Short List of Why Apple Made the Right Decision Pioneering USB-C

[bniu]

How did the world evolve beyond people tripping over cords. Did people become ephemeral?

The cord disappeared. I rarely have my MacBook plugged in anymore during normal use these days.

 

[protoxx]

And that is precisely why we need influential companies like Apple to spearhead new technologies. Because people are obviously never going to do so on their own for precisely the reasons that you just mentioned, amongst many others.

ER
We need Apple to force companies and instiution to needlessly replace working equipment and systems without any sense of cost to meet your naive sense of techno fashion is ridiculous.

Corporations, including Apple, have a single overriding purpose. Return of investment to the stockholders. Go talk to a Professor in your school's Business college.

 

[Woodcrest64]

I agree in the long run it will benefit us all. I do wish they had left in the SD card slot though.

 

[Abazigal]

ER
We need Apple to force companies and instiution to needlessly replace working equipment and systems without any sense of cost to meet your naive sense of techno fashion is ridiculous.

Corporations, including Apple, have a single overriding purpose. Return of investment to the stockholders. Go talk to a Professor in your school's Business college.

I majored in finance when I was in university.

Which is precisely why Apple markets to the end user directly, bypassing the institution altogether.

Maximum returns at all cost is a very myopic and cynical viewpoint. If schools wanted to minimize costs, we would all still be teaching with chalk and transparencies. Instead, schools are investing more heavily in ICT than ever (amongst other initiatives). Precisely because we want to give our students the best education possible to better prepare them for an ever-changing future and we believe that access to better technology will better equip both teachers and students with the tools needed to do just that.

My iPad allows me to do many things in the classroom which a teacher with a normal Windows laptop can't (even if it does come with a stylus). For instance, they can't readily annotate on pdfs because Windows 7 doesn't come with the necessary software. They can't readily take a scan of a student's work in class and project it onto the screen. The writing software on the touchscreen laptops is way worse than my Apple Pencil. I can use the camera on my iPad to transform it into a makeshift visualizer because our classrooms don't come equipped with one (a deliberate decision by our school to force the usage of our smartboards). My iPad is thinner and lighter to carry around.

This isn't about me wanting to show off my shiny new iPad. This is about me wanting to teach in a manner which I feel is more beneficial to me and my students. With the Apple TV, I am able to circulate around the classroom to better monitor my students' progress while still being able to control what gets shown on the screen regardless of where I am in the room. With my iPad, I get more done more easily than the laptop issued by my school.

I paid for all this out of my own pocket. I am not being paid a cent by Apple to promote their products, nor have I claimed a single cent from the school. I am not doing this to get a good performance review. I do this because I feel it has a direct and noticeable improvement on the way I deliver my lessons, even if the benefits cannot be distilled and reduced to a "dollar and cents" figure.

We are gradually phasing out our projectors for newer ones with HDMI ports (I happened to get bumped up the list because I spoke to my IT head and he saw I had a legitimate use for HDMI), and I suppose it's better late than never. I have colleagues who are interested in trying out AirPlay as well, but the issues then comes when their classroom projectors either lack the HDMI port or it isn't compatible with Macs for some reason.

Just think - simply because you want to save some money on projectors, you lose out on the potential that could have come with being able to use new technologies in their teaching. And who loses out in the end?

 

[macTW]

I do think about the future, absolutely. You still have to live in the current.

I have savings, stocks and funds tied up in other places making money for me in the long term. I also have funds that are readily available.

You need a medium.

It would be crazy to say ok I'm only going to have savings for when I retire and nothing for now.

You need to support your current state and also think about the future. A lot of other manufacturers got it right. USB c and other ports.

Same as many monitors still have dvi or vga

Medium. Adapter(s). Enough said.

You don't have a coherent argument to defend your dislike of dongles, redirected at focusing on the present, which not even you solely do.
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ER
We need Apple to force companies and instiution to needlessly replace working equipment and systems without any sense of cost to meet your naive sense of techno fashion is ridiculous.

Corporations, including Apple, have a single overriding purpose. Return of investment to the stockholders. Go talk to a Professor in your school's Business college.

Wrong. We need industry-leaders to develop new standards to increase productivity and usefulness, which in turn justifies an increased cost of replacement... which USB C does...

 

[OneMike]

Medium. Adapter(s). Enough said.

You don't have a coherent argument to defend your dislike of dongles, redirected at focusing on the present, which not even you solely do.

Your first analogy is comparing USB c to a savings account. Now my savings account has a dongle on it? If you're going to use an analogy at least be consistent.

End of the day. If you want to use a dongle, go for it. I don't and won't. Simple.

 

[MarsViolet]

And that is precisely why we need influential companies like Apple to spearhead new technologies. Because people are obviously never going to do so on their own for precisely the reasons that you just mentioned, amongst many others.

Well, I get what you're saying, and agree with it philosophically, but I have gone through a lot of architecture and port transitions since my first Mac in 1988. What always happens is that Apple jumps the gun and forces some new "standard" prematurely and then we struggle with it for a few years until, just when it's becoming ubiquitous, Apple jumps the gun again and replaces that standard with some new standard which we then struggle with for a few more years. The end result is and endless stream of buggy new ports and flaky adapters and never a semblance of stability.

I find Apple's moves to be more about motivating its customers to keep buying new computers than it is about any pressing technological needs.

 

[PaulWog]

For Apple to really be pioneering USB-C, the iPhone 7 would be USB-C... the iPad would be USB-C... the Apple pencil would be USB-C.

For anyone who buys a 2016 Macbook Pro, it is unlikely they will benefit from USB-C. "Future-proof" is a term used often when non-techy people buy tech. The 2016 Macbook Pro is not "Future-proof" because of USB-C.

 

[protoxx]

For Apple to really be pioneering USB-C, the Macbook would have a USB-C thats both usb 3.1 and Lightning.

 

[thesaint024]

Well, I get what you're saying, and agree with it philosophically, but I have gone through a lot of architecture and port transitions since my first Mac in 1988. What always happens is that Apple jumps the gun and forces some new "standard" prematurely and then we struggle with it for a few years until, just when it's becoming ubiquitous, Apple jumps the gun again and replaces that standard with some new standard which we then struggle with for a few more years. The end result is and endless stream of buggy new ports and flaky adapters and never a semblance of stability.

I find Apple's moves to be more about motivating its customers to keep buying new computers than it is about any pressing technological needs.

No argument on your first point. But, I will just say if Apple didn't, do you remember anyone else annoying people with untimely forced port changes? Knowing this forum, I'm sure people will pull some crazy, obscure standards out, but off the top of my head, I can't really recall. It's just too risky.

Second point, I doubt it was primarily motivated by getting people to buy new computers, knowing their history and the "legend" of Steve Jobs. It was probably more like he saw something and got frustrated about it and demanded that they change or improve something. This was usually in a vacuum where everyone around him gasped in horror at the impossibility or the consumer blowback. But in his little world, it made sense. He wasn't holding himself back with old standards or the current state of computing, just what could be. I think this mentality has kind of carried on, at our expense but sometimes to our benefit. Never a "pressing technological need", just a better way.

Back to getting people to buy new computers, this isn't really a good way to do that. Apple always struggles and competes against PCs (and Chromebooks now) in terms of market share. Doing risky moves like this often alienates customers to the point of just buying a competitor's, unless they come around and see value in it. Sure there is a rabid fanbase, but to most customers, it's just a computer. Most of us have come and gone at some point because whatever latest model just wasn't enough compared to the rest of the market or changing needs. People have been vocal about it not meeting their needs. Great, because it makes them keep doing better.

 

[MarsViolet]

No argument on your first point. But, I will just say if Apple didn't, do you remember anyone else annoying people with untimely forced port changes? Knowing this forum, I'm sure people will pull some crazy, obscure standards out, but off the top of my head, I can't really recall. It's just too risky.

Second point, I doubt it was primarily motivated by getting people to buy new computers, knowing their history and the "legend" of Steve Jobs. It was probably more like he saw something and got frustrated about it and demanded that they change or improve something. This was usually in a vacuum where everyone around him gasped in horror at the impossibility or the consumer blowback. But in his little world, it made sense. He wasn't holding himself back with old standards or the current state of computing, just what could be. I think this mentality has kind of carried on, at our expense but sometimes to our benefit. Never a "pressing technological need", just a better way.

Back to getting people to buy new computers, this isn't really a good way to do that. Apple always struggles and competes against PCs (and Chromebooks now) in terms of market share. Doing risky moves like this often alienates customers to the point of just buying a competitor's, unless they come around and see value in it. Sure there is a rabid fanbase, but to most customers, it's just a computer. Most of us have come and gone at some point because whatever latest model just wasn't enough compared to the rest of the market or changing needs. People have been vocal about it not meeting their needs. Great, because it makes them keep doing better.

When Jobs was around, I think he truly wanted to improve user experience, but I don't think Apple's thinking so much about user experience anymore. If they were, they wouldn't tolerate all those flaky dongles, nor would they have ditched MagSafe. I see it as one step forward, two steps back.

I guess it doesn't matter though. I'm not in the market for one of these things anyway.