If you go back and check the thread you will see that I was actually responding to a post that was generalizing the situation. I wasn't actually accusing Photofast of secretly doing anything.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
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?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you go back and check the thread you will see that I was actually responding to a post that was generalizing the situation. I wasn't actually accusing Photofast of secretly doing anything.
Totally agree. I guess we'll have to wait for the next refresh to see what happens.
You're talking about your average Mac user here. These are the same people who book genius bar appointments because they don't know how to bookmark websites.
Well, no, I'd do the same thing I do every time a new iPhone comes out. Sell the old one on craigslist and the new one. BTW, where are you getting 64GB of flash ram for $49 us?
Since when!
You can't force anyone to stock the product you make.
Say you produce an item, and start selling to a national supermarket. Over a few years the product sells well, and the supermarket ramps up the orders.
On the back of this business, you expand your factory and take on more staff, so from the early days of just you and your wife making the product in your kitchen and selling 50 items a week to one trial supermarket store, you now employ 50 people in a retail unit, with machinery you have taken out loans for to buy to meet your current production targets of 50,000 units a week to the supermarket to stock nationwide.
Who has the power to dictate in this arrangement?
You, or the supermarket?
To you, the supermarket is you life, if they cancel the order, you are bankrupt.
If they lose your item, well, no big deal then still have 20,000 other items in there store they sell each week.
If they say they need you to cut prices what do you do?
If they want money from you to stock their products, what do you do?
Amazing as it seems this is exactly what was on UK TV a few years ago, an Apple farmer saying a supermarket was demanding more money this year (I think it was £30,000) for them to stock his Apples, if he did not pay them, they would not stock his apples, and they would go rotten and lose his business.
Amazingly it was legal, I'd call it blackmail, but there was another legal term given to this kind of arrangement, Basically they want the supplier to pay them to stock the suppliers product.
Happen to have a link to that documentary? Second, i am not totally sure, but i thought that something happened in the 1700's that separated the United States from England, some kind of revolution or something, so laws in England and America might be a little different.
So the guy in the "documentary" that you "watched" had to give his apples for free and pay the retailer 30,000?
this isnt what you said in the original post what you claimed in that was that a supermarket can tell its supplier who it can and cant sell to, which is anti competitive.
what you describe above while morally wrong is legal as the supplier has put all his eggs in one basket and as a result, its also not anti competitive as no one is telling anyone who they can and cant sell to, they are merely negotiating discount of which one party has a better hand
http://www.out-law.com/page-5811 theres some info on competition law
in the uk and eu ,
also please point some proof were this company are trying to sabotage apples business.
Most of you didn't read the article correctly, because most of you lack reading comprehension skills. Or if thats not the case, you'll skim the article and rush to write a generic response.
But this isn't about you not being allowed to upgrade or apple trying to hog all the money. Toshiba sells the same exact part separate from the MBA, so why hasn't Apple tried to stop them.
I know it's fun for a lot of you to go into attack Apple mode, because it fulfills your life in some way, however, when doing so, know the facts and think rationally.
But this isn't about you not being allowed to upgrade or apple trying to hog all the money. Toshiba sells the same exact part separate from the MBA, so why hasn't Apple tried to stop them.
I know it's fun for a lot of you to go into attack Apple mode, because it fulfills your life in some way, however, when doing so, know the facts and think rationally.
Toshiba sells a slower SSD part. PhotoFast's SSD's key feature is that it uses a faster controller thereby offering a faster drive (upwards of 200MB/s compared to Toshiba's 160MB/s).
I know it's fun for a lot of you to go into defend Apple mode, because it fulfills your life in some way, however, when doing so, know the facts and think rationally.
Oh well the 11" air is no longer a valid machine, 128gb is not enough, but it's underpowered anyway and all the new airs need i5's in them. Maybe with a new sandy bridge update without the stupid legal implications from intel and nvidia... a 11" air with a ULV i5 and a 320m and 256gb would be awesome.
The toshiba one is slower. Also Toshiba could of made an agreement with Apple that allowed them to do it.
In the case of the MBA Apple need Toshiba to make the part more than Toshiba needed Apple hence the reason Apple gave. My guess is Apple does not have enough leverage on Toshiba to make them stop.
Happen to have a link to that documentary? Second, i am not totally sure, but i thought that something happened in the 1700's that separated the United States from England, some kind of revolution or something, so laws in England and America might be a little different.
So the guy in the "documentary" that you "watched" had to give his apples for free and pay the retailer 30,000?
No, he had a past deal in that this giant national retailer would take all his stock of apples (I'm sure it was apples)
In exchange for the supermarket taking all his produce, he had to pay the retailer (nationwide UK supermarket chain) an amount of money each year.
There was a term for this payment, though I can't recall what it was.
He was saying to the reporters that it was crippling him, as they were demanding even more cash from him this year (I'm pretty sure it was £30,000) otherwise they would not take his apples, he'd have no where else to sell them, they would go rotten and he'd go (or risk going) bankrupt.
It would be like if you had a chain of stores and I paid you $500 to buy all of my output from me for sale in your store.
I get a guaranteed place where my things will be sold to (you) You get a nice bit of cash up front for taking my items.
The problem is when things get too big and too reliant, and the shop wants more and more money for taking the items of the producer.
As I say, I'm not sure of the legal terminology of such an agreement or it it's legal in the USA or not.
Examples of one retailer if you doubt me. I've no doubt other companies act in the same manner:
http://www.businessandleadership.com/leadership/item/19980-tesco-demands-six-figure-p
http://www.heenamodi.com/2008/08/18/should-we-shop-at-tesco-do-they-treat-their-suppliers-ethically/
http://www.businessandleadership.com/leadership/item/19980-tesco-demands-six-figure-p
http://www.heenamodi.com/2008/08/18/should-we-shop-at-tesco-do-they-treat-their-suppliers-ethically/
I'm guessing it's a non-compete issue. PhotoFast is a part of Apple's MFi program. This drive would have competed with Toshiba, since people could have purchased the 64GB model and upgraded it to 128GB or 256GB. Apple probably doesn't want one of its suppliers competing with another of its suppliers over the same product.
Perhaps Apple also agreed to promote the drive by enforcing their non-compete agreement on other suppliers who produce similar products (i.e. they are using their non-compete agreement with PhotoFast to prevent them from selling a replacement drive for the Air). Remember, Apple got the Toshiba drive a full month before Toshiba announced its general availability. So far, I haven't seen other products announced that claim to use the Toshiba drive.
Very well said.
As much as I like Apple, when they behave this way I want to puke.
Why be such bully's
Why be so controlling
Why?
Simple... Supreme Arrogance & Greed.
After all it's not like Apple is struggling financially.
Steve Jobs is a glutton.
Worse, his DNA is so deeply embedded in Apple, there's no end in sight.
Found this interesting quote in that article
"Suppliers’ lobby groups claim the big chains can squeeze suppliers until their financial viability is in doubt. But they have provided no hard evidence to show how this is done.
Last edited:
Exactly. But, there still has to be a real reason this was able to be blocked. Apple can't stop SSD, ram, hdd or any other product from coming out so why choose to stop this?
There's more to this than just a memory stick. Is there any software handshake with the SSD that PhotoFast fidgeted with? Like getting a non iTunes approved device to sync with iTunes... a la Palm Pre style.
This seems most likely.
They are a partner of Apples and doing something Apple didn't like or approve of.... we are not entirely sure what that even is.
For the rest, a little information is a dangerous thing.