Is Apple Conning Consumers?

You can argue many things about Apple under the direction of the reincarnated Steve Jobs, but one thing that is clear is that Apple is always cutting technology before its reached its use-by date. Apple likes to force its customers along technology paths long before they are ready.

Floppy disk anyone? Remember the kerfuffle when the original iMacs shipped without floppy disks? Folks just weren't ready for that change but they begrudgingly accepted it. However, on PCs floppy drives lived on for many more years.

Apple likes to tell us "it's what consumers want". Consumers, consumer, consumers! That's what it's all about. Makes me wonder who these "sumers" are and why Apple is trying to con them.

Who uses every feature on their Mac daily? Who uses all the features of OS X? I haven't used Automator in ages, and I don't think it's overly used by consumers, so why not drop it, Apple? It's obviously just a waste of disk space since the majority of consumers aren't using it.  Kinda like that FireWire port - a waste of space since the majority of consumers don't use it.

However, as many rants on Apple discussion boards and many other forums attest, there is still a large number of folks in the MacBook market segment who are quite dependent on Firewire. But they mustn't be consumers, or maybe they're just not easily conned.

And unlike the floppy drive, which we could buy an external one if needed, there's no such alternative for Firewire users.

I'm also surprised Apple didn't replace that Firewire port on the MacBook with another USB port. How much do these things add to the end cost of the machine?! Is it really that much that Apple can't spare one?

Think about USB devices: printers, iPods/iPhones, external hard drives, card readers, DV cams, TV tuners, flash drives, graphics tablets, etc, etc.

Consider that list and consider you only get two USB ports. Let's see, one for the TimeMachine drive and one for the printer... oh dear, I'll have to get rid of my iPhone, DV cam, flash drive etc.

The Apple-droids will say monotonally say "Get a hub". You know, for the sake of just one more USB port, if I had a new MacBook I could manage without a hub. (By the way, on desktop Macs, that requirement is four, since one's automatically gone to your keyboard and mouse.)

At least the Firewire port catered for an external HDD, my DV cam and my old iPod, thus lightening the load on my USB ports. And of course, Firewire supports daisy chaining.

Before these new MacBooks, I was right on the verge of deciding it was time to invest in a MacBook. The lack of Firewire and my owning and using several Firewire devices has thrown a spanner in the works.

As much as I'd like a new MacBook Pro, they are way too expensive to consider. So it's either a Windows laptop (laughs hysterically), or a second hand MacBook Pro.

I did actually go and look at HP's site to see what the Windows world offered. I ran - figuratively speaking - screaming from there, clutching my aching head after less than a minute. There's so many options and configurations it'll make your brain explode. (A few years back I wrote a piece where I'd calculated that on a single Dell PC, Dell offered something like a trillion possible configurations. Now there's an ad for the "I'm a Mac" ad writers!)

It really made me appreciate Apple's simplified product line. However, with decisions like the removal of Firewire, those consumer and professional prouct lines are becoming too distinct from each other. Apple, we need a little overlap because not all pros are rolling in the money. Some folks are pro-sumers.

I am also concerned that all next generation consumer Macs will see the disappearance of Firewire. Maybe within six months, all those of us still reliant on Firewire will be buying (begrudgingly) MacBook Pros or Mac Pros.

Or Windows PCs. (Laughs hysterically again.)

Or start trawling eBay for good secondhand iMacs.

Because, Apple can try to con sumers as much as it likes, but some of us sumers really do want to keep using Firewire for a few more years.