titantiger

techprod1gy said:

To all of the blow hards that are bent out of shape because you can't upgrade the SSD give me a break. The only reason you want it removable is so you don't have to pay Apple's price for higher amounts of storage. For 99.9% of users this is a non-issue.

Well, that's not entirely true.  It would lessen the blow if Apple's prices for these upgrades weren't so out of line with the market for those parts.  But there are other issues at play that are more important.  Often, people can't afford to jack the specs up on the front end.  They may be saving and stretching even to get a superior computer from Apple, but can't max those things out then.  So they buy the base or mid-tier model and know that if the need arises later, or after they can save some more money, they can easily upgrade those things themselves.  But when you unnecessarily solder a part like a hard drive to the motherboard, you've delivered little to nothing in customer benefit while taking away something significant that was beneficial.

And of course the other issue is if something goes wrong with the drive.  Rather than simply paying for a new drive and taking about 20 minutes to swap it out for the bad one, then loading your backup on to the new one, you're forced to either send it off to Apple or hope you have a local repair shop and pay for a pricey repair.

fallenjt said:

I don't understand the whining behind this. If you can spend $1800+ for a laptop, why skim $200 for the storage? Really don't get it!

Because some people can't spend $1800 for a laptop.  It might be a stretch for them to spend $1499 for one and they can't afford pricey upgrades from Apple.  But they want to remain Apple customers and they buy the best one they can afford.  And if they need more storage later, they used to be able to know they could easily snag a larger drive off Amazon or from OWC for a good price and pop it in themselves in minutes.

sog35 said:

titantiger said:

Dear Apple,

Stop doing this shit.  No one likes it.  It's of zero benefit to your customers.  We don't care if it allows the laptop to be two microns thinner or a tenth of a gram lighter.  Two things should always be user upgradeable:  RAM and a hard drive.  If the motherboard or some power port is hard to access and replace, so be it.  Most people will never touch those things.  But if my hard drive craps out or the RAM goes blinky, I should be able to pop open a case, pull the bad part out and snap the good one in.  

I love Apple products, but this shit is getting old.

Do you feel the same way for iPhones?

Do you expect iPhones to be self serviced also? 

of course not. Apple is looking forward, you are looking back.

Its the same reason why iPhones don't have removable storage or hardrive upgrades.

Tiny handheld electronics, no.  They are much harder to work on by their very nature because of the extremely tight fit and tiny parts.  But a desktop or laptop?  Yes, I do.  Like I say, I'm not asking for the entire inside to be user serviceable.  But hard drive and RAM upgrades are basic no-brainer stuff.  My 66 year-old mother could follow the instructions on a hard drive upgrade and pull it off.  It might be a little less annoying if the upgrades to RAM and hard drive capacity weren't so bloody expensive when you do those upgrades on the front end from Apple, though I'd still want to choke someone when the hard drive in my laptop crapped out and I couldn't have it replaced in 20 minutes of my time.

Perhaps you can explain to me what tangible benefit you gain from Apple soldering a hard drive to a motherboard or soldering RAM to the motherboard.  Maybe I'm missing something.  

Dear Apple,

Stop doing this shit.  No one likes it.  It's of zero benefit to your customers.  We don't care if it allows the laptop to be two microns thinner or a tenth of a gram lighter.  Two things should always be user upgradeable:  RAM and a hard drive.  If the motherboard or some power port is hard to access and replace, so be it.  Most people will never touch those things.  But if my hard drive craps out or the RAM goes blinky, I should be able to pop open a case, pull the bad part out and snap the good one in.  

I love Apple products, but this shit is getting old.

Man, I must be a poor.  $1499 for a laptop doesn't sound like an "affordable" entry level figure to me at all.