Apple used to be a great company making great products. Now they just seem to be greedy greedy greedy. They are clearly willing to sacrifice user-friendliness for money. I won't be buying anything from them anymore. The system updates reduce functionality rather than expanding it, and design decisions like this one make it clear that they just want people to pay pay pay.
I have a 5 year old iPod classic which works great, and a refurbished 2011 MBP running Snow Leopard, and I think that's where I'll stop for now. No new stuff, no system updates. Apple, you're blowing it big time.
Buying adapters is frustrating, for those who need them. Paying $10-$20 too much (assuming the adapter IS just an adapter and has no circuitry or chips and just passes one wire to another) is even worse.
But three... er four points:
1. The money Apple makes from these adapters will be trivial to their bottom line. That is not their motivation for making such a sweeping change to the connector.
2. They’ve used the same connector for 10 years. I’m sure some companies have beat that record, but not many and I can’t name them. Eventually, progress must happen—and it should be a clean break with the past, not a half-step that requires another new connector in 3 years.
3. The old connector was terrible. Non-reversible yet hard to tell which side was which (almost as poor as USB). Thin and fragile, yet wide and bulky! And it didn’t plug in deeply enough, failing to make a solid connection at the device: lots of unpleasant, possibly damaging, play/wiggle. In fact, the old HDMI adapter’s main problem is that an HDMI cable is so stiff/heavy that it easily tugs the old connector loose! I don’t think I’d want to put an adapter on that if I could... I just want the new solid, HDMI adapter.
4. Third parties make alternative dock connectors. Some are junk, but they do provide choice. Expect the same with Lightning, in time. It’s new—transitions are hardest at the start, but the pain will ease.