Apple is a brand that for many has average. You love, or you hate. The views around it are usually very on, or as strictly positioned just one preferring to avoid the debate and simply enjoy their devices and services to suit you.
And certainly one of the reasons that create such debates is the ease with which Apple adopts and eradicates physical connectors or data formats .The reason for that is a maxim that Steve Jobs said: “The consumer does not know what you need until you see it.” Or put another way: “I say, like this you will see him thank me for going.” And it may have been true on several occasions, but not all.
Many connectors have been in Apple, but few have lasted
As for the cables and connections accepted by Apple, we can talk about very different stories. The company usually meter “shoehorn” its proposals and some clean more than others. I must say that was the first to offer USB connectors (now present everywhere) but were too late with version 3.0 and every time we have to beg more for them. Just unlike the rest of the market, which is placing whenever USBs can afford it and depend on the type of laptop?
Another common port is the Ethernet, the typical cable network, which began to disappear in the finest portable Apple and now only found in desktop computers. The substitute is undoubtedly the wireless network, which reaches the AC protocol and owns a Gigabit wire speeds. It is the dream “wireless” Apple: the less there is in our best home. Many PCs, however, still have the Ethernet jack as basic.
There is little to discuss the claim that it was Apple that pushed the G, N and AC protocols to the industry through its AirPort Extreme. They are standards that have ended up being adopted everywhere and took their first steps with this presentation of Steve Jobs (58:50 minutes, which is the first time an iBook using Wi-Fi):
But look more rare examples, such as FireWire. Its first version, FireWire 400, was much faster than USB at the time and was aimed at professionals who needed fast data transfer for video editing or audio. Had its little golden age, then was replaced by the FireWire 800 protocol and finally gave way to Thunderbolt devised between Apple and Intel. None of these protocols has been very successful outside of Cupertino.
“There are briefcases, such as Mini-DisplayPort, or long as Firewire. But all have been “very apple” and ended up disappearing”
Thunderbolt, indeed, turn replaced the miniDisplayPort and miniDVI ports that were responsible for giving the possibility to connect external monitors to the Mac. Again are ports that were only present in Apple computers, with a very small exception of miniDisplayPort we could find in very few monitors and computers with Windows pre-installed?
Port Thunderbolt has always been given a promising future accentuated in the Mac Pro (where there are six shots) but seems to stumble upon the arrival of the new MacBook. Suddenly, all proposals for Apple cables (even the most closed and proprietary reserved for exclusive use) are set apart by a single USB Type-C. Surprisingly even eliminate the MagSafe, its magnetic charger patented, so well protected stumbles computer laptop that may be ahead.
Successes? Or Failures? I would say that each port has had its heyday in Apple, but in some cases has been very short and others have been long and placid. The miniDisplayPort lasted almost nothing, very few will remember when the time. But the FireWire, but also finished disappearing, he has been with us for many years and was also adopted by other manufacturers in the industry for a long time. I wish I could say the same of Thunderbolt, but the edge of a wireless was like in which we began to see I’m more pessimistic.
Apple adapter’s drawers are full (and empty pockets)
Proving your own connectors to see if they succeed is fine, but do as it has done Apple has a hard result: adapters. As almost none of the bets brand apple matches the standards, there are many who have had to make the extra expense of an official adapter.
Adapter, incidentally that always usually much more expensive than we are used to paying for other adapters and as Apple changes its bets connectors every one or two generations, we ended up spending all that money on adapters that soon end up abandoned in a drawer. It is, without a doubt, the worst aspect of this and something had to suffer all Maquera how hard I try I made up. The server has three or four adapters unused in a drawer, and each does not fall below 25 dollars.
Physical formats exiled forever
Other victims here are the physical storage formats. As the disk floppy or floppy drive 3.5-inch, will remember only those born in the eighties and some eventers, widely used in the PC to install games and even entire systems Windows boxes with dozens of them, also starred in the first Macintosh.
But everything changed with the arrival of the first iMac in May 1998: the absolute protagonist happened to be the CD (and later DVD) while the floppy drive disappeared. Nobody had such a strong step, and complaints were widespread as they began to sell outside for those who could not live without floppy drives. But over time, gradually, computers and users were abandoning the format and Apple took the point.
“Apple has done as if the blue-ray did not exist, from DVD to remove the optical disc readers”
Exactly the same is happening with the optical storage drives: CDs, DVDs … just have an Apple computer that can read the 13-inch MBP without a retina display, and is already on the verge of being permanently retired. Apple no longer wants DVDs to let’s ride with our videos, but share them using iCloud if the other thousands of choices that give us social networks do not convince us. The difference is that computers from other manufacturers do follow carrying optical readers, and users continue to use agradeciéndolas although not as much as before.
And let alone the Blu-Ray format which in Cupertino has forgotten directly after Jobs calf case it as “a bag of pain”. They have gone from DVD to nothing, defending the digital format that is sold in iTunes bounce and supporting services like Netflix or Wuaki. Sorry, but having a closet full of coils disc is a thing of the past decade.
Finally, we have the SD card. The new MacBook breaks with this tradition in today’s Mac (and many PCs) to provide a slot to read without needing an extra accessory after winning thinness. What happens then with our camera cards? Ah, tap USB connected the above. Ah, but now we have a single USB Type-C. Touch uses an adapter, just what I mentioned before. Either that or directly use an iPhone to take pictures and manage the cloud. But many photographers do not agree with this. Apple does not sell cameras, so I prefer to wash your hands with it.
IOS devices are not spared from being “peculiar”
Perhaps it is on the iPhone and iPad, by sales volume, which has noticed this phenomenon. Instead of using the miniUSB or microUSB classic that can be found in many mobile devices, mobile terminals Apple owners have two connectors: the width classic 30 – pin and Lightning today. No one but Apple has used, but the success of its mobile bets made everyone knows them.
Both ports have always been closed and have not been placed on any more room, which has brought protests from the same European legislation forcing Apple to eventually offer a type of compatibility with the USB standard. And now that that standard is present with the Type-C and very similar to lightning forms, not see anything unusual in Cupertino terminate giving and using that standard for its tightest proposals. Total, if little by little we are moving to the world without wires little will matter in a few years.
A future with a wireless Apple unmercifully
There are some clues that make me see the new MacBook with only one port USB Type-C as the first step towards something even fewer ports. Yes, the MacBook has a headphone port on its right side, but I get the impression that they have simply done so because they had space and I have been able to afford.
Already there are headphones of some manufacturers who use the Lightning port on the iPhone, which in turn proposes that could eliminate the precious space occupied by the jack headphone to add more battery, storage or power. And no longer speak of the Bluetooth headset, which needs no cables or connectors.
“A MacBook absolutely no cable can be possible in a few years”
Consider also that Apple now has its own range of headphones Beats, and that promotes precisely those Bluetooth headsets. If you ask me what I think, personally I bet for a future in which Apple laptops will have no port… Nothing! Wait until the induction charging is improved and there will be no reason to give it as impossible.
Anyway, here I am already ahead of the facts much. It will be years before you see something like that, but now that Apple has gone from all their bets with cables and connectors no longer want to risk anything. Do not you missing? And less when the thickness and computer performance is compromised. Tim Cook wants to leave the cables, and the process to convince us it has already begun.