I would go as far as to say that within 10 years we will not be using physical connectors anymore for these mobile devices, so another new physicial connector is not to be expected indeed.
Any data connection (also audio/video) will be wireless (BT, WiDi, WiFi etc.) and by then Apple will probably have jumped on wireless charging as well as this offers nice design opportunities.
I mentioned this a few days agao in a thread: Apple has quite a few wireless inductive charging patents already. Do a search on Patently Apple.
I could be wrong, but the reason for the $29 adapter may be for the signal conversion. If the new pins are all digital, then they will need to have AD/DA chips inside.
I could be wrong, but the reason for the $29 adapter may be for the signal conversion. If the new pins are all digital, then they will need to have AD/DA chips inside.
Third parties already have them for sale for $9.99 on Amazon.com
Nonsense, the move to the new connector was clearly a cash grab. Apple is greedy. They just want you to buy adapters from them.
The new connector doesn't offer any advantage over the old connector.
/s
The old connector would not fit in the new iP5 -- the main advantage of the new connector is that it allows for a slimmer iPhone design. Check out the iFixit teardown which shows how tightly packed the components are.
Just picked up the 5 this morning. The connector is TINY, way smaller than I imagined! Plugging it in and unplugging it feels very solid too, no slop, and that should go a long ways for durability of the connectors.
Also, a lot is being made of the whole ditching the 30 pin issue. We need to move forward people, might as well rip the band-aid off and get it over with!
Clearly it was necessary to change the adapter to continue the march of thinness. I have no quarrel with their rationale there. That said, if the analyst's cost estimates are correct, we are talking 5 bucks for the cable. How much could the chip needed to translate between the new and old adapter output cost. Don't see any justification for the exorbitant premium Apple gets at $29 a pop. Give long term buyers who have collected several add ons a break here.
You do realize across almost all industry and services new customers get better deals than long-term customers. For example, studies have shown people that stick with the same insurance company for years pay much more on average than newer customers.
So when people play the loyalty card, "I've been with your company for XX years," blah blah blah, I just laugh. Companies are interested in getting new customers so they create incentives such as introductory rates, no interest for X months, etc. But when those perks end, customers generally don't switch to a new company offering a better deal because it's a hassle to search out a new solution to a problem you've already solved in your life. And companies know this. Why give customers they already have an incentive that will lose them revenue when those customers are unlikely to switch anyway?
Third parties already have them for sale for $9.99 on Amazon.com
Those companies have no development costs, probably in the millions for Apple, to recoup. They just copy the design, if not steal the design.
Yeah, you can say that Apple should absorb the cost within their huge margins, but they're both running a business and founding a new kind of techno-ecology, or empire if you want. Gruber's comparison comes to mind. Apple is the new Microsoft and Intel combined. I'd go farther and say that they're also laying out a global retail empire such as the world has never seen.
They're not going to be giving away or blowing out their new connector accessories.
Those companies have no development costs, probably in the millions for Apple, to recoup. They just copy the design, if not steal the design.
Yeah, you can say that Apple should absorb the cost within their huge margins, but they're both running a business and founding a new kind of techno-ecology, or empire if you want. Gruber's comparison comes to mind. Apple is the new Microsoft and Intel combined. I'd go farther and say that they're also laying out a global retail empire such as the world has never seen.
They're not going to be giving away or blowing out their new connector accessories.
I also think there is a "rationing" element to Apple's pricing of the adaptors. There will be a worldwide demand for tens of millions of these little things. When I get an iPhone or iPad that uses the new connector, I'll need one adaptor, but could use at least 3. If Apple were selling them at cost or close to it (i.e., if they were cheap), I would go ahead and grab a bunch. Well, that might not be good for Apple in the first months of the iPhone 5 if you can't easily get one because everyone ahead of you has exhausted the initial, limited supply.
On the other hand, I'm sure Apple's not too sad to rake in 10s of million of dollars of adaptor profit either.
I would go as far as to say that within 10 years we will not be using physical connectors anymore for these mobile devices, so another new physicial connector is not to be expected indeed.
Any data connection (also audio/video) will be wireless (BT, WiDi, WiFi etc.) and by then Apple will probably have jumped on wireless charging as well as this offers nice design opportunities.
Those companies have no development costs, probably in the millions for Apple, to recoup. They just copy the design, if not steal the design.
Yeah, you can say that Apple should absorb the cost within their huge margins, but they're both running a business and founding a new kind of techno-ecology, or empire if you want. Gruber's comparison comes to mind. Apple is the new Microsoft and Intel combined. I'd go farther and say that they're also laying out a global retail empire such as the world has never seen.
They're not going to be giving away or blowing out their new connector accessories.
I am very wary of third party knock off Apple parts. Just Yahoo about Macs that tingle. It turns out thousands of folks bought cheepo Apple chargers from Amazon for their Macs. A friend of mine did and sure enough, touching the case could give a tingling sensation. I checked his adapter and the connector to the charger (not the wall plug, the slide in connector) used a plastic instead of the steel pin for the special earthing system Apple developed.
Does Apple have a patent on the lightning-to-30 pin adapter? If not, and if the parts are really that cheap, then companies will be able to produce it and sell it for $10. I'm wary of the adapters that are being "pre-sold" and will probably wait until people have time to run tests on them to compare or take them apart.
Older readers will remember back to 1998, when the new iMac ditched the old ADB and SCSI in favor of USB. Many people complained at the time, but it needed to be done, and everything works better this way.
So when people play the loyalty card, "I've been with your company for XX years," blah blah blah, I just laugh. Companies are interested in getting new customers so they create incentives such as introductory rates, no interest for X months, etc. But when those perks end, customers generally don't switch to a new company offering a better deal because it's a hassle to search out a new solution to a problem you've already solved in your life. And companies know this. Why give customers they already have an incentive that will lose them revenue when those customers are unlikely to switch anyway?
Story of my life, but from both sides. We also have customers who have been with us for 20+ years and they routinely thank us for our superb service. They trust us and would not switch. Even if another company tries to gain their business offering lower cost they adamantly refuse because they never have to worry about the quality of the service they receive from us. If they switched, there would be a chance that the service would be inferior, which is one thing they cannot afford. People who want top quality rarely shop around for bargains.
Older readers will remember back to 1998, when the new iMac ditched the old ADB and SCSI in favor of USB. Many people complained at the time, but it needed to be done, and everything works better this way.
Three years down the road, nobody will care.
Time has compressed now. Three MONTHS down the road, no one will care. Same with Maps, as it'll get that much better that much faster.
My opinion is quite informed… to which I shall now demonstrate since you're clearly 12 years old and don't know any better…
If you're going to disrupt a clearly established ecosystem by changing a piece of hardware, that change should come with enough benefits that outweigh the negative aspects:
PROS:
Smaller
Digital
CONS:
Incompatible with billions of accessories
Expensive adaptor
Slower than current technology allows (USB 2 vs USB 3)
Removes features like audio and video out, features that I used.
As any reasonable person can see, this is a step backwards, not a step forwards. And speaking of taking multiple steps backwards... let's talk about the new maps...
PROS:
More attractive than Google Maps
FlyOver
Turn-by-turn directions
CONS
Severely lacking in POIs
Localized maps severely lacking (Penn State campus, for example, totally barren now)
Turn-by-turn directions inferior to TomTom
Street View is gone
3D maps only in a few major cities
Biking paths are gone
Public Transportation is gone
Now what do these two examples have in common? They both took a SUPERIOR product and REPLACED them with an INFERIOR product.
There's really no way you can spin this, although watching you try will be very amusing to say the least.
Slower than current technology allows (USB 2 vs USB 3)
REALLY?! So we can buy Dock Connector to USB 3 cables and get USB 3 speeds on them? Oh, what's that? No? Huh. Then why would you say that, I wonder? And when Lightning is looking very much like it could support not only 3 but Thunderbolt in the future, while Dock Connector will not, ever, I wonder what was the point of calling this out at all.
And an "expensive adapter"… how trite. I guess Dock Connector adapters going for the same amount at launch doesn't count, right? Right, of course.
More attractive than Google Maps
Ah… that reminds me of something. Hang on a tick… oh, yes, Google Maps at launch. Which was more attractive than any other mapping system to date. But also had tens of thousands of problems, was missing entire cities, roads, had bad satellite data, and gave incorrect directions.
Sound familiar? Of course not. Because Apple "can do no wrong". So they should be flogged for being the first company in history to ever put out bad map data.
Comments
I mentioned this a few days agao in a thread: Apple has quite a few wireless inductive charging patents already. Do a search on Patently Apple.
Third parties already have them for sale for $9.99 on Amazon.com
The old connector would not fit in the new iP5 -- the main advantage of the new connector is that it allows for a slimmer iPhone design. Check out the iFixit teardown which shows how tightly packed the components are.
Just picked up the 5 this morning. The connector is TINY, way smaller than I imagined! Plugging it in and unplugging it feels very solid too, no slop, and that should go a long ways for durability of the connectors.
Also, a lot is being made of the whole ditching the 30 pin issue. We need to move forward people, might as well rip the band-aid off and get it over with!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jbach67
Clearly it was necessary to change the adapter to continue the march of thinness. I have no quarrel with their rationale there. That said, if the analyst's cost estimates are correct, we are talking 5 bucks for the cable. How much could the chip needed to translate between the new and old adapter output cost. Don't see any justification for the exorbitant premium Apple gets at $29 a pop. Give long term buyers who have collected several add ons a break here.
You do realize across almost all industry and services new customers get better deals than long-term customers. For example, studies have shown people that stick with the same insurance company for years pay much more on average than newer customers.
So when people play the loyalty card, "I've been with your company for XX years," blah blah blah, I just laugh. Companies are interested in getting new customers so they create incentives such as introductory rates, no interest for X months, etc. But when those perks end, customers generally don't switch to a new company offering a better deal because it's a hassle to search out a new solution to a problem you've already solved in your life. And companies know this. Why give customers they already have an incentive that will lose them revenue when those customers are unlikely to switch anyway?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fithian
It looks like a win-win for AAPL; more versatile, reversible, compact, proprietary chip to prevent cheap Asian junk.
I agree. I think it's a good idea to make it more difficult to be "copied!"
Those companies have no development costs, probably in the millions for Apple, to recoup. They just copy the design, if not steal the design.
Yeah, you can say that Apple should absorb the cost within their huge margins, but they're both running a business and founding a new kind of techno-ecology, or empire if you want. Gruber's comparison comes to mind. Apple is the new Microsoft and Intel combined. I'd go farther and say that they're also laying out a global retail empire such as the world has never seen.
They're not going to be giving away or blowing out their new connector accessories.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
Those companies have no development costs, probably in the millions for Apple, to recoup. They just copy the design, if not steal the design.
Yeah, you can say that Apple should absorb the cost within their huge margins, but they're both running a business and founding a new kind of techno-ecology, or empire if you want. Gruber's comparison comes to mind. Apple is the new Microsoft and Intel combined. I'd go farther and say that they're also laying out a global retail empire such as the world has never seen.
They're not going to be giving away or blowing out their new connector accessories.
I also think there is a "rationing" element to Apple's pricing of the adaptors. There will be a worldwide demand for tens of millions of these little things. When I get an iPhone or iPad that uses the new connector, I'll need one adaptor, but could use at least 3. If Apple were selling them at cost or close to it (i.e., if they were cheap), I would go ahead and grab a bunch. Well, that might not be good for Apple in the first months of the iPhone 5 if you can't easily get one because everyone ahead of you has exhausted the initial, limited supply.
On the other hand, I'm sure Apple's not too sad to rake in 10s of million of dollars of adaptor profit either.
My feelings too.
I am very wary of third party knock off Apple parts. Just Yahoo about Macs that tingle. It turns out thousands of folks bought cheepo Apple chargers from Amazon for their Macs. A friend of mine did and sure enough, touching the case could give a tingling sensation. I checked his adapter and the connector to the charger (not the wall plug, the slide in connector) used a plastic instead of the steel pin for the special earthing system Apple developed.
Does Apple have a patent on the lightning-to-30 pin adapter? If not, and if the parts are really that cheap, then companies will be able to produce it and sell it for $10. I'm wary of the adapters that are being "pre-sold" and will probably wait until people have time to run tests on them to compare or take them apart.
Older readers will remember back to 1998, when the new iMac ditched the old ADB and SCSI in favor of USB. Many people complained at the time, but it needed to be done, and everything works better this way.
Three years down the road, nobody will care.
Yeah, I'd call that a fail.
Nonsense, the move to the new connector was clearly a cash grab. Apple is greedy. They just want you to buy adapters from them.
The new connector doesn't offer any advantage over the old connector.
/s
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverpraxis
So when people play the loyalty card, "I've been with your company for XX years," blah blah blah, I just laugh. Companies are interested in getting new customers so they create incentives such as introductory rates, no interest for X months, etc. But when those perks end, customers generally don't switch to a new company offering a better deal because it's a hassle to search out a new solution to a problem you've already solved in your life. And companies know this. Why give customers they already have an incentive that will lose them revenue when those customers are unlikely to switch anyway?
Story of my life, but from both sides. We also have customers who have been with us for 20+ years and they routinely thank us for our superb service. They trust us and would not switch. Even if another company tries to gain their business offering lower cost they adamantly refuse because they never have to worry about the quality of the service they receive from us. If they switched, there would be a chance that the service would be inferior, which is one thing they cannot afford. People who want top quality rarely shop around for bargains.
Originally Posted by bingethinker
Older readers will remember back to 1998, when the new iMac ditched the old ADB and SCSI in favor of USB. Many people complained at the time, but it needed to be done, and everything works better this way.
Three years down the road, nobody will care.
Time has compressed now. Three MONTHS down the road, no one will care. Same with Maps, as it'll get that much better that much faster.
Since I live in here and now, I can say with confidence that the new maps currently suck and so does the new connector.
Time has compressed now. Three MONTHS down the road, no one will care. Same with Maps, as it'll get that much better that much faster.
Originally Posted by Waverunnr
…I can say with confidence that the new maps currently suck and so does the new connector.
Thanks for your uninformed, unimportant opinion.
My opinion is quite informed… to which I shall now demonstrate since you're clearly 12 years old and don't know any better…
If you're going to disrupt a clearly established ecosystem by changing a piece of hardware, that change should come with enough benefits that outweigh the negative aspects:
PROS:
Smaller
Digital
CONS:
Incompatible with billions of accessories
Expensive adaptor
Slower than current technology allows (USB 2 vs USB 3)
Removes features like audio and video out, features that I used.
As any reasonable person can see, this is a step backwards, not a step forwards. And speaking of taking multiple steps backwards... let's talk about the new maps...
PROS:
More attractive than Google Maps
FlyOver
Turn-by-turn directions
CONS
Severely lacking in POIs
Localized maps severely lacking (Penn State campus, for example, totally barren now)
Turn-by-turn directions inferior to TomTom
Street View is gone
3D maps only in a few major cities
Biking paths are gone
Public Transportation is gone
Now what do these two examples have in common? They both took a SUPERIOR product and REPLACED them with an INFERIOR product.
There's really no way you can spin this, although watching you try will be very amusing to say the least.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Thanks for your uninformed, unimportant opinion.
Originally Posted by Waverunnr
Slower than current technology allows (USB 2 vs USB 3)
REALLY?! So we can buy Dock Connector to USB 3 cables and get USB 3 speeds on them? Oh, what's that? No? Huh. Then why would you say that, I wonder? And when Lightning is looking very much like it could support not only 3 but Thunderbolt in the future, while Dock Connector will not, ever, I wonder what was the point of calling this out at all.
And an "expensive adapter"… how trite. I guess Dock Connector adapters going for the same amount at launch doesn't count, right? Right, of course.
More attractive than Google Maps
Ah… that reminds me of something. Hang on a tick… oh, yes, Google Maps at launch. Which was more attractive than any other mapping system to date. But also had tens of thousands of problems, was missing entire cities, roads, had bad satellite data, and gave incorrect directions.
Sound familiar? Of course not. Because Apple "can do no wrong". So they should be flogged for being the first company in history to ever put out bad map data.