Is Apple dirty?

March 13th, 2009 at 2:00 · Filed Under Blogging, Business, Computing, Mac OS X, Marketing 

I have been Apple Mac user since 2003 after ditching Microsoft Windows in 1998. Mac OS X is real UNIX operating system comparing to Linux which is UNIX-like. Thanks to Apple for spending quite a substantially huge amount of money to license the UNIX operating system. Ever since I had an iBook, I am getting more entangled with Mac. I shifted all my web browsing, emails, calendar, contact, photos, video, and even software development to Mac platform. Although I am still running Linux on Intel boxes and SPARC Solaris, I have become totally dependent and obsessed with Mac. I would crave for a Mac if I were to work on non-Mac.

Why?

There are numeral reasons for that:

  1. All Macs work straight out of their boxes. No configuration, no installation of sort. Gadgets like MiniDV cameras just work by connecting to any Mac with a FireWire cable, basically any well known brands of digital cameras will work straight out of their boxes with any Mac without installing any drivers (iPhoto), calendar and contact will sync with any supported cell phones and many more.
  2. Friendly and stunning user interface make it easy to work on Mac.
  3. Colors and graphics are superb on Mac. Nothing comes close to it.
  4. The damn Mac just works without crashing the entire system (although sometimes they do but negligible) comparing to other systems running Windows and Linux.
  5. Applications running on Mac are very easy to use and always come with great features and usability.
  6. and the list goes on and on….

In plain simple words, Macs get your jobs done.

The other two compelling reasons are Apple’s brilliant packaging and product finishing which give value for money kind of feeling. The packaging boxes are usually compact and slim, using less material and they are environmental friendly. As long as the product design and finishing are concerned, no other PC manufacturer can rival Apple’s ingenious design.

Apple is notoriously well known for its secrecy. Apple was also the largest participant in Macworld Expo and Conference as well as several other similar trade show. Last December, Apple abruptly announced that it would stop participating in future events. Macworld 2009 which was held in January this year was Apple’s last participation.

By tradition, Apple would announce upcoming product release. Users would usually stop buying Apple’s until they got an idea of what was coming along and would wait until a new product was available. This hurt Apple’s business prior to every expos and conferences. The change of strategy will leave speculation high up in the stake.

The new aluminum MacBook lacks of FireWire port is under fire by many MacBook and especially MiniDV tape camcorder users. Without the FireWire port, it becomes not possible to transfer video from MiniDV tape camcorders.

The lack of FireWire port also disable the FireWire disk mode which is quite useful to salvage the contents of hard disk if there is any problem to boot. By connecting MacBook via FireWire, user is able to transfer data from one Mac to another.

New DV camcorders support USB for transferring video images, responded Steve Jobs to unhappy new aluminum MacBook users. Indeed, all new DV camcorders (with built-in hard disk or flash storage media) support only USB for transferring video. But there are still many old MiniDV tape camcorder users like me wanting to be able to transfer from an old MiniDV tape camcorder. My Panasonic MiniDV tape camcorder which only supports FireWire is still in excellent working condition and I have no intention to change a new camcorder. I have no intention to “upgrade” my white MacBook to the all new aluminum MacBook either.

Apple has been deleting all posts (about lack of FireWire in new aluminum MacBook) in its forum. You can read about users complaining in other forums here and here.

The all new aluminum MacBook is something nice to have but not must have. To a seasoned Mac user like me who is cautious in choosing my Mac, it does not have any better contribution to my computing other than its stylish outlook, the new multi-touch-buttonless-smooth-glass trackpad.

Although it sports 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, the price which differenced by $300 (RM1,100 in Malaysia) between 2.0GHz aluminum and white MacBook does not worth the performance per dollar. There is also a difference of 40GB between both models and other technical specifications are identical. With the extra $300 (or RM1,100), you can upgrade the 120GB hard disk drive to 250GB or 320GB plus AppleCare Protection Plan. If you top up about $100 (or RM390), you can upgrade your 2GB DDR2 SDRAM to 4GB in the white MacBook and it still will run as fast as the aluminum MacBook with original spec.

Let’s come back to the lack of FireWire port in new aluminum MacBook. All white and previous MacBook have built-in FireWire 400 port while the MacBook Pro series supports FireWire 800. FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200 and 400 Mbit/s half-duplex data rates. The actual data transfer rate is slightly lower, for example, at 98.304, 196.608, and 393.216 Mbit/s respectively.

Data transfer over FireWire 400 interfaces generally outperforms similar transfer over USB2.0 interfaces though it nominally runs at signaling rate at 480Mbit/s, slightly higher than FireWire 400.

The FireWire enables remote control (play, rewind, etc.) of connected camcorder/device. With the exclusion of FireWire support on latest digital camcorders, remote control of the devices becomes not possible.

Again, why does Apple discontinue FireWire support on the new aluminum MacBook? Is it an oversight or plainly to cut costs?

Does it indicate Apple’s intention to move MacBook users for video capability to higher and more expensive hardware such as MacBook Pro? The speculation is not without fundamental analysis. The argument for getting a USB-FireWire converter or even upgrade to newer digital camcorder does not justify dollars spent. Why should one spend extra money for extra gadget? Why should a person throw away a still working old camcorder just for a USB connection?

With the economic downturn, Apple is no exception to be affected by this world financial crisis. In the last week or two, Apple slashed prices and spiked up the specs to lure buyers. The white MacBook is there to stay to help ramping up Apple’s sales. How long will it be before Apple sends the white MacBook to EOL (End Of Life)? Definitely not within these few weeks. Three months later?

Another trend you can see or forecast is the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be released sometime around June or September, as we can already see that Apple has rolled out all new models from its arsenal. By then, Apple would have sold many Mac and those new Mac owners would be rushing to upgrade to the new Snow Leopard optimized for dual/quad core processors, unleashing more powerful multi-core processing power horse. Apple will cash in again for the upgrade. If you are not in urgent need to buy a Mac or upgrade or replace a Mac, do wait till Snow Leopard is released. It will be worth the wait.

Talking about Mac OS X upgrade, my iBook came with Jaguar. When Panther was released about a year later, everybody was rushing for the upgrade. I waited until Tiger was released and unfortunately, my iBook died not long after I gave it a Tiger. When I purchased my other Macs, they came with Tiger. I acquired a Leopard upgrade at someone’s disposal. I wanted the Time Machine feature to safe guard my data after my iBook was dead. I had sleepless nights worrying about my data and thank God that my data was safe. 

If you are in need of a lower cost MacBook with FireWire capability, do grab the white MacBook now because we have no idea when Apple will pull the plug.

Apple’s marketing and sales strategy exploit human psychology very well. Trend and new state-of-the-art hardware will make heads turn. Apple understands that perfectly well and it uses this intuitive human behavior to cash in. New and unseasoned Apple users, oftentimes teenagers, who are not giving a thought and are not following up Apple’s strategic plan will likely fall prey to coughing out hard-earned dollars for the new cool leading edge hardware to impress people around them.

Is Apple playing dirty tricks to feed its share holders? You judge for yourselves. Apple is no doubt the world most profiting computer company with very happy investors. So, if you ever need to buy a Mac now, do consider the facts and justify your needs and dollars wisely.

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