Steve Jobs.....Thoughts?

[brixtonboy]

Not knowing very much about the subject, l will say that nobody is being railroaded into buying anything.
All the products you have at the moment function together, if it's your desire to buy one that needs an adapter your choice, no push or shove take it or leave it. The same goes with the price. We go to nice stores to buy nice items they don't come cheap. We want cheap buy elsewhere.

 

[Pinkpoison]

Not knowing very much about the subject, l will say that nobody is being railroaded into buying anything.
All the products you have at the moment function together, if it's your desire to buy one that needs an adapter your choice, no push or shove take it or leave it. The same goes with the price. We go to nice stores to buy nice items they don't come cheap. We want cheap buy elsewhere.

Not quite the story, Some of us have a Macbook right now so that's ok but eventually that Macbook will need replacing, So right what do we do?
We pay out for the new Macbook and adapters for our legacy accessories which have cost us plenty or we go to Windows and start from scratch and our Apple devices don't work with PC.
So you see we are being railroaded.......

Not everyone will see it that way but it's how I see it.

 

[KevinJS]

When you buy into Apple, you buy into a complete system. Granted, some people want a phone, or a laptop and that's fine. I want to answer my phone ON my laptop, as well as have the other benefits that the Apple system brings, so I'm tied to whatever they produce. To me, it's not simply a case of buying a Windows machine because the Apple one is too expensive. It's replacing ALL of my hardware, to get the system I've become used to. Of course, Windows and Android between them can't supply that, so it has to be Apple software which means it has to be Apple hardware which means it has to be Apple prices.

 

[Pinkpoison]

When you buy into Apple, you buy into a complete system. Granted, some people want a phone, or a laptop and that's fine. I want to answer my phone ON my laptop, as well as have the other benefits that the Apple system brings, so I'm tied to whatever they produce. To me, it's not simply a case of buying a Windows machine because the Apple one is too expensive. It's replacing ALL of my hardware, to get the system I've become used to. Of course, Windows and Android between them can't supply that, so it has to be Apple software which means it has to be Apple hardware which means it has to be Apple prices.

Exactly, I like a lot of people have bought into that because it worked and we thought it would continue to work in the same way,
I have iPhone 7, iPad Pro, Magic track pad 2, I have the Apple Super Drive (because the drive was removed) I have several SD cards which work superbly with my Macbook, My external Hard drive is set up to work with my Macbook.

It isn't by chance that it all works this way.

 

[ardchoille]

Not quite the story, Some of us have a Macbook right now so that's ok but eventually that Macbook will need replacing, So right what do we do?
We pay out for the new Macbook and adapters for our legacy accessories which have cost us plenty or we go to Windows and start from scratch and our Apple devices don't work with PC.
So you see we are being railroaded.......

Not everyone will see it that way but it's how I see it.

That begs the question, does your MacBook need replacing right at this moment? Or, is this more of a knee-jerk reaction and your MacBook will continue to be useful for another year or so. We must always scrutinize every situation to determine whether or not panic has crept in and threatens to sway our hand.

I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to save for another year or two and test the waters at that time. This would have the advantage of giving you the chance to buy a better equipped MacBook (upgraded components at time of sale) as well as riding out these recent changes that Kevin spoke of as they become commonplace.

 

[Pinkpoison]

That begs the question, does your MacBook need replacing right at this moment? Or, is this more of a knee-jerk reaction and your MacBook will continue to be useful for another year or so. We must always scrutinize every situation to determine whether or not panic has crept in and threatens to sway our hand.

I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to save for another year or two and test the waters at that time. This would have the advantage of giving you the chance to buy a better equipped MacBook (upgraded components at time of sale) as well as riding out these recent changes that Kevin spoke of as they become commonplace.

I'm okay at the moment but eventually in the near future I will have to upgrade, I don't look forward to that, At today's prices £550 more plus Applecare plus adapters.

This is the first time in all these years of having Apple devices that I do seriously wonder if I can justify it.

 

[scifan57]

Every so often Apple computers go through a sea change to something quite different. Right now we happen to be at the beginning of such a change. Once all the recent changes have been spread through the system there will probably be a period of relative stability until the next big change.

 

[KevinJS]

Part of the appeal of Apple, as I'm getting fed up with typing, is the longevity. The value of Apple equipment is in the extraordinary service life. People routinely replace phones every two years. Why? They lose the very thing that made them great value in the first place. The iPhone 6s is more powerful than any other (non-Apple) phone on the market, yet people are chopping them in for an iPhone 7. That's great if you can afford it. But look at the price of the iPhone against that of an MBP. The same people who will junk a two year old phone, that cost over $1000, find a laptop costing $1500, that will have a useful service life of 8 to 10 years, too expensive.

 

[Pinkpoison]

Yes there are a lot of very valid comments in this thread, I can see all sides.

 

[KevinJS]

Yes there are a lot of very valid comments in this thread, I can see all sides.

Me too, although I don't pretend to like them all, including some of my own.

 

[Pinkpoison]

Me too, although I don't pretend to like them all, including some of my own.

I think the upshot is that we realize Apple are very clever at what they do and how they rope us in to a system we come to love and don't want to leave, So we keep buying into it.

 

[brixtonboy]

2 years shelf life, that surprises me. I thought the reason for that was the term of most contracts.
After all my iPhone 5s works fine for my needs, and to buy one in Germany 2nd. Hand still costs 200€.
My iPhone 4 is used nightly to send me to sleep.
Hardly big time business l know but not useless.

 

[ardchoille]

Part of the appeal of Apple, as I'm getting fed up with typing, is the longevity. The value of Apple equipment is in the extraordinary service life. People routinely replace phones every two years. Why? They lose the very thing that made them great value in the first place. The iPhone 6s is more powerful than any other (non-Apple) phone on the market, yet people are chopping them in for an iPhone 7. That's great if you can afford it. But look at the price of the iPhone against that of an MBP. The same people who will junk a two year old phone, that cost over $1000, find a laptop costing $1500, that will have a useful service life of 8 to 10 years, too expensive.

Well, we here in the US can take advantage of carrier deals. People can buy an iPhone from a US carrier for as little as $200 down. And then Verizon has another deal where you can pay just the sales tax on a new iPhone and the balance is spread over 24 months. I realize we're still paying the full price for the phone in the long run, but it's less painful upfront. I wish we could do this with MacBooks.

 

[ardchoille]

I think the upshot is that we realize Apple are very clever at what they do and how they rope us in to a system we come to love and don't want to leave, So we keep buying into it.

As long as you're seeing it as "rope us in", you're going to remain unhappy. Do you want to stay there? Or are you willing to change your perspective or perhaps focus your resources on changing platforms if you're that unhappy? No offense, but complaining about the situation will do little to solve the problem. I realize you feel that an injustice has been done, but I believe it would be beneficial to do something to move on.

 

[KevinJS]

As long as you're seeing it as "rope us in", you're going to remain unhappy. Do you want to stay there? Or are you willing to change your perspective or perhaps focus your resources on changing platforms if you're that unhappy? No offense, but complaining about the situation will do little to solve the problem. I realize you feel that an injustice has been done, but I believe it would be beneficial to do something to move on.

Here's a thing. Nothing about the new Macs makes them impossible to work with. There are adapters available at reasonable prices. A contributor to 9to5Mac put everything together that he thought he's need for $50.

If you want an example of how bad things can be, take a look at home theatre video. If you want a receiver that is capable of accepting signals from components and transmitting then to your television, you need HDMI. However, that's not the full story. You need THIS year's HDMI, because last year's won't necessarily be compatible. So you have equipment that looks like it should work that refuses to show a picture. And worse, people who have extremely expensive receivers that work perfectly but just happen to have component video outputs find them to be practically worthless because the industry has sold the public on the idea that HDMI is somehow much better. It isn't. It's useful to the industry because it has built-in copy protection, which is why it keeps being updated. As soon as the algorithm is broken, a new one replaces it.

My audio equipment is ancient. The RCA and XLR connections have been around for years, as have the banana plug speaker connections. The equipment holds its value because no-one is coming along with something that will make it obsolete overnight.

I'm arguing both ends against the middle here. On the one hand, I think it's great that there is finally going to be a standard that will be ubiquitous in computer hardware. On the other, I'm not keen on having to buy adapters to get me through the inevitable changeover period.