alex_ant said:
I don't think an iPod with firewire on it is asking for "leading-edge performance"... given that the iPod came out WITH Firewire *4 years ago*.
I understand that, but as iPod moved from a niche within a niche market, things had to change to make it more accessible. "leading edge performance" refers to the computer, not the iPod. Once your computer is a couple revisions old, it doesn't matter anymore, because innovation must move forward. It can't happen if it's being held back too much by older technology.
That iMac, for example, is now FIVE revisions old, and that's with Apple's conservative revisions. Innovation and control are why Apple can accomplish these things--it's in a position to do as it chooses, without disrupting the entire computing world. It was the first company to do away with legacy ports (people complained). It was the company that brought us Firewire (people complained). It ushered in widescreen displays and their "strange" resolutions (people complained). It capitalized on LCD displays (people complained). It brought us the iPod, and now that it's furthering the iPod, people are complaining.
Because a lot of users need them to. How about this. Why should *I* bend over backwards and buy a USB2-only iPod for my 2 year-old USB1 Mac? The margins on iPods are so high, Apple could EASILY keep Firewire in them and absorb the cost and still profit insanely off them.
You shouldn't buy a new Mac to fit your new iPod. You should use the iPod you already have, that already works with your Mac. They existed until a week ago, and you can still get them for a limited time. If you WANT a new iPod, you have to be prepared to meet the requirements for it. Apple isn't forcing you to do anything. It's not like they've gone back and disabled Firewire on all older iPods. New technology begets new technology. People complained when USB came on the scene and replaced serial ports--what were they supposed to do with all those serial peripherals? The answer was simple: use them with your computers that you already have that have serial ports.
The gross margin is high on the iPod, yes. But that's not total profit. People say the same things about all sorts of technologies, but a single dollar more in production costs is a huge deal in a competitive environment. And iPod *IS* in a competitive environment. If it stops changing, it loses, especially because these are the early years of the market. In order to keep a competitive advantage, every dollar less on parts cost translates into millions of dollars saved that can go into continuing development. Why don't more motherboards include Firewire ports on the PC side? They're only about $2, including licensing. Part of it is razor-thin margins, but even on the high end, every single penny counts, regardless of consumer sentiment.
USB2-only is stupid. It's giving into PC users. Apple is doing it for money, plain and simple. What they're saying is this: "screw all the Mac users who haven't bought a new computer in the past 2 years - PC users are more important to us."
It's not stupid. It's the only viable choice. In addition to being compatible with 100% of computers on the market, it offers high-speed performance on 98-99% of that market. Firewire is NOT POSSIBLE on the shuffle and the nano, and for the sake of consistency (not an unimportant factor for Apple), it makes sense to pull it on the full-size as well. It furthermore simplifies design, reduces costs by a few dollars per unit, makes engineering costs lower (they only have to deal with one bus in the design phase and in the software development phase), and makes customer support costs lower (no training on FW, easier troubleshooting). Of course they're doing it for money; that's called being a business.
