jasenj1

Good for him. I was a long term subscriber to WIRED - like 10 years. But dropped it when they became far too "GQ for wanna-be nerds". The long form articles were good, but all the "new tech" puff pieces were months or weeks out of date by the time they appeared in print.

I don't see how the USA can compete with cultures where workers are housed in dorms, eat in company cafeterias, don't own cars, etc. Where many of the employees' other choices include subsistence farming in huts. And I don't know what the health care is like in China, the Philippines, Taiwan, etc. but I'm going to guess it is cheaper for companies than whatever we have in the USA. And then there's environmental regulations, workplace safety, and many other regulatory burdens.

I'm not saying it can't be profitable to manufacture in the USA, but I think it will always be MORE profitable to manufacture in third/second-world countries. Unless we impose large enough tariffs - but that leads to cries of "protectionism", "trade war", etc.

jvmb said:
I think the problem is that the Mac is no longer the center of the ecosystem. The iPhone is now the center and the Mac is an accessory used to sell more iPhones.

Regretfully agreed. Apple used to be focused on creative professionals (desktop publishing, graphic artists, video editors, et al). Now their focus is consumers. They still pay some lip service to the creative pros who helped make them who they are, but their heart is not in it. Now it's iPhones, iTunes, iCloud, etc. I understand the economics of it; consumers are a much larger market. But I wish they could keep a division focused on hard core pros - like VW has Lamborghini or Porsche.

I'm an Apple loyalist dating back to the Apple //e. I've never owned a Windows computer. But as Apple produces less of the whole user experience, it becomes less compelling to stick with them.

When I saw the ad I said to my wife, "You should never bench press without a spotter." He then proceeds to show why, and I was content. People die from this.

(I stay safe by never bench pressing. )

(I did not read the entire thread. Wow! 9 pages!)

I think it would have been much better if Apple had announced these discounts when they introduced the machines. Tim Cook (or whoever) standing up and saying, "We recognize people still need to connect to non-USB-C devices, so we're making all Apple adapters 50% off and deeply discounting third-party USB-C devices that we sell," would have gone a long way to fostering some good will. Instead, this looks like a reactionary move to backlash. "Oh! You still need to connect to non-USB-C things? You won't buy our shiny new toy? Umm... How about a discount?"