Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Stops PhotoFast's MacBook Air SSD Replacement?

herro said:
A good chunk of Apple users aren't tech savvy enough to do just that unfortunately.
Click to expand...

But that's my exact point. For anyone who *wasn't* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they won't be affected by this move at all. And for anyone who *was* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they also won't be affected by this move at all.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Is it possible that there is something wrong with this part they are manufacturing and Apple is trying to help? These are fairly new parts. As Toshiba is still making and selling these, greed doesn't seem to be the motivator. If it was all about greed, they would have made it a connection that was proprietary. Geez people, take a moment and chill. Why all the hate on something that might be?
 
TMRaven said:
The motivation is simple. Just like every other capitalistic company, they're wanting to make more money for themselves-- ie, sell those ssd capacity upgrades for a premium.
Click to expand...

And yet.....Dell,Toshiba,Gateway,HP, etc. aren't trying to shut down OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, etc.
 
motulist said:
But that's my exact point. For anyone who *wasn't* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they won't be affected by this move at all. And for anyone who *was* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they also won't be affected by this move at all.
Click to expand...

Well, what were PhotoFast's prices like? Due to more supply (because of multiple vendors), the prices of the SSD Sticks would go down. If PhotoFast agrees with Apple and stops production, it will remain a commodity, giving Toshiba a near monopoly on this. So, it does affect the tech savvy users in that the prices are going to be higher.
 
motulist said:
But that's my exact point. For anyone who *wasn't* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they won't be affected by this move at all. And for anyone who *was* tech savvy enough to do this in the first place, they also won't be affected by this move at all.
Click to expand...

My bad!
 
motulist said:
Meh, seems like a pointless move since the same part is still available from toshiba and all the resellers that they sell it to in bulk also. And anyone knowledgeable enough to be aware of this upgrade and tech savvy enough to perform the installation will also be 100% capable of doing a simple google search to find the same toshiba-made part. So the consumer loses basically nothing, and Apple gains basically nothing. So what was the point?
Click to expand...



motulist said:
A part which also happens to be for sale to the public by toshiba as well, so this whole event has almost no effect on us, the consumers.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this was erroneously started by the OP. NO, these ssds are UNAVAILABLE from toshiba as photo fast was planning on using superior sandforce ssd controllers over the mediocre toshiba controllers used in the apple oem parts. So if these were allowed to come out, not only would higher capacity ssds be available for our airs but superior performance as well.
 
magbarn said:
So if these were allowed to come out, not only would higher capacity ssds be available for our airs but superior performance as well.
Click to expand...

And someday, when the turtlenecked one decrees that Apple OSX shall support the TRIM command, you'll get even better performance.
 
Don't you guys think that perhaps Apple is afraid of having parts shortages as we approach the holiday season? If this company is selling these things to others then they wont have the capacity Apple may require. It takes a couple of months for factories to ramp up production to new demand levels.

Perhaps this is Apple's way of protecting its memory supply...wouldn't you do the same? Just a thought.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

The only rationale I can think of is that Apple doesn't want buyers to think that this is an approved, licensed upgrade, since PhotoFast is in the MFi (made for i...) program. Toshiba isn't, so they don't have that issue.

There will certainly be aftermarket upgrades for the MBA's SSD. It's selling very well, and there are plenty of SSD manufacturers who can easily adopt the new format to get a piece of the action.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

jgunn said:
Photofast is also the company who announced a webcam attachment for the ipad.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/07/photofast-makes-ipad-work-with-a-microsoft-webcam-cats-and-dogs/

That has eventuated yet and I'm guessing apple wouldn't like that as it would decrease sales of the ipad 2
Click to expand...

On the contrary Apple would like that very much. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Apple is working with Photofast tO create the camera.

As to the SSD who really knows what is up. It could very well be a technical glitch or compatibility problem. In any event for Photofast to have this product ready at AIRs introduction they must have been on the team that developed the product. I just think there is more to this than the imagined greed of Apple.
 
I suspect we just don't have enough information yet. There doesn't seem to be enough reason for Apple to ask them to stop and there doesn't seem to be reason enough for PhotoFast to stop making them. After all, Crucial and others make all sorts of memory for Apple computers and all sorts of companies make compatible mass storage units.

Perhaps there was some compatibility issue we don't know about yet? Maybe the size was a little different and blocked some airflow? Maybe the timing signals were not to Apple's specs?

I'm happy to criticize Apple if they are acting improperly, but at this point I haven't seen enough solid information to understand clearly what happened.
 
They are selling these *specifically* as MBA upgrade kits.
Upgrading the MBA is not covered under warranty the way it is for the MBP.
They are an authorised Apple partner.
Apple has asked their partner to stop encouraging users to invalidate their warranties.

You might not like it, but welcome to business.
 
Steve Jobs didn't get to be insanely rich and insanely powerful by being a nice guy who cared about customers once they handed over their cash!!
 
markcres said:
Steve Jobs didn't get to be insanely rich and insanely powerful by being a nice guy who cared about customers once they handed over their cash!!
Click to expand...

Actually, that's almost exactly why it happened. Apple have the highest customer satisfaction rates for after sales support in the world.
 
GilsMethod said:
Don't you guys think that perhaps Apple is afraid of having parts shortages as we approach the holiday season? If this company is selling these things to others then they wont have the capacity Apple may require. It takes a couple of months for factories to ramp up production to new demand levels.

Perhaps this is Apple's way of protecting its memory supply...wouldn't you do the same? Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Just what I was thinking - maybe Apple has further plans for these SSDs and predicts a bottleneck so it's trying to protect its supply availability?
 
archurban said:
what a stupid commend. I think that you don't know about Apple. they are very notorious. I have used damn mac for 15 years. I have lived almost mac history. before 2004, people didn't even know what Apple mac was. they were so lucky thanks to ipod. so lucky. if it wasn't successful, Apple wouldn't be existed anymore, vanish in the history. since they have made so much profit recently, they have been so aggressive, and bit ugly which I don't like at all. do you know what new macbook pro will be coming April? you have no idea. don't compromise what they do. you will be a slaver. new macbook pro won't have HDD (only SSD), no optical drive, no more USB (lightpeak, well it's not even proven in the market, nobody will support that crap). so will you buy new one with this new thing, huh? will you compromise them? I don't think so if you think over.
Click to expand...

Rant over?

Please let people make their own choices, don't try to claim to speak for everyone.

Just don't buy Apple products and go away, problem solved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back