HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
At the risk of sounding like a fanboi, that is true of any gadget manufacturer. I've jumped around from one company to another for my 1st world comforts, and ultimately have settled on apple's walled garden as they at least seem the most reliable at releasing updates where applicable to their 2, 3, even 4-year-old devices. Sure they don't have all the same features since newer features will be built on technology that didn't exist or wasn't cost-effective. I'm a customer that no longer needs the latest and greatest and will typically purchase new old stock or a refurbed model to save some money at the expense of not having all the newest bells and whistles. Apple didn't have to enable sleep tracking on their watches older than series 5 (I think that was the newest one at the time anyway), but they did so (I had the series 2 at the time).
Now, does that mean they shouldn't add industry standards like aux ports to relevant hardware? No. If it's a speaker, it should have an aux port. I don't have any apple-made speakers (heck, I don't even have a fancy tv, lol, just a little 22" insignia). If I had the time, money and room, I'd build out an old school multimedia room with a receiver/amplifier, 8.1 surround and nice wood floor speakers. It'd be way overkill for what my degrading senses could appreciate but I'd have the serotonin release as a reward for a vinyl Pink Floyd listening session
My own opinion about this topic is basically at the end of your post above: separate the "smarts" from the speakers. If they are two separate parts, the rapid obsolescence of the smarts doesn't have to "throw baby out with the bathwater" for the main part of the speaker.
Then when any tech company decides it's time to deprecate the "smarts" to push new offerings, replace only the smarts if you must have them... not the entire speaker.
If this was my kind of thing, I'd favor the echo dot-type approach: smarts as one product and "dumb" speakers separate from those brains. Then I simply replace the dot-equivalent when new smarts are required.
I somewhat do this now with AppleTV or iDevice standing in as the "smarts" and then great but "dumb" speakers attached to a receiver for the sound production. I'll be replacing mobile devices smarts and AppleTVs regularly anyway. No need throwing out the speakers because the brains get too old and Apple decides it's time to push new ones.
But to each his own. These are not crazy expensive and if people are willing to roll with tossing them when Apple decides the brains should no longer be upgraded, that's their business.
