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I hope you guys slay the market and are able to keep up with the demand that is coming at you. I hope this is the Tesla moment for the consumer electronics ind

I hope you guys slay the market and are able to keep up with the demand that is coming at you. I hope this is the Tesla moment for the consumer electronics industry where the incumbents are forced, through the hubris yet popularity of an upstart, to start innovating again and doing what is good for humanity rather than peddling incrementally changed products each year that are designed to become obsolete within an ever-shortening timeframe because....it appears to be good for the bottom line. Good on you

d--b 5y ago
Well, I am not an Apple devotee, and I think that what you say is generally right. But Apple releasing M1 laptops kind of changed the game...
- Koshkin 5y ago
  Well, I am not an Apple devotee, either; moreover, my impression has been that, unlike IBM or Microsoft or Sun, neither Apple itself nor any of its products have so far made any impact on my life or work whatsoever. I may well be wrong, but I am not even sure if anything was much different had Apple never existed in the first place.
  - jarpschop 5y ago
    You're certainly not an iOS developer.
  - seanalltogether 5y ago
    Does the phone you carry in your pocket look more like a flip-phone, a blackberry, or an iphone?
  - bhupy 5y ago
    > I am not even sure if anything was much different had Apple never existed in the first place. https://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/phones-before-after-iphone-x.jpg https://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/phones... https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tablets-before-and-after-ipad.jpg https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tablets-...
- jensensbutton 5y ago
  In what way? It is certainly another step forward in terms of battery life, but it's incremental and doesn't fundamentally change how people use laptops. Don't really think it changes the market either. People with Macs will upgrade eventually and people that don't use Macs now are unlikely to change because of it.
- erikpukinskis 5y ago
  I think low compute is actually a pretty interesting niche. By throwing all that compute at people, Apple all but guarantees the quality of software (VSCode extensions, web sites, etc) will be garbage. I think the next major OS innovation will come from a company focused on architecture, design, and software efficiency over computing resources and device size.
blamestross 5y ago
I use a sacrificial USBC extension cable for this situation. It isn't cheap to replace, but it is easier than the USBC hub or power brick I have may laptop plugged into.
rchaud 5y ago
'Tesla moment' is right. They put all-electric cars in the public's consciousness. And then they went into the luxury auto business of charging and arm and a leg for repairs and parts.
- zmarty 5y ago
  False. Tesla does not aim to make a profit on service.
drstewart 5y ago
The reality is that this will be a niche product that gets almost no mainstream adoption outside of a small tech bubble, like the Fairphone.
- erikpukinskis 5y ago
  No, it very well could become a popular product. Repairability won’t be enough to get it there. But whatever company culture forms around this repairability thing could lead them to design a killer feature that Apple and Microsoft would never think of. And repairability might be a moat for some feature like that. It’s not inevitable, most new electronics companies don’t hit it big. But don’t write them off before they start! They’re in the right place: they pulled together a group of contributors with a different way of thinking, a product is on the market, getting good reviews, and a cult following is behind them. That’s exactly where new big ideas come from. Give them a chance to seek it out.
  - drstewart 5y ago
    I definitely support their mission and hope to see them do well. And you might be right that they form a culture or feature that proves to be game changing. However, on the surface, I don't believe modularity is something that the average consumer cares about enough to have this become mainstream just on that basis alone.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - wly_cdgr 5y ago
    It could, but I think it will take something like that killer feature: I am a programmer, so probably more likely than most to be interested, but the modularity/repairability interests me only mildly to moderately. Not nearly enough to switch from my Surface Book, especially given that I have my nice little Raspberry Pies if I want to do some Linux stuff or play around with hardware
- 908B64B197 5y ago

d--b 5y ago

Well, I am not an Apple devotee, and I think that what you say is generally right. But Apple releasing M1 laptops kind of changed the game...

Koshkin 5y ago
Well, I am not an Apple devotee, either; moreover, my impression has been that, unlike IBM or Microsoft or Sun, neither Apple itself nor any of its products have so far made any impact on my life or work whatsoever. I may well be wrong, but I am not even sure if anything was much different had Apple never existed in the first place.
- jarpschop 5y ago
  You're certainly not an iOS developer.
- seanalltogether 5y ago
  Does the phone you carry in your pocket look more like a flip-phone, a blackberry, or an iphone?
- bhupy 5y ago
  > I am not even sure if anything was much different had Apple never existed in the first place. https://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/phones-before-after-iphone-x.jpg https://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/phones... https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tablets-before-and-after-ipad.jpg https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tablets-...
jensensbutton 5y ago
In what way? It is certainly another step forward in terms of battery life, but it's incremental and doesn't fundamentally change how people use laptops. Don't really think it changes the market either. People with Macs will upgrade eventually and people that don't use Macs now are unlikely to change because of it.
erikpukinskis 5y ago
I think low compute is actually a pretty interesting niche. By throwing all that compute at people, Apple all but guarantees the quality of software (VSCode extensions, web sites, etc) will be garbage. I think the next major OS innovation will come from a company focused on architecture, design, and software efficiency over computing resources and device size.

blamestross 5y ago

I use a sacrificial USBC extension cable for this situation. It isn't cheap to replace, but it is easier than the USBC hub or power brick I have may laptop plugged into.

rchaud 5y ago

'Tesla moment' is right. They put all-electric cars in the public's consciousness. And then they went into the luxury auto business of charging and arm and a leg for repairs and parts.

zmarty 5y ago
False. Tesla does not aim to make a profit on service.

drstewart 5y ago

The reality is that this will be a niche product that gets almost no mainstream adoption outside of a small tech bubble, like the Fairphone.

erikpukinskis 5y ago
No, it very well could become a popular product. Repairability won’t be enough to get it there. But whatever company culture forms around this repairability thing could lead them to design a killer feature that Apple and Microsoft would never think of. And repairability might be a moat for some feature like that. It’s not inevitable, most new electronics companies don’t hit it big. But don’t write them off before they start! They’re in the right place: they pulled together a group of contributors with a different way of thinking, a product is on the market, getting good reviews, and a cult following is behind them. That’s exactly where new big ideas come from. Give them a chance to seek it out.
- drstewart 5y ago
  I definitely support their mission and hope to see them do well. And you might be right that they form a culture or feature that proves to be game changing. However, on the surface, I don't believe modularity is something that the average consumer cares about enough to have this become mainstream just on that basis alone.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- wly_cdgr 5y ago
  It could, but I think it will take something like that killer feature: I am a programmer, so probably more likely than most to be interested, but the modularity/repairability interests me only mildly to moderately. Not nearly enough to switch from my Surface Book, especially given that I have my nice little Raspberry Pies if I want to do some Linux stuff or play around with hardware
908B64B197 5y ago