They haven't had an in-person event since they were boo'd for announcing a $999 monitor. The crowd did not, in fact, go wild.
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Other What Reason Will Apple Give For Titanium Back To Aluminium?
- Thread starter KooL BeAnZ
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We call it “‘AI’uminum” and we think you’re going to love it.
its also soft like butter though
my lathes cut aluminum just by looking at it, while titanium gives me headaches.
I think it's very likely they'll mention a weight reduction without specifying how and/or throw "X Grade Aluminum Design" in one of the cards.
Agree. As far as I can tell titanium has always been a lot more expensive than aluminum. Thinness comes at a price as follows: titanium is a lot stronger and resists corrosion more than aluminum. It means that a case made of titanium can be made thinner and still provide a higher degree of strength than one of an equal thinness but made of aluminum. In years past Russia used titanium panels in its military aircraft, but I don't know it that's the case these days.
Cost savings also relate to the use of copper versus aluminum for heat dissipation, except that copper may be more expensive and heavier, and has greater heat dissipation. In this case, if the heat dissipation aluminum provides is sufficient (meets the design specs.), then copper can be used for products that must have a greater degree of heat dissipation. Some Macs, usually more expensive and powerful ones, have copper heat sinks.
The bottomline is that Apple and other companies will design components that meet certain specifications based on production costs. Everything is about profit, nothing else.
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Good design - which obviously includes careful material science - sells products. The suggestion of "...based on production costs. Everything is about profit, nothing else" is flat wrong.
Profit ultimately is necessary to survive of course, but design engineers are busy being design engineers, not "about profit, nothing else." If Apple's designers were thinking just about profit they would have been making crap products all these years, and Apple would not be the world's most successful tech company.
Yeah in the real world, to be successful long term you need to have both--good product and high business acumen. If you only have one, you won't last long.
Others have made the same point. And it is a really good point. It's made me think.its also soft like butter though
I'm reaching here to be honest, but do you think it could be sold as a good thing that the aluminum succumbs and absorbs impact energy - like a crumple zone on a car? In short, the aluminum frame sacrifices itself to protect the glass?
A bashed frame is a cosmetic annoyance for sure, but broken glass could put the phone out of operation and require immediate $$$ to rectify. Could that be why?
I wish they could get back their the confidence and return to doing live events.
It doesn't take much to make the Typical "Genius" Apple fan to go Wild...
You do know that there's barely any titanium on current ones, right? It's just a thin layer of titanium on top of the aluminum base. The difference will be next to none, the "titanium" was always just a marketing gimmick.
Titanium has more weight, does not dissipate heat as efficiently, is harder to machine and anodize, is much less abundant and is harder to recycle.
It has no real benefit to an average user over aluminium.
It has no real benefit to an average user over aluminium.
Same here - case always goes on from day 1 and never had an issue no matter the material.
17 Air with thinner profile is different this time.
Thinking of bumper case or battery case - will see when it releases.
Wish 17 Air was available in Orange!
My question is, where are all those people on here that told me aluminium was a cheap inferior material because they believed the marketing spin Apple put on stainless steel and titanium?
Aluminium has always been a superior material for mobile phone framework due to better heat dissipation and weight. Not to mention it is 100% recyclable and much more environmentally friendly to produce and manufacture with.
Aluminium has always been a superior material for mobile phone framework due to better heat dissipation and weight. Not to mention it is 100% recyclable and much more environmentally friendly to produce and manufacture with.
I tend to think the difference lies more in cosmetic scuffs and dings that phones naturally accrue. Maybe in the worst impact situation there might be some additional deformation of an aluminum phone frame but surely at that point you've got other problems? I felt like the battery provided a lot of the strength in my iPhone 6S. iPhones are not nearly as bendy as they used to be. It's outdated but the SS frame on my iPhone 13 pro is definitely pulling its weight
I tend to think the difference lies more in cosmetic scuffs and dings that phones naturally accrue. Maybe in the worst impact situation there might be some additional deformation of an aluminum phone frame but surely at that point you've got other problems? I felt like the battery provided a lot of the strength in my iPhone 6S. iPhones are not nearly as bendy as they used to be. It's outdated but the SS frame on my iPhone 13 pro is definitely pulling its weight
It's an aside to the main discussion here but, yes, this is an important point. iPhones have become a hell of a lot tougher and more resistant to damage, the metal and glass both. I've had an iPhone 16 for almost a year, my phone previous to that was an SE 2020, and many iPhones before that. I'm not gentle with my phones, and I'm amazed how well the 16 has held up compared to my earlier iPhones.
This is definitely something Apple has gotten better at over the years.
Apple have been working for a long time now with aluminium, and they've gotten very good at working with it. They drift off to other materials, but keep coming back to aluminium. So this isn't a surprise.
If they need to give a reason why they have switched back, that's it - "We're going back to aluminium because we are really good at using aluminum as a material".
But without profit the company won't have the means to create good designs, buy the materials needed, sell the product, pay for advertising it, and so on. In fact, a company can't exist unless it has the money to pay for all of the things you have mentioned above, including the fancy stores, employees, and so on.
Apple, just like other manufacturers can't exist without profit. That is a market reality. The only thing the company has to do is to continue expanding its customer base, all for the benefit of the shareholders. It means that it would meet the "base" specs of the product it designs, instead of exceeding the product specs with more rare or expensive materials. The latter requires a higher price as you can see in the "base" Macs versus the more powerful and expensive Macs that require copper heat sinks. In this case, copper handles heat dissipation better than aluminum.
If aluminum meets the design specs (tensile strength, etc.), then titanium and other expensive materials aren't needed. The same can be said for copper, stainless steel, aluminum, versus gold electrical contacts.
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I’m pretty sure that Apple is not even remotely close to not making sufficient profits…
What's "sufficient"? I believe last quarter they had around 25% profit. Sounds reasonable to me but I'm no business major.
They'll say that they've been doing unibody MacBooks from forever now and that doing it in such a small device such as the iPhone is a major breakthrough and that it will be 11% stronger and 3% lighter.
They really can't expect to increase the price and while downgrading to aluminum, they should decrease it if anything.
They really can't expect to increase the price and while downgrading to aluminum, they should decrease it if anything.