I agree fully.. Although the cost for Thunderbolt is very High. I remember all us MBP owners begging for BR and Apple refused to give in. The answer we will never know. Was it to keep those iTunes dollars coming in, or was it due to the high price of BR licensing.
Don't get me wrong I will most likely be a Mac guy for life, as I have been for the last 10 years or so. Although the things I have seen change with Apple is pure profit related. I'm sorry but before the Retina Apple got pretty damn Lazy on stepping up the game, yes the unibody was a great step, but the internals where middle of the road and high end prices. In all honesty in the mobile market, the iPads, iPhones and iPods will eventually lose out. IOS is getting extremely blahhh and the close minded lock down on software/hardware will be the decline if they don't change. Consumers today are much more educated with tech, and prefer the ability to have input and customize the way there devices look (on screen). Android has been gaining huge grounds on IOS worldwide and no one can deny that. So for Razer to produce a system with great specs, and Apple inspired looks I think it's a kick in the ASS Apple needs. Let's hope it pushes Apple to innovate again, but more then likely it will only push Apple to SUE the hell out of Razer. And in the end with that kind of mentality the only one who suffers is the consumer.
Apple isn't aiming solely for market share. Google is. But the problem is that you can't grab the most market share, make the most money AND make amazing products with great design and great software. A good example was Dell. Their race to sell the most PCs left them in an awful position. Their short term thinking really screwed them up. They sold the most units, their quality and brand became negatively known, they made basically no money per unit sold. Now look at them. Stock is an all time low and they're in the process of going private. Michael Dell doesn't understand the value of quality. Sure you make a quick buck, but what about next year? When your POS falls apart (and it did), people won't be thinking "hey let's get another Dell because the quality was so bad on the last one". Never ever go cheap. That is why Lenovo is owning everyone in the PC market right now. They managed to make money AND grab the most market share AND make amazing products (a good portion came from IBM ThinkPad). That's impressive to pull off. Lenovo didn't choose to go Dell on us. Many of their machines are priced even more expensive than Apple. While I think iOS is due for some fresh blood, I don't think that old is worse or anything like that. A good example of this is the ThinkPad. Design has not changed that in over a decade. Yet ThinkPads are still regarded by many as top notch. They still sell well and profit margins aren't narrow thin/negative.
I beg to differ. Out of the 14-15 friends I have (across various ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, etc.) who use Android phones, none of them actually give half a rat's behind about customizability, widgets, side-loading apps, etc. Half of them have expressed interest in iPhones because of the customer support and quality. This is not a diss at Android, but I'm just telling you that the reasons why us geeks like Android are different from people who aren't geeks. Android has been making gains around the world mainly due to low entry cost. The level of quality of Androids vary from Apple level like HTC One to some knockoff no-brand device sold for $50. Many people around the world cannot afford whatever the iPhone costs in their market. Just like they can't afford the high-end Androids like S4, HTC One, etc. But they have the option to buy something much cheaper. And it won't be running iOS... The point of a business is to make money and Apple is making the most money (by a significant margin) in the smartphone market. That has not changed at all since they entered the market. Samsung has been taking a more dominant position in this regard at the expense of other players (not Apple) like LG, Moto, HTC and Nokia.
As for BR, I think Apple made the right decision to skip it. The trend today is streaming. Netflix, Hulu, etc. Why? People are buying more tablets and smartphones. Unless you want BR players to somehow be shrunk to fit in those devices, skipping BR did not really have much of a negative effect. Most people don't want, need or use them. And if you do, just get an external BR drive. They are cheap enough (I saw one for $60 on sale on Newegg). Look at the rise in popularity of download-only models like Steam, Adobe CS Cloud, Windows App Store (I can't remember exact name...), Mac App Store. People don't use optical media like they used to. It won't go away overnight but it's on its way out. Even Microsoft realizes this, which is why they are investing in Azure and Xbox to compete in cloud.
