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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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They didn’t switch to USB-C out of the goodness of their hearts. They switched because the EU passed a new law that requires that new smartphones have USB-C ports.
And they actively fought against it for as long as they could, tooth and nail.
It’s an uphill battle, why would Apple bother when just using USB-C makes sense and saves them their lawyers sanity?
Money.
Now that USB-C is the required cable, people can go out and buy any cheap cable they want. The law turned a proprietary cash cow into a low return commodity item.
This argument always cracks me up. I have been able to buy cheap lightning cables effectively since they started making lightning cables lol. It’s not like Apple somehow locks the phone from charging, physics is still a real thing and electricity can still flow through them, even without the MFi aspects.
If you wanna hate Apple for being a massively bloated and money-hungry corporate nightmare, that’s fine, I’m with it, but do we really all think they made it to $3 trillion valuation on… fucking cables??? 😂
No, they made it to 3 trillion with cables, overpriced PCs, overpriced notebooks, overpriced Phones, overpriced watches, and locking software of all these so the easiest way to use different devices together, is to use another apple product.
Oh, and cultivating a fan base of people who uncritically buy anything they make with the notion that it's "better than anything else" when in reality that could not be further from the truth.
Ok, so you listed basically all of their business strategies, which is exactly my point. It’s not a business built SOLELY on proprietary ports and cables, yet that aspect is what gets the most attention and criticism.
I wouldn't say that's really accurate. It is true that it is the aspect that is getting the most attention now, but thats only because its recent, in the news and EU forced their hand upon it.
Apple among regular consumers has been criticised for years, if not decades for its overpriced hardware and among more technical crowd has always been criticised for its closed source and incompatible software.
Of course, people who say their entire empire is built upon a bunch of cables are wrong lol
Correct! For me, the closed source “walled garden” approach is the most frustrating.
But, dude, dude, dude… remember the 30-pin transition debacle? I’m having bad flashbacks lol
I am not old enough to remember that I'm afraid. But I do still have some of those 30 pins phones and chargers
Yeah but there has to be some reason they were so opposed to this. I don’t get it either though.
Because Lightning came out years before USB-C was ready and is already an established de facto standard. There are well over a billion devices in use right now with Lightning ports on them, and billions of Lightning cables. You're balancing the advantages of switching to a "standard" against the reality that their customers already have Lightning stuff. I went several years with my Switch as literally the only thing I owned that used USB-C. Even now it's still common for gadgets to ship with micro-USB. USB-C has taken a long time to reach real ubiquity.
Lightning is also physically smaller and easier to plug in than USB-C.
Anyway, the point is that USB-C was not (and is not) this significantly, obviously superior experience for Apple's existing customers. There are real, tangible downsides that make it more expensive and more environmentally wasteful for at least hundreds of millions of iPhone users who will be upgrading.
Not sure why you are getting downvoted. That’s a pretty good answer.
Apple wants to keep selling overpriced cables to losers.
If they were really fighting it that hard they could’ve stalled till 2025 when the EU law actually takes effect.
Nah, the design specs for phones like this are done years in advance.
So wait…. Are you suggesting they were already planing to switch before the EU law was passed?
They could have, but I think they saw the demand and speculation of a usb-c phone. Maybe they realized that the bad image it would give them if they held out.
I’ve been waiting for a usb-c phone to upgrade. I’m at a point now that I really can’t wait any longer for a new phone. If they did not release a usb-c phone this year, I would have just bought the cheapest phone they offered.
Why keep giving money to Apple if you are already aware of their tactics?
If the choice is paying unreasonable prices for Apple's overpriced proprietary nonsense or reducing my yield as another data cow in Alphabet's surveillance capitalism human farming machine, I begrudgingly pick the former.
I think it's safe to assume all corporations publicly traded are equally greedy, regardless of how much their marketing department assures us that they exist for altruism.
Shareholders don't by stock to make the world a better place, they invest in the companies sending the largest dividend checks. Apple and Alphabet are equally covetous of our money (money and data for Alphabet), but I trust the old business model of selling hardware more than giving up my data forever to be used for anything in the future.
GrapheneOS is my true preference currently for personal use and it feels good to leave a corporation in favor of a community, much like my switch from Reddit to Lemmy. As the techie in my family and friend group I'm still going to have to recommend iOS to most people since using GrapheneOS as a daily driver is a big ask for my grandmother.
I have to give graphene a try next year.
If you're a power user there's a minor learning curve to prevent shit from breaking and some mild inconveniences like being unable to use NFC. Location can also just not work at times. Overall, I'm glad I made the switch.
Same reason that people stick with Google.
After years in the eco-system it is obnoxious to swap, and the other main competitor isn't any better of a company to deal with.
At least with Android I have options. Do I want USB-C? There's a phone for that. Do I not want USB-C (for some weird reason)? There's a phone for that.
Options are definitely nice for those technical enough to understand and use them.
Though personally I am keeping an eye on Linux devices for my next upgrade.
This is probably temporary until it is time to move past USB-C. Which will be a slower and more difficult process now that there are laws in place requiring it.
Apple will never do anything for any other reasons besides: regulation and profit. They try and foster this image of humanitarianism and ethics, but meanwhile they build everything in sweatshops and make their own "standards" so that their loyal customers can only use the functions they need by purchasing additional dongles.
I'm happy that they were forced into an actual standard, but I've already heard at least two apple users IRL claiming that USB-C is inferior for [insert random reasoning here]. Apple has cultivated the idea that they are above standards for a long time and it will take a long time to break.
Apple fanboys are the most frustrating people to talk to.
They find any illogical reason to justify what apple does.
Go on. What does Apple do that is uniquely Apple that fanbois justify?
Was that a typo, or did you intentionally spell fanboys with an I?
Intentionally, because I’m down with the kids, innit?
yea boiiii
Please, it's pronounced 'fan-bwa'.
You are my example. You see how defensive you got when I criticized apple?
I asked for an example or two. If that’s your best example of frustrating irrationality-pfft. :)
What about having the ability to sideload apps?
So many people are hard against that even though they are not being forced to use it.
I used to be a jailbreaker, so I'm not against sideloading apps. However, I can see how if its not properly designed, sideloading could make it easier to trick people into installing dodgy executables and malware on their phone. It's not just about that sweet 30% cut.
Pot, meet kettle.
Apple is a corporation with a market cap that rivals the GDP of France and a net income that rivals the GDP of Qatar. That much capital consolidated within a singular private entity doesn't just make them any other company. Their profit seeking is wildly, wildly different than a vast majority of any other company today.
The size, profits, and overall global reach of a company heavily impacts how that company further impacts the world. Do you honestly think that, I don't know, American Girl dolls have had the same negative impact on the world as the East India Company?
I know. That's my point. A great example of this is when they used to brag about how eco-friendly their product were. I remember them bragging about their displays being mercury-free, BFR free, etc and their laptops having totally recyclable aluminum and glass enclosures - only to later deliberately make their laptops nearly impossible to repair and upgrade.
The only reason they pass on an image of ethical environmentaly friendly company is because its good for business. People like that shit the products are good people buy. Its that simple. Companies give no shit about people or the planet.
I’m cracking a joke
Ah.