AirPort Routers Ranked Highest in Customer Satisfaction as Apple Halts Further Development

[Le Big Mac]

After re-reading the original Bloomberg report, it only states that Apple disbanded the division that develops router. They extrapolated from that action that it mus be exiting the business. But it's very possible that router development will continue in a different division and that the action is just internal restructuring.

This is a fair point - just how much development does the Airport require at this point? Sure - some, and slap in a new chip every so often as standards develop. But it is a mature product - kind of like how iMacs are just getting speed bumps and updated internals these days. Not as much focus on hardware development.

 

[Redpoint]

It's products like this that make the Apple ecosystem a pleasure to use - I don't understand this move. I have three Airport products: two base stations and an express. They never miss a beat and are so easy to configure and use. They're one of the most reliable products I've ever purchased.

 

[bpcookson]

Just came here to be sad. T_T

 

[Kabeyun]

The board NEEDS to remove Tim Cook before it's too late.

Apple under Jobs was something else. Tim has been "succeeding" off his legacy, however as Job's magic is drying up, so is Apple.

The man is a liability with no vision. No charisma. No passion. Nothing.

#FireTimCook

Agree that Tim Cook is not a source of product inspiration. He's a supply chain guy. Agree that Apple has been living on Jobs' decay heat.

But canning Cook doesn't address either of those things. Nor can you just hire a new mercurial genius and put him all your eggs in his basket instead.

I think this is just what Apple is now. Large, probably lasting, and pretty vanilla. *sigh*

 

[JDHiro]

My Airport Extreme is the only router I've ever owned that I don't need to reboot on a weekly basis, fiddle with because some app or game doesn't like it, or require some horrible interface for configuration.

It's an absolute joy that I've been able to set it up in new places with just an iPhone.

It looks great, and I have no problem with it sitting next to my TV.

The good news here is that we'll probably be on 802.11ac for several more years, and that there is nothing wrong with the routers as they exist (except that maybe an 802.11ac Express would have been nice). So Apple will probably just continue to sell them until 802.11ax makes them obsolete someday in the future.

 

[kaneda]

I was going to buy one, I guess I have to look for something else...

 

[Dwalls90]

I agree with you in almost everything except the possibility of an Apple TV acting as a wireless router. The aTVs are paired with the TVs, and I'd say most won't have a ethernet connection by the TV. Maybe as an extender, but you will need to find a router elsewhere in the future.

I guess I'm saying more what I hope, and less what is likely to happen. I agree seems illogical, but don't want to say goodbye to their routers..

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Well, it sounded like sarcasm, but the latest Airport Extremes can only be setup and configured with Macs/iDevices.

Yes it was sarcasm with a call back to Apple's withdrawing from the monitor market and then later announcing they "teamed up" with LG to make a Mac-centric monitor for the new MBPs. Of course the LGs are nice but really nothing special.

There are plenty of decent 4 and 5K monitors on the market at those price points. Some people will buy b/c it's Apple blessed, but it's not an Apple designed through and through product which is what the Mac eco-system use to be and a good reason why it was less tourturous than the PC world.

Airport was great because it just worked (usually) and was super simple to set up even in bridge mode.

 

[docdawning]

I have:
- 3x Airport Expresses
- 2x Airport Extremes
- 1x Time Capsule

They work well together and I've been quite satisfied by them. I use ALL of their features. I absolutely love airplay. I even use the USB port from a really old Express to drive a ~10yr old printer over wifi.

I WAS looking forward to a refresh. But instead I'm receiving another "**** off".. I have many Macs in the house (maybe 10 or so), I feel like the direction they've gone post 2011 has really been towards a goal that's mostly incompatible with my use cases.

Eventually I may be driven back to Ubuntu, which I wouldn't be especially thrilled by. I hope this is the low point here. We'll see.

 

[Larry-K]

Quit while you're ahead.

 

[pat500000]

They should remove Tim Cook like how they removed ports and solder him in FED EX package to Afghan.

 

[Brian Y]

Have to say I'm also peeved off that Apple are stopping the AirPort Extreme!

As I said in another thread on the topic, the 3 year old AEBS still outperforms other routers in terms of sheer wireless throughput (although wan->lan throughput isn't as great as newer, more expensive models, I don't care about that as I simply use them as access points - though higher wan->lan throughput is a natural evolution with increased cpu power).

AEBS is, in my opinion, what Apple was at it's best - a very simple device, with very simple controls, which did one job, and did it very well. In ways, the engineering in it reminds me of the iPod (before the touch). It's simple, and it "just works".

Shame they're not carrying on with it - but I guess it represents a TINY fraction of revenue, and the way things are going, I can't imagine we're far away from Time Machine moving to iCloud, and Time Machine was one of their biggest marketing points for it.

The only good thing, as said above, we're at the point now where in terms of throughput, AC is "good enough". I just did a test transfer from my home server, and got 88MB/s - just over 700mbps, which is perfectly fine. All of these new routers which advertise "faster than gigabit" speeds are pointless to me.

 

[AdonisSMU]

But it doesn't run iOS, and is too big to be worn with a watchband so it isn't on Tim Cook's radar.

I cackled.

 

[routine_analyst]

They moved the engineers to other teams ... but still sell it. Maybe that means that any improvements in the short term were too small to release another version? Could mean that the mission is to incorporate wireless into something else rather than just a basestation.

 

[920R]

It must have been a long time since those have seen an update. Look how thick those things are.

Yes and there were hardly any ports to remove or other improvements to make.

 

[Larry-K]

Agree that Tim Cook is not a source of product inspiration. He's a supply chain guy. Agree that Apple has been living on Jobs' decay heat.

But canning Cook doesn't address either of those things. Nor can you just hire a new mercurial genius and put him all your eggs in his basket instead.

I think this is just what Apple is now. Large, probably lasting, and pretty vanilla. *sigh*

"Eternal Vanilla", now there's a slogan!

 

[mi7chy]

I can't address whether features are missing compared to the Apple version. What I am telling you is everything I have had to do to my system I can do with the windows version, and that current version is 5.6.1 .

Did you use it to upgrade the firmware to 7.7.7? There's a reason Apple spells out the requirements to cover all bases. No one is going to risk bricking their router listening to some stranger on the internet over what Apple states.

 

[Malarkey]

Tim Cook should resign.

I agree. Tim Cook is terrible. Uninspiring and unimaginative.

 

[doelcm82]

It will backfire in the long run especially as other systems will improve faster than Apple's. iCloud and TimeCapsule serve two different needs.

You may hope it will backfire in the long run. Apple is betting it won't.

For a long time, Apple's refusal to embrace Blu-Ray seemed like something that would backfire in the long run. Streaming would never take off because bandwidth couldn't possibly handle it. It would never happen.

Now it's data caps that are the bottleneck. And data caps are here forever. There's only so much data storage that is physically possible, and we're almost there, so that's the one thing that technology can't solve, right?

 

[Val-kyrie]

Why? If the line isn't profitable, it doesn't matter how much a tiny group loves the product. I love mine too, but that doesn't mean the company should keep it on life support if those engineers would be better served on another project. For all we know, the next AppleTV will have this functionality integrated or something.

As others have previously pointed out, not every product has to return much, if any, profit--especially low-cost products like Airport (i.e., low cost relative to the Macs they support) which support the larger ecosystem. Rather than keep the Apple brand in front of the consumer, TC is slowly breaking the halo effect SJ worked so hard to create; first displays, now routers.

TC should be proud; he cost the company at least two sales from me. I had planned to purchase an Apple router and extender (Express) with my next Mac and cover them all with AppleCare. Now I won't buy either; we will see about the Mac now, too.

 

[neoelectronaut]

Waiting for the Airport Extremes to pop back up in the Refurbished section on Apple's site.

They were available last week but an in-store pickup timing was for Black Friday, and **** going anywhere near a shopping mall last weekend.

 

[Dimer]

Decisions such as this are typical from companies that feel the need to "focus" on their core products so as not to be "distracted". In a sense Apple has always done this but with a very important distinction. Rather than focus on products or product lines, it used to focus on the entire user experience.

So, yes, routers are not strictly products of primary focus by themselves...however they are important in that they contribute to the entire Apple package (I believe that "ecosphere" is the vogue word here).

That holistic focus is really why Apple became the behemoth that it is today. Clearly the present company does not look at things the same way. Their view is now of the pinhole variety...read small minded. This does not bode well for them long term.

 

[dsnows]

I have multiple airport expresses connected to remote speakers that I use with airplay from my Mac. What happens to airplay now? There are not many speakers with airplay built-in. Airport express is great for this. Use any powered speaker.

 

[elmaco]

Getting better performance out of my new Amplifi router than I ever did with my Time Capsule. It's more Apple, than Apple's offerings. Just look at it!

Looks awesome! I need to find an excuse to buy a router.

 

[Val-kyrie]

They reinvented themselves based on their strength; for example for IBM the strength was in Business IT.
What is Apple's strength? Products. Simple, easy yet pricey products that can live in an harmonic ecosystem. Remove/reduce the Mac and see what happens.

Or leave the Mac, remove the peripherals, and see what happens. Without the ecosystem, Apple will become a shadow of its former self. The smaller the ecosystem, the easier it is to leave completely. This bone-headed move will backfire, but TC will leave before he can be held accountable for these decisions which will ultimately damage the company.