Apple Drops Prices on USB-C Adapters

[Bacillus]

A while ago, in some Cupertino boardroom:
Tim: Where is Phil, we need to get over some terrible reports !
Joni: No idea - I am back from a late night reception. But someone parked his Jaguar in my Bentley's space. So Phil should be in…
Tim: Our new MacBooks are so badly received in the press. I am ashamed !
Phil (running in): It’s not my fault. Intel screwed up. We should have replaced them by now.
Greg: That’s what I said 3 years ago. We could have finished the transition to ARM by now.
Phil: Easy talking for you, SW dud. Whatever software you spit out, it fits in 2 molecules.
But our chips while manufactured in a 10 nanometer process, don’t even fit the chassis-space Joni designed. All the available space goes into 4 batteries. Besides that, all our wafer capacity goes into a zillion iDevices.
Greg: Geez, then you HW guys could have strained either Intel, or the Taiwanese A10 wafer guys a little more to cramp out 0,03% more production. Remember, it is just the Mac…
Phil: But that’s Tim’s business. And don’t be harsh to Tim, he’s always been so kind to us.
Joni: Surprise guys ! I designed some colorful dongle socks to cheer up our darkest moments. They perfectly fit my Christmas Appletree design. They are going save our Christmas season!
Phil: That's absurd. PR doesn’t want to see any dongles covered - they rather want to present them naked in Christmas trees to improve overall dongle reception...
Besides that, it is our main policy to distract the public from pathetic AirPod hangdown !
Tim: That’s right and don’t forget Eddy. He’s always been one of the greatest dongle fans as the dongle hassle will improve Apple Music as a wireless option.
Phil: But my Apple Music stops whenever I plug in my iPhone 7 into my MacBook Pro.
Tim: Well, you can’t - so you must be holding it wrong…
Greg: Nah, the USB-to-Lightning dongle’s certification is not yet recognized across all iOS versions. I told Phil he shouldn’t use beta’s.

Tim: OK, I see you’re busy, guys. But what can we do to calm down the Performa…ehh MacBook market
Phil: Come on Tim. Don’t pay attention, society is full of populists, polemists, rapists. And yes, nowadays they’re also our customers… Diversity policy !!
Greg: Yes, but even knowledgeable opinion leaders served us off as a bunch of greedy tads.
Phil: What a nonsense. I haven’t had a new Jaguar for 3 weeks now. Pay off the mocking mobs with a few dollars, before those cripples spoil my precious time.
Priorities, please...!
I have to test out the latest TouchBar apps - our newest billion dollar industry to be.
Secure that, before it gets adopted by Eddy...

 

[ani4ani]

Yeah, because when Apple put USB on the original iMac it took four-five years for USB to become a standard. Oh, wait, no it didn't. Or when Apple put Thunderbolt on the 2011 MBP... no, wait, not that time either. Fact is the USB-A connector is already dead, it's just that most people haven't noticed the corpse is cold.

In the 20+ years I have been making film and television I have seen a lot of standards come and go; I expect to see a lot more before I'm done. I have drawers full of old cables and have long gotten over the fact things change. I, for one, am really looking forward to getting and using my new MBP.

Doesn't the fact that the dongles actually exist and what's more Apple developed them and sells them mean that these are not legacy ports and are still widely used. There are barely any native USB-C devices out there. This has nothing to do with great pioneering courageous design or moving things on, it is actually another example of Ive's inability to achieve his stupid (unnecessary) design language that far better engineers elsewhere achieve without compromise.

 

[wheelhot]

In Apple HQ

Day 1:
PS: I told you guys that we priced the notebook too high
TC: but we must keep our margins or else the investors will be unhappy

Day 2:
PS: see another bad news
TC: don't worry it'll go away in a few days time

Couple of days later:
PS: Tim, I got more bad news for you
TC: what are we going to do? We need to have a good quarter report, especially with the PC market slowing down
PS: If we have given them what they wanted, this wouldn't be an issue wouldn't it.
TC: so what do we do now? We can't just slice the product prices, MS will have a field day laughing at us and Apple,will be ruined.
PS: I got an idea, why don't we slash the price of the accessories till end of this year, we already made more then we need in the new Pros, and who knows, more people might end up buying the MBPs now, they're so gullible
TC: Brilliant, let's do it

*this is just an imaginary conversation written for fun and not to be taken seriously

 

[agaskew]

If you are all having to go out and buy a bunch of adapters, discounted or not, then the new MBP is clearly a lemon.

 

[Johnny907]

Has the "Pro" version of these laptops even shipped yet? Only the non-touch bar is out. That isn't a pro unit for big guys like you. I haven't even seen an on hands review of the real versions yet. So the presence of a couple of third party dongles really doesn't seem like much of an issue. I'm sure sufficient dongles will be available by the time the laptops are. Or maybe you wait two more weeks or something like that. It is meaningless in the scheme of a laptop which should last for many years.

It says "MacBook Pro" right on the box and under the screen itself in bold letters, so yeah, Touch Bar or not, it's a MacBook Pro.

 

[dmarkman]

3 years ago I bought MBP 15" 1TB SSD 2.6GHz (16GB memory 1.6GHz) price was $X + $Y Apple care
now I ordered MBP 15" 1TB SSD 2.9GHz (16GB memory 2.1GHz) price was $(X+12) + $(Y+7) Apple care
so total increase was $19 which is ~0.6% not bad
now if I buy 1 USB-C adapter ($9) + 1 Apple's HDMI+USB-C ($49) + 1 Thunderbolt 3 adapter $29 + 3rd party card reader (~$15) so all together increase ~$120 which is ~3.4% not bad for 12% faster processor, significantly faster SSD, 30% faster memory. GPU is faster as well, but it's not critical for my work. My current MBP build my full product for about 40min (Xcode 8, ~1400 files to compile) if the new one build it for 30min (I hope) it will justify greatly my new MBP. My current MBP is in great shape and will go to my daughter, so so far I see only one inconvenience - no MagSafe, but I'll see how my new MBP will "behave"

 

[alphaod]

The first line of this article is very confusing. The only thing that dropped $6 was the Lightning USB-C cables.

And shipping has slipped to 1-3 months on some critical dongles...

It just works! In the Spring! Merry Christmas!

Fortunately there is this wonderful company called StarTech and Monoprice that sells if not makes their own set of accessories including this USB-C Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.

Sorry, but if your not using wireless by now, i have no sympathy for you. DO you also wash your dishes by hand instead of using a device called a dishwasher?? LOL

Do you still charged your iPhone via cables? Damn you really need to get those Samsung phones, you can do it wirelessly. Get on with the times!

And I do wash my dishes by hand just like many people. I also use something other kitchen stuff called stoves, ovens, grills… sorry I don't do all my stuff in the microwave.

 

[mw360]

My GoPro 5 does...

I think the included cable and charger are still USB-A, so you'd need an adapter or a new cable, or a new charger. According to their store anyway...

 

[deijmaster]

Ah yes, someone completely clueless. How do you expect to restore from a local backup, or developers to deploy apps? Magic? A wired connection is REQUIRED for those operations.

Clearly Derekuda isn't a pro... A lot of people aren't pros... For work I MUST use Thunderbolt, HDMI, Ethernet and USB. So I guess a few miserable adapters will be necessary ... Let's keep pushing and maybe we'll get a free iTunes card ; )

 

[Damodici]

In Apple HQ

Day 1:
PS: I told you guys that we priced the notebook too high
TC: but we must keep our margins or else the investors will be unhappy

Day 2:
PS: see another bad news
TC: don't worry it'll go away in a few days time

Couple of days later:
PS: Tim, I got more bad news for you
TC: what are we going to do? We need to have a good quarter report, especially with the PC market slowing down
PS: If we have given them what they wanted, this wouldn't be an issue wouldn't it.
TC: so what do we do now? We can't just slice the product prices, MS will have a field day laughing at us and Apple,will be ruined.
PS: I got an idea, why don't we slash the price of the accessories till end of this year, we already made more then we need in the new Pros, and who knows, more people might end up buying the MBPs now, they're so gullible
TC: Brilliant, let's do it

*this is just an imaginary conversation written for fun and not to be taken seriously

That's probably not too far from the truth, although I still suspect a price reduction within 6-12 months as I genuinely believe they've gotten this wrong.

Black Friday will show that up as if you see some heavy discounting allowed on the new mbp by the retailers, it'll only be because theyve been given the go ahead by Apple themselves

Having said that its not just about price, it's about usability and whether people really want a multitude of dongles in their life unnecessarily

 

[dantroline]

3 years ago I bought MBP 15" 1TB SSD 2.6GHz (16GB memory 1.6GHz) price was $X + $Y Apple care
now I ordered MBP 15" 1TB SSD 2.9GHz (16GB memory 2.1GHz) price was $(X+12) + $(Y+7) Apple care
so total increase was $19 which is ~0.6% not bad
now if I buy 1 USB-C adapter ($9) + 1 Apple's HDMI+USB-C ($49) + 1 Thunderbolt 3 adapter $29 + 3rd party card reader (~$15) so all together increase ~$120 which is ~3.4% not bad for 12% faster processor, significantly faster SSD, 30% faster memory. GPU is faster as well, but it's not critical for my work. My current MBP build my full product for about 40min (Xcode 8, ~1400 files to compile) if the new one build it for 30min (I hope) it will justify greatly my new MBP. My current MBP is in great shape and will go to my daughter, so so far I see only one inconvenience - no MagSafe, but I'll see how my new MBP will "behave"

Nice post, kind of nearly believed it. If you consider that 16gb 3 years ago is probably costing the same as 32gb today, and so on with the other features. You have also to consider the buying power of your $$ 3 years ago to today. In most western countries inflation has been 5% or much lower, so you can't really give Apple more than 10% increase in price for equivalence.

The only reason I can think of why Apple has hiked its prices up this far is that they expected to sell fewer units in the first place, and that none of this consumer backlash is a surprise.

 

[jjlannoo]

If you are all having to go out and buy a bunch of adapters, discounted or not, then the new MBP is clearly a lemon.

lol you don't get it
[doublepost=1478337398][/doublepost]

That's probably not too far from the truth, although I still suspect a price reduction within 6-12 months as I genuinely believe they've gotten this wrong.

Black Friday will show that up as if you see some heavy discounting allowed on the new mbp by the retailers, it'll only be because theyve been given the go ahead by Apple themselves

Having said that its not just about price, it's about usability and whether people really want a multitude of dongles in their life unnecessarily

Dude if you cant afford it you cant. Apple seems to be moving more upscale.

 

[FreshBoy]

that's the best comment ever. the media should use your comment on their title in every article.

It's Jony Ive who wants to show off to other designers around the world how his stupid design looks at the expense of functionality. Sir Ive, Winner of the Designer Award for the skinnier laptop ever.

Since Tim Cook goal is lobbying governments and busy with global political issues, Jony is left alone unquestioned.

engineers first, users seconds and designer LAST in order should make decisions.

Most architects do this. They only think about exterior design with weird shapes, windows and materials so they can get press and say they are unique, then the interiors are a mess and prices skyrocket.

the butterfly keyboard will go down in history as the main reason why Apple shut down the entire mac line and went bankrupt.

I tried to to like it but no matter how much I type on it, it's still a wood board.

____________________________

MacBook: 2mm less and you now have a wood keyboard, no magsafe, no battery, no ports, no speed

Steve Jobs would have smacked Jony in the face for this.

No Steve would have done a better job at convincing us why we "need" it.

 

[AnthonyHarris]

Drop the price of all of your computers by $200/£200 (Since thats how Apples pricing tends to work pound for dollar) and we might have some sort of deal. Falling that, I'll stick with my 13 inch 2010 MBP until is stops living and then accept that Apple have out-priced themselves and move on.

 

[FreshBoy]

Doesn't the fact that the dongles actually exist and what's more Apple developed them and sells them mean that these are not legacy ports and are still widely used. There are barely any native USB-C devices out there. This has nothing to do with great pioneering courageous design or moving things on, it is actually another example of Ive's inability to achieve his stupid (unnecessary) design language that far better engineers elsewhere achieve without compromise.

Yeah because the Microsoft surface book is a beautiful looking machine...

 

[haydn!]

I don't think Apple will drop the price of MacBooks, that would be an admission they got it wrong and would be harder to spin.

But I can't imagine sales are as good as they expected, so I'm predicting a cpu, ssd and graphics bump at the earliest opportunity in the first half of 2017 with a $150-300 price drop.

 

[Donoban]

The human brain is also coded to like new things. But guess what, the human brain is coded to work out what's worth changing and what isn't. Who'd a thunk it?

It's like people refuse to recognise a bad idea when they see it.

It takes a certain amount of creativity to see the same problem as everyone else but with new eyes.

I'm not arguing aesthetics but getting used to a new way of working.

What Apple has done is not a bad idea. Just pull out the original response from this board to the iPod if you need any evidence. So much hate over what turned out to be a game changer.

 

[lambiepie]

Sorry, but if your not using wireless by now, i have no sympathy for you. DO you also wash your dishes by hand instead of using a device called a dishwasher?? LOL

This is such a good comment, lol,

I Guess you have never used Terminal and a Console cable to work on Cisco IOS.

 

[Damodici]

lol you don't get it
[doublepost=1478337398][/doublepost]

Dude if you cant afford it you cant. Apple seems to be moving more upscale.

Who says I can't afford it? Jesus, you keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better about the early bird purchase kid

The cost isn't prohibitive, the fact that the machine is over priced, under spec and more cumbersome to use due to the various amounts of Dongle required is why they've made a mistake.

You can charge as much as you want for something, but the minute you start adding in premiums that don't make your life easier it becomes a tough sell

 

[symphara]

Ummm... many, many professionals prefer to get 100gb/s when docked...

We need to do more than stream Netflix.

Oh man, I've done some crazy Infiniband RDMA stuff a while ago, but if Apple has a 100Gbps dongle, that's pure unadulterated magic right there

I might even change my mind on the whole dongle policy. . .

 

[DocZoidberg]

Does anyone else feel like it's complete bull crap that that Apple embraces USB-C on macs, but still forces lightning port on the phones when the standard for all new phones is in fact, USB-C.

Think we all Know why the iPhone uses Thunderbolt, all iPhone accessories, docs and cables with an Apple license, render it all iPhone ONLY - well apart from use of a dongle or adaptor and Apple know we love those!

Switching to USBc it would hand the keys of the kingdom to SammySung and the like.

 

[asiga]

Although the current Mac problem isn't the price at all, I appreciate a lot to realize that Apple is listening. I just hope (and really hope) that Apple realizes they really need the tower-based Mac Pro back in shop again. This is critical for the whole Mac product line future. Neither the iMac, Mac Mini, nor the MacBooks will do it without a tower-based Mac Pro in town, because it's the product of choice by the only developers who can push the Mac in the forward direction.

Without a tower-based Mac Pro in town, the "future" of MacOS is iOS.

 

[MH01]

Brexit made your money lose its value, me in sweden could take the plane to london and stay 1 night at hotel there and buy a macbook and still get it cheaper than buying here

Hmmmm when the pound was 2:1 to the dollar, and apple did not adjust the price , I flew to NY, got a hotel , and was in the same situation as you

The key here is that apple is very fast to adjust the price when it's in their favour and very slow the other way.

 

[baryon]

Adapters are usually optional, but the strange thing is that 100% of people who buy the new machines will at least need a USB-C to USB-A adapter. It's like a car manufacturer charging extra for the wheels. This isn't an "extra" that you can get away without, you absoutely need these if you bought this machine.

Sure, not everyone needs HDMI, not everyone uses SD cards, not everyone uses Thunderbolt or Ethernet. Those used to be built into computers, but now they've become optional, because most people who buy a "pro" machine only use it for non-pro activities and never need these ports. It's like if Ferrari reduced the power of their cars because "those who buy our cars aren't racers anyway, they just want a shiny car, it's not meant for *actual* racing even though we continue to market them as such".

But everyone uses USB. I get that they removed it for the future benefit of USB-C, but today everyone still uses USB, and will continue to use it for a few years at least. So the adapter is compulsory. Just like the iPhone 7 includes the jack adapter because it's almost the only way to listen to music, the new MacBook Pro should include the USB-A adapter because every peripheral uses it.

If you get a MacBook Pro and never come across anything that requires an adapter for the entire life of the machine, then an iPad would have been more suitable for you anyway. It's arrogant of Apple to pretend that this computer can even be used at all without any adapters.

 

[dantroline]

It takes a certain amount of creativity to see the same problem as everyone else but with new eyes.

I'm not arguing aesthetics but getting used to a new way of working.

What Apple has done is not a bad idea. Just pull out the original response from this board to the iPod if you need any evidence. So much hate over what turned out to be a game changer.

Maybe you will be proven right, but how I see it is, just to take a random example, for the price of a maxxed out MBP 15in I can get a maxxed out Dell laptop plus a semi-professional full frame DSLR camera body, and maybe a lens if I haggle. Actual professionals who buy stuff can pretty easily make a critical assessment of cost benefit. So talk of emotional reactions and so forth being the reason for people's rejection of the current offering from Apple doesn't do justice to people who are buying a "Pro" computer to help them earn a living.