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Apple Ceases Development of 'AirPort' Wireless Routers as Engineers Reassigned to Other Products

At this point I think Apple has hit their high water mark. They continue to move the garden walls in a little tighter each year, reduce the offerings once inside and raise the rent for us to stay. I think I've seen enough.

Since 2007 I have been in Apple's world. During that time I migrated nearly everything to the Apple Ecosystem; hardware, media, apps, even my routers. The halo effect is a powerful phenomenon and Apple had a lot of goodwill and consumer $$ going their way. There was a time when I would recommend Apple to friends and family with confidence. Not so much anymore.

I am beginning the painful process of uncoupling my hardware and services from the ecosystem. I am not thrilled about the potential move back to Google and Windows but at least I will have options. I can't believe they haven't come to the internal realization of what will happen to halo customers as with the perceived (and possibly some day real) abandonment of their pro and varied product line. A real shame to see Apple going this way.
 
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dantastic said:
This makes perfect sense actually. Apple are killing off anything that could possibly compete with their online services. In this case it's iCloud - they are forcing people towards iCloud backup and the subscription modes that comes with it.
This is quite similar as what they have done with the Music app, if you're not a subscriber it's downright useless.

Apple used to function in a way that you wanted to buy in to the eco system, everything just worked so well. Now they are more forcing your hand. Previously great apps are dumbed down or simply rendered almost useless.

I'm no longer drinking the cool aid. I'm transitioning away from the Apple platform, not all in one big crazy step but gradually. So far I've been swapping out a lot of Apple apps with other ones. Breath of fresh air actually.
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You cannot use iCloud without a router
 
Not a big deal, there are plenty of easy to set up reliable premium alternatives now. The worst thing is waiting so long to make it official, while still selling the old out of date router.
 
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Silver Lining: Let's hope Time Machine is finally compatible with SMB shares and not just AFP shares.
 
leman said:
Well, here you are wrong. You just don't have the resources and the knowledge to implement the same security and safety as big players. I am responsible for backing up my organisation's data, I would not even dream to do it in-house. Rather, we pay a specialized company that has a number of tape storage units, with proper security and all. And an zero-knowledge encrypted online backup (e.g. using Amazon services) is much more safer than anything you can do at your home.

That said, nobody is taking local backups away. Simply instead of doing it themselves, Apple invites third-party manufacturers to take this role over and gives them all the tools they need. I will probably replace my Time Capsule by a FreeNAS box once it gets support for TM over SMB.
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I have had three instances where my information has been obtained through commercial hacks. Not once have I had someone make off with my locally stored files. Big corps make big targets, and it's obvious by now that there are some brilliant minds working for the "bad guys" to break in and steal things from retailers, credit card companies, banks, even HUGE internet companies like yahoo. What's more, we often don't even know about the hacks until months after it happens.

You'll just have a difficult time convincing me that my information is safer on iCloud or other cloud storage systems than it is in my personally encrypted backup that is stored in my safe or safe deposit box.
 
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When they raise the price of the iPhone to make up for the loss of those who use more Apple products than a cell phone, let's see how loyal those people are to the company.

No, don't try and be Steve Jobs. But don't be John Sculley, either.
 
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brvhrt said:
That's the nail in the coffin for my 15 year loyalty to Apple.

The whole appeal of Apple is the entirely integrated ecosystem (the "it just works" thing evaporated a couple of years ago for me).

They killed the Cinema Display, they ruined iOS, they screwed up the new MacBook Pros, they abandoned Aperture and neglected Logic and to a lesser extent FCPX, they missed an opportunity with Apple TV with the TV part of it (and don't get me started on that remote), the services are way behind their competitors in features and reliability, the Apple Stores are not pleasant to be in (wait times, stock availability), their burgeoning SKUs, the consistency across them and connectivity between them are totally out of hand and now they are abandoning this?

I have said it once and I'll say it again...their corporate hubris without the substance to prop it up will be their downfall.

Steve approached it from the perspective that if you took care of the customer the ensuing sales would take care of the shareholders. Tim is tackling it from the reverse.

I'm done with Apple. Tim, Jony and their fellow execs need to be replaced with hungry, creative, customer oriented appointments asap. Not that I plan on hanging around to see it.
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Well ...."it just works" does apply still....but in financial sense....to mug people for their money and maximize their profit.
 
This is terrible news. Yes there are alternatives but Airport is the easiest to use in a Mac ecosystem. Tim Cook has lost sight of the reason that Apples is such a great company, it makes technology accessible to the "rest of us." I guess since he's not really a tech guy but instead is just a numbers guy, you can't blame him. But they need better leadership.

I love that Airport gives you access to remote TimeMachine back ups and Back to my Mac access from anywhere in the world. Very easily and painlessly. Sure you can configure other systems, but again, you have to be a nerd to use it. The average user doesn't want to do that. I have my Airport Extreme in my attic with a fireproof HD that is my TimeMachine back up. I love the fact that if my house is broken into, they probably won't go to the attic and steal my hard drive but might steal my computer. If the TimeMachine hd was attached to my computer, it would probably be stolen too. I also love the fact that I added another AE and as soon as I plugged it in, it set up a extended network for me automatically. So seamless.

Time for Tim Cook to step down.
 
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Apple really is getting out of making computers and computer stuff. It's a sad day. :(

That being said, there's a much, much better product out there than Apple's Airport and Time Capsules. It's more Apple, than Apple. Get an Amplifi router for your home. I got one and the throughput is amazing! Better than my Time Capsule ever was! Superior in every way. My wifi delivers the same speed as if I was wired to it. I did a number of tests and they were astounding. So screw Tim Cook and Apple. :mad:

amplifi.jpg
 
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The best feature of airport express apart from extended wifi is airplay - apple will integrate wifi airplay into an amazon echo device that wireless charges iPhone !! Can't innovate my ass !!
 
So will existing Airports stop getting updates soon? Kind of makes them useless if they don't get anymore security updates
 
Come on now Apple. First the displays, then the magsafes and now this. I could have forgiven that Macbook Pros prioritise battery life over performance but things are adding up in a bad way now.

It feels like Apple created this great ecosystem with magsafes, time capsules and pro computers to lure all of us in and now they are slowly picking apart all the things we love (without coming up with better alternatives) to be more profitable.
 
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This is disappointing. Again Apple's ecosystem of hardware and software across many devices is eroding. I can certainly afford a new iPhone 7/MacBook Pro but still use the iPhone 6 and a 2013 MacBook Pro as I see no reason now to upgrade. If this becomes a trend I will for the first time look at other products and when I do Apple will loose me for multiple products lines (phone/tablet/computer) etc....
 
brentsg said:
All we need now is confirmation that the Mini and Mac Pro are dead. Let's just get this over with so people can rip off the bandaid.
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I'm with you. They need to kill Mac Pro and mini. If they continue with it, the quality might be worst.
 
What has me worried the most is the probable lack of security patching. Will they fix the next bug found?

I've switched to appletv for streaming music mostly...at least I did until they killed the Optical connector.
 
I am also disappointed to hear this as backups were seamless, but the reality is that I have had other routers in the past that had better range and were much faster. If mine ever stops working, I will consider other options.
 
macduke said:
This is one of the most ominous things I've seen posted to MacRumors since I started reading here in 2005. And it is made more ominous by recent events.

Other companies make WiFi base stations. Other companies make displays. Apple's success is based in gestalt: The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

When you buy a $3000+ computer, you used to be able to easily pick up a matching display and stupid simple, reliable router that works right out of the box. Because you spent so much on a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 7, an iPad Pro, an Apple Watch, and an Apple TV 4, Apple should provide you with things that help complete the experience because that is what Apple does: They craft experiences. The "it just works" phrase that has brought Apple so much success wasn't just a saying, however it is often said sarcastically over the past few years. If it weren't for the incompetence of Samsung, as well as Microsoft for many years, Apple would look like an even bigger joke. The climate right now is ripe for a new, young company to come along and shake things up.

Accessories are extremely important. Just because you don't see the benefit when you look at the balance sheet for your $200 router (which, by the way, many companies would kill for those margins), doesn't mean that it won't affect the balance sheet of your other product lines in the long term. When you begin decentralizing your experience, you run the risk of making it easier for users to switch to competing platforms. "Who cares if I buy an ugly Windows machine? It matches my ugly monitor and router, and quite frankly its easier to setup the router on Windows." Ok, that might not be an example that will push many people away from Macs. But it adds up over time. All the little paper cuts here and there push you out of the experience and makes you disillusioned with the ecosystem.

Unfortunately I think it's time to face the reality of the situation: Apple wants to kill the Mac. The Mac Pro and Mac Mini are horribly out of date and now they're no longer making displays or routers—although the routers thing really baffles me because all of my iOS devices are running on my home AirPort Extreme. I can understand why they would want to kill it. They want to get iPad sales back up and start having professionals use those instead. The problem is the software on the iPad sucks for professional use, and while the hardware is quickly catching up it still has a way to go for many users—especially for thing like RAM and GPU performance for OpenCL applications. The Mac is the workhorse that gets things done in the creative industry. It pushes forward iOS development. Killing it makes absolutely no sense to me for at least the next 5-10 years.
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I believe now would be a perfect time to exit Apple environment.
[doublepost=1479748597][/doublepost]How do you iCloud when you don't have wi-fi/router?
 
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It's useful to remember than when Jobs returned to a struggling Apple, he cut dozens of products down to a four product quadrant. Consumer laptop/desktop, Professional laptop/desktop. As much as I love all my Apple products (including my AirPort Extreme) I can appreciate Apple's need to focus before their confusing lineup takes them back to becoming a struggling company.

There are a number of considerations Apple is likely to be (or should be) making all the time. As Moore's Law has progressed, I don't think that consumer/pro is the right product distinction roadmap for the "computer for all of us" company. In a couple of years, Apple's slowest computers will be enough for 95% of professionals. Is a better distinction "entry level" and "luxury"? Is a router (even one with a hard drive) needed? Is building it into the Apple TV, an Alexa type unit, or spreading its functions across devices a better idea (so each acts as a repeater)? Most modems from ISPs now come with a wifi router built in. What is the customer story for each of their devices? Where do they think they will best be able to compete in 3 years? 5 years?

Let's keep in mind that this is the world's most valuable company and they didn't get there by being dumb. Not saying they won't make mistakes but it's probably more interesting to figure out why they'd do what they are doing rather than expecting them to keep iterating on (and occasionally forking) existing product lines.

Too many people, including very smart Apple pundits, ask themselves the wrong questions about future product lineups; as if it's a given that it will be some model variation of what current offerings are. Apple can't think like that. They must question every product every year.

In 5 years Apple's lineup may look like:
MacBooks (the legacy work computer)
iPads (luxury and for work)
iPads for education (cheaper/rugged)
iPhone (the everywhere computer)
AR
Car
Accessories for each of those for stocking stuffers

That sounds like plenty enough to focus on without making routers.
 
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