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Apple Delays Sales of UltraFine 5K Display as LG Works on Shielding Fix
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This, in a world where Samsung had their flagship phone explode in the hands of customers. **** happens, to every company.
This is a LG problem that affects a ridicolously small amount of people and that will be fixed quickly, and quickly forgot.
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The display business was pretty good for Apple, they can go for 2 or 3 years without upgrades and nobody cares.
If they had did the 4K or 5K thing these "new" displays would have stayed untouched for years without much complaining.
They already have plenty of volume since they have to order panels for the several iMac sizes. They would only have to match sizes with the iMac.
It would be like making a thinner iMac. I'm sure that idea makes somebody heart glow at Apple. Do it.
If they had did the 4K or 5K thing these "new" displays would have stayed untouched for years without much complaining.
They already have plenty of volume since they have to order panels for the several iMac sizes. They would only have to match sizes with the iMac.
It would be like making a thinner iMac. I'm sure that idea makes somebody heart glow at Apple. Do it.
For my part, the 'bungle' I was referring to was Apple ceding production of monitors in the first place, and letting a company like LG make it for them. Like I wrote, this monitor has a MULTITUDE of problems - reading the reviews on Apple's OWN website. So for you to suggest that once this major problem is fixed, the monitor is all great - well, that doesn't seem to be the case.
And that's not even taking into account the fact that it doesn't have the same design asthetic that Apple would have brought to it - that most assuredly would have been better than this drab looking POS.
Indeed I never claimed such thing.
There are plenty of monitors on the market, nobody is forcing you to buy that one.
User interface is commonly defined as what you see and what you can touch. You aren't touching your display any more than you touch your printer. You are viewing things on a display much more than on stuff you print, but then nobody ever complained about the 'image quality' of the LG displays. They complained about the look of them (which I can equally do about my two printers) and the display locking up their computer. The latter could in principle also happen with printers but I guess it is less inconvenient to use your computer with your printer powered down than with your display powered down.
Though this doesn't really have much to do with the 'user interface'. It has to do with what percentage of your time in front of the computer is spent with the display in use and what percentage with the printer in use. So, yes, having a working external display is more important than having a working printer. But either not working can be mission-critical. And note that the display in question, the 5K LG, can only be used with the new MBPs. Thus it not working doesn't prevent you from getting work done, it only makes it more inconvenient.
And let's not forget that probably 90% of all external displays connected to Macs aren't Apple-branded displays and that this number wasn't much different five years ago. Or that Apple's Thunderbolt display (ie, their first display with a highly versatile dock being built-in instead of just a plain USB hub) has had its own share of problems. I myself bought a non-Apple monitor eight years ago because Apple didn't have any wide-gamut monitors back then. It was only in 2015 that Apple introduced the first wide gamut displays (2015 4K & 5K iMacs; 2016 9.7" iPad Pro, iPhone 7, MBP).
Airport hasn't gone anywhere. It is still manufactured, sold, and supported by Apple. Apple are likely developing new wireless network architectures and devices (as their competitors have been doing) rather than just selling the same 20+ year old WiFi tech.
Apple will likely not make new displays again, for the same reasons they will not be making printers again.
Yeah, good grief. Tim Cook discontinuing Apple's external displays is a catastrophic error, Steve Jobs discontinuing Apple's printer line is a complete non-event.
Rumours out of Apple suggest that making a 5K display with built-in TB dock is not that far away from making a complete iMac in engineering complexity. Note that the LG 5K display before the discounting was $1300, the cheapest 5K iMac with the same display panel is $1800. What if Apple had figured that with their built quality (aluminium body), sales numbers (LG's display can be sold to PCs as well), and profit margins, they would have needed to charge $1500 for their 5K display?
Apple could have easily gotten into a race condition where to keep their profit margins in the face of low sales volumes they needed to increase the price and increasing the price would have further reduced their profit margins.
Cook is the guy that determines which is more important marketing or quality, marketing or delivery date, quality or delivery date, cost or quality, etc. I have never met a guy soldering motherboards or designing components (and I have met a lot of them all over the world) that intentionally sacrificed quality or cost or delivery unless management forced it. And yes, Cook does control management strategy, focus, priorities, etc.
I for one think this is a stain on apple supply chain management. They could have pulled the times back on this when it was clear that this was not some isolated issue and it was widespread to slow the tide of new consumers being infected with bad units. They should have pulled the plug 2 weeks ago when internally they knew what the issue was and that they were going to have to do physical swaps of units. They should also man up and just take back all the displays they sold previously and send out all new displays and not some BS case by case basis. They should man up and make LG eat the costs.
They can then sell these repaired monitors on woot like they do with everything else.
They can then sell these repaired monitors on woot like they do with everything else.
Starting a new job soon, wanted the simplicity of a full USB-C desktop (as the desks are quite small). Apparently Apple Sales told them not to order it, suggested a Dell 4k instead, based on customer feedback.
This sucks for Apple -- they put a lot of responsibility on LG as a partner and they apparently weren't ready to deliver. As a result they were left with this great marketing story of the simple USB-C desktop -- which many of us want -- only one monitor that can support it, and it's broken.
It benefits all of us for Apple to get out of the monitor business -- their monitors are beautiful but expensive and they are very slow to update, as you're all aware. Monitor makers are finally "getting it" w/r/t image quality and they're aggressively pricing and improving them.
What's learned is that choosing a single vendor and basing your marketing around their success with a new technology and low margins is risky. Duh.
But it's worth realizing that Apple's aware of the problem -- even if they aren't shouting it from the mountain tops -- and their people are empowered to try and fix it, even if it means going against message. That's something special.
In any case: dude I'm getting a Dell.
This sucks for Apple -- they put a lot of responsibility on LG as a partner and they apparently weren't ready to deliver. As a result they were left with this great marketing story of the simple USB-C desktop -- which many of us want -- only one monitor that can support it, and it's broken.
It benefits all of us for Apple to get out of the monitor business -- their monitors are beautiful but expensive and they are very slow to update, as you're all aware. Monitor makers are finally "getting it" w/r/t image quality and they're aggressively pricing and improving them.
What's learned is that choosing a single vendor and basing your marketing around their success with a new technology and low margins is risky. Duh.
But it's worth realizing that Apple's aware of the problem -- even if they aren't shouting it from the mountain tops -- and their people are empowered to try and fix it, even if it means going against message. That's something special.
In any case: dude I'm getting a Dell.
You ever notice how these problems have become a whole lot more prevalent and widespread under Tim Cook?
Apple used to be an inspirational brand entirely. They are still positioned that way of course, but there is something about having a monitor designed and sold along the high end Apple laptop that happens to be made by the same company that made your fridge. Not to offend anyone who bought it, but it looks like something from the 1990's. Thick, plastic and finished in black. They didn't care enough to at least make it silver - one could argue that black would have a broader appeal. Sure, maybe. But Apple's sales volumes on Mac are sufficient to support Mac version with tailored color scheme.
This should have been Apple branded to start. I work on private label products all the time. It's not hard to ensure good design and product quality before branding it. Apple could have very easily done it. No, you don't have to grant license. It's not complicated. It's a basic purchasing agreement with some restrictions and obligations for both parties and maybe a multiple listing application. A few compliance inspections, testing reports and you're done. Pretty basic.
But first you have to care about the aesthetics, visual presentation and user experience. Tim Cook's head was apparently buried to deep in the spreadsheet to notice or care. That's where Apple is headed. It doesn't look promising.
This should have been Apple branded to start. I work on private label products all the time. It's not hard to ensure good design and product quality before branding it. Apple could have very easily done it. No, you don't have to grant license. It's not complicated. It's a basic purchasing agreement with some restrictions and obligations for both parties and maybe a multiple listing application. A few compliance inspections, testing reports and you're done. Pretty basic.
But first you have to care about the aesthetics, visual presentation and user experience. Tim Cook's head was apparently buried to deep in the spreadsheet to notice or care. That's where Apple is headed. It doesn't look promising.