? Apple supporting and allowing people to simply swap out a battery instead of going to the apple store for a certified repair? Apple??
by Mrirazak1 on 10/30/23, 4:00 AM
In terms of blue oceans it’s where they see a lack of innovation because you can have many blue oceans within in anything you do if you see the problems that exist in a way that your competitors don’t and then you apply great engineering with great marketing (although sometimes it’s just marketing) to reach the numbers you need.
by Despegar on 10/29/23, 8:39 PM
by s3p on 10/30/23, 1:49 AM
>Starting in 2009, Apple began to phase out removable batteries across its laptop line in favor of batteries that were sealed inside the case and were not user-accessible. >The upsides, which Apple touted, were many: lighter weight, smaller size, better reliability, longer battery life.
What are you talking about? The link provided to Apple's press release for that laptop did not include anything about why a non-removable battery was advantageous. They provided other reasons the new battery was great, but they did not say the elimination of user-serviceability allowed for any of those benefits.
>The iPhone defied so many other norms that the sealed battery was less remarked upon than it might have been, but it was still noted.
Noted by who? Remarked upon by who? It sounds like this author is generalizing his own opinions to the entire population. I'm sure this comment sounds nitpicky but I just don't like this kind of fast and loose writing.
by throwawaaarrgh on 10/30/23, 3:26 AM
At least, that's my assumption based on their massive spend on infrastructure related to AI. I've been waiting for their cloud hosting project to jump out of stealth mode, if it's still in progress, but maybe it was never intended for anyone other than Apple's use. If that's the case then it makes more sense that they'd sort of pull a Google and invest more heavily in the backend server side for one product that could really be a killer, which would most likely be something AI. An answer to Google's search product that isn't search.
by emadabdulrahim on 10/29/23, 10:51 PM
by al_be_back on 10/30/23, 9:43 AM
by Sparkyte on 10/30/23, 4:40 AM
I was going to rant. But it is pointless. These companies find ways to hold customers because of their tailored experiences and it has less to do with technology and more with targeting.
by dwighttk on 10/30/23, 11:31 AM
by fnordpiglet on 10/29/23, 9:51 PM
by Synaesthesia on 10/29/23, 9:37 PM
They could make slick, elegant devices which are still repairable and have replaceable batteries.
I remember the original iMac G5 had a great design which let you simply remove the backplate with 3 screws and access everything. Of course in the next iteration they changed the design entirely so that opening it up became a huge ordeal.
by marban on 10/30/23, 4:39 AM
by bravoetch on 10/29/23, 9:01 PM
by mensetmanusman on 10/30/23, 2:29 AM
by ugizashinje on 10/30/23, 8:51 AM
by hn_throwaway_99 on 10/29/23, 8:43 PM
But excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little with this "Blue Ocean" nonsense. Apple makes an original, user-hostile decision for the sole purpose of increasing planned obsolescence and to make them more money, and then when the winds shift they might go back the other way - but, again, they'll likely be forced to anyway. No need for poetic blog posts.
I suppose we're owed another "Blue Ocean" missive about how Apple led the way with Lightning connectors and then found another Blue Ocean with ... USB-C. Puhleeez.
by 1letterunixname on 10/30/23, 4:11 AM
by mruniverse on 10/30/23, 3:13 AM
* Macintosh
* iPhone
* Apple Store
by Condition1952 on 10/29/23, 8:59 PM
by tpmx on 10/29/23, 9:10 PM