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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Wow, USB-C and DDG in the same year? Look at Apple trying to stay relevant 😉
They didn’t switch to USB-C out of the goodness of their hearts. They switched because the EU passed a new law that requires that new smartphones have USB-C ports.
And they actively fought against it for as long as they could, tooth and nail.
It’s an uphill battle, why would Apple bother when just using USB-C makes sense and saves them their lawyers sanity?
Money.
Now that USB-C is the required cable, people can go out and buy any cheap cable they want. The law turned a proprietary cash cow into a low return commodity item.
This argument always cracks me up. I have been able to buy cheap lightning cables effectively since they started making lightning cables lol. It’s not like Apple somehow locks the phone from charging, physics is still a real thing and electricity can still flow through them, even without the MFi aspects.
If you wanna hate Apple for being a massively bloated and money-hungry corporate nightmare, that’s fine, I’m with it, but do we really all think they made it to $3 trillion valuation on… fucking cables??? 😂
No, they made it to 3 trillion with cables, overpriced PCs, overpriced notebooks, overpriced Phones, overpriced watches, and locking software of all these so the easiest way to use different devices together, is to use another apple product.
Oh, and cultivating a fan base of people who uncritically buy anything they make with the notion that it's "better than anything else" when in reality that could not be further from the truth.
Ok, so you listed basically all of their business strategies, which is exactly my point. It’s not a business built SOLELY on proprietary ports and cables, yet that aspect is what gets the most attention and criticism.
I wouldn't say that's really accurate. It is true that it is the aspect that is getting the most attention now, but thats only because its recent, in the news and EU forced their hand upon it.
Apple among regular consumers has been criticised for years, if not decades for its overpriced hardware and among more technical crowd has always been criticised for its closed source and incompatible software.
Of course, people who say their entire empire is built upon a bunch of cables are wrong lol
Correct! For me, the closed source “walled garden” approach is the most frustrating.
But, dude, dude, dude… remember the 30-pin transition debacle? I’m having bad flashbacks lol
I am not old enough to remember that I'm afraid. But I do still have some of those 30 pins phones and chargers
Yeah but there has to be some reason they were so opposed to this. I don’t get it either though.
Apple wants to keep selling overpriced cables to losers.
Apple will never do anything for any other reasons besides: regulation and profit. They try and foster this image of humanitarianism and ethics, but meanwhile they build everything in sweatshops and make their own "standards" so that their loyal customers can only use the functions they need by purchasing additional dongles.
I'm happy that they were forced into an actual standard, but I've already heard at least two apple users IRL claiming that USB-C is inferior for [insert random reasoning here]. Apple has cultivated the idea that they are above standards for a long time and it will take a long time to break.
You mean, just like every company that exists?
The only reason they pass on an image of ethical environmentaly friendly company is because its good for business. People like that shit the products are good people buy. Its that simple. Companies give no shit about people or the planet.
Apple fanboys are the most frustrating people to talk to.
They find any illogical reason to justify what apple does.
I know. That's my point. A great example of this is when they used to brag about how eco-friendly their product were. I remember them bragging about their displays being mercury-free, BFR free, etc and their laptops having totally recyclable aluminum and glass enclosures - only to later deliberately make their laptops nearly impossible to repair and upgrade.
I’m cracking a joke
Ah.
Ah yes, the second largest company in the world “trying to stay relevant”
Im not really brand loyal to a gizmo company but the way android users are so insecure makes me never want to get them.
What is your argument for calling 70% of all phone users insecure?
Like this response is a good example of the insecurity im talking about thanks
This is hilarious because there’s a comment just above yours that’s exactly the same, just turned on its head.
I said it to the android guy and I’m gonna say it to you: pot, meet kettle.
How is that a good example of insecurity of any kind?
* In terms of profit, after the Saudi Arabian Oil Group. Huh, I had no idea.
Of all of the things that I vastly prefer since moving to Lemmy from reddit, anything related to Apple is not one of them. I'm actually surprised because talking about anything Apple on reddit was always a circlejerk pitchfork parade, but Lemmy still seems to outdo. The "trying to stay relevant comment" is honestly hilarious. Sure, the richest company with more than 50% of the smartphone market, that basically feeds design to the rest of the industry is trying to stay relevant.
And another thing worth addressing, It's probably 50/50 whether the EU is forcing them to USB-C, or just providing cover for them to move to USB-C. Modern Apple (after 1997) rarely has used proprietary standards for cables/connectors, and when they have it's pretty obviously because there isn't a better option, or more likely, there isn't an option that is suited to their purpose*. Apple is/was largely the reason we're even talking about USB, being one of the first to really adopt it. Then the dock connector for iPods, which is probably the most major example of them using a proprietary connector. If you read that link (just wiki) you'll see that the dock connector did things that no other standard connector did at the time, and it did it in a form factor that would work with iPods. Fast forward 10 years and Apple eats shit in the press for changing to Lightning, which pre-dated USB-C and has obvious advantages over one of the worst computer connectors in modern history - micro-USB**. Apple contributed significantly to the USB-C spec, which includes many of the advantages that Lightning had first, built off of the work they did with Intel in creating another standard, Thunderbolt.
And then on to today, where Apple is "forced" to use USB-C. Again, in 2016, Apple moved all of their high end laptops to exclusively USB-C, for which they would again be pilloried. People are still pissed those laptops dropped USB-A and MagSafe in favor of trying to drive adoption of USB-C and a one-connector-rules-them-all world. They also moved their Pro iPads over to C in 2018. Basically, Apple started moving its high-end, less price conscious customers to C long before legislation was a gleam in anyone's eye. Their cheaper products (base model iPads) and mass-consumer products (iPhones) they moved much slower on, and even then there were a slate of "Apple keeps changing connectors all of the time!" (twice in 20 years) outrage-bait articles.
Yes, Apple was "forced" to use the connector they created the first design references for (Lightning/Thunderbolt, and to a lesser extend Mini-DisplayPort) and then helped design, then moved to before most, in a bid to stay "relevant" in a field they already dominate.
* Also worth noting that Apple was a main driver of adoption of USB-A, and took heat when they converted iMacs to it over PS/2, far before most PC vendors did.
** This alone, the amount of negative press they garnered, meant that there was likely no way Apple was going to move iPhones off of Lightning for 10 years.
I really really don’t think Apple needs to do much to stay relevant.
and they only did it because the EU forced them to
Strangely, it kinda was. They helped invent the original specification. Just not so sure they wanted to put it on iphone yet (or ever)