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Apple's Blue Ocean

bravoetch 3y ago
Please make them cheaper and sustainable instead of adding removable batteries.
warrenm 3y ago
Make battery packs (call them "removable batteries, if you like") 100% completely and totally separate from the device itself - think of it like a UPS for a desktop...no (or practically "no") battery on/in the device, and instead you run the device with a Qi-compatible battery pack IOW - the device becomes 30-50% lighter (on its own), and the buyer determines how heavy his/her experience will be based on which Qi-pack [s]he has chosen to run their phone Want a 10,000mAh battery? No problem! Want only a 2,000mAh battery? Again: no problem! This even solves a problem Apple has let other vendors 'solve' with regard to cases - want an OtterBox? CrayolaCase? SiliconSoftie? Go get your case from any of a thousand manufactures Apple could provide a pair (or trio, etc) of Qi-packs for their devices, and let other manufacturers go banana pants coming up with other options This modularizes the iPhone in a smart way (not like that goofy Motorola method (which was reminiscent of IBM in the 80s open-standardizing the buses for their Personal Computer) whereby the only thing you "have" to get from Motorola was the core module Apple's "core module" with such a program would still be iPhone ... and that is still the biggest differentiator Apple has vs the 80 scadzillion Android makers out there: iPhone is only Apple. Android is whomever wants to make one.
- KingLancelot 3y ago
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- threeseed 3y ago
  I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. Because Apple has had this for years a while now with the MagSafe battery pack. I actually think it should become a standard that all companies adopt. It's far easier and quicker to use than removable batteries and doesn't remove valuable space inside the phone.
  - ProfessorLayton 3y ago
    It’s also incredibly wasteful. 30-40% of a battery bank’s capacity is lost to inefficiency, and even worse with a case on. It would be great if phones commonly offered pogo pins on the back in addition to wireless charging.
- foobiekr 3y ago
  I used to feel like you - the non-removable battery thing was annoying, the non-modular flash was a deal breaker, etc. None of them turned out to matter, at all. What does matter is a solid feel and solid construction and the flash and batteries lasting the lifetime of the product. I'd rather have that than replaceable.
  - highwaylights 3y ago
    But the batteries dont last the lifetime of the product. Most iPhones are still very useful devices by the time their batteries have deteriorated below 70% original capacity.
    - BreveDev 3y ago
      iPhone batteries can be replaced for $89 from Apple and last for years. This is not the problem you think it is
    - warrenm 3y ago
      I usually keep my phones for about 4 years The devices start glitching and/or won't run newer apps as well as they should long before the battery goes on them
      - highwaylights 3y ago
        Are the apps you're using substantially better than they were 4 years ago? Are they doing substantially more for you that you wanted from them? If the hardware is failing then I guess fair enough (it shouldn't be, that's a design defect), but inflated hardware demands to compensate for increasingly sloppy code isn't a reasonable justification to demand dropping another $500+ on a device that works fine. I recently gifted a used iPhone X to a relative. It's still an exceptional device on which the hardware works as well as it ever did, minus the reduced battery life. I would have been happy to keep using it if I could replace the battery simply and it was still getting O/S updates. (As it is, the device still receives security updates, which I can't really grump at Apple for after almost six years - but only because they're better than the rest of the industry. It's still a poor situation).
- crooked-v 3y ago
  This is basically what they're doing with the Vision Pro, though out of engineering necessity rather than preference: the headset by itself only has about 5 minutes of battery life, to give you just enough margin to swap out the external battery pack you keep in a pocket.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    Hopefully that internal battery is purely optional, i.e. implemented like in most laptops and not like in most phones, where it's impossible to use a device with a dead battery even when externally powered. Otherwise it'd be the worst of both worlds.
- LeafItAlone 3y ago
  > instead you run the device with a Qi-compatible battery pack And lose 20% percent efficiency? A bigger battery for the same usage time and my device is constantly warmer? Sign me up! /s
  - warrenm 3y ago
    I used Qi as an example - a couple folks have suggested some kind of pogo-pin arrangement (maybe a derivation of the MagSafe connector?)
- ankushnarula 3y ago
  Agree with the most of youir premise - but a magnetically aligned and secured pogo-pin interface on the bottom back edge of every MacBook might be superior to inductive charging, which wastes electricity and generates too much heat. Such battery packs could also include a second pair of pass-thru pins for stacking and connecting to a direct wall power adapter.
  - warrenm 3y ago
    was not really thinking about MacBook, more iPhone (and, possibly iPad) ... but that is an intriguing idea, too: supply a basic battery that would last for X long, and have a pass-through (hermetically-sealed, if you wanted to move into the IPS zone for dust/liquid resistance) MagSafe (or similar) connector for additional battery packs on the bottom I could totally see getting a second laptop-footprint-shaped pod for my MBA that would click on and give me another 20-40h of run time between charges!
Animats 3y ago
The future is batteries with more charge cycles, not replaceable batteries. The solid state battery people are claiming 10,000 charge/discharge cycles. If they can achieve that, it's 27 years of battery life. The case will wear out first.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  Lithium ion batteries that can handle a thousand to several thousand charge cycles and only see 80% reduction in capacity have been available for ten years. My 2013 Macbook Pro has just such a battery, rated for 80% capacity after 1000 cycles, and it lasted over 6 years before the battery's internal resistance rose enough that heavy load would cause a brownout and the machine to force sleep. Yet they are not in widespread use; most devices have prioritized capacity/weight/size over longevity, Apple included. My current M1 has lost 10% of its capacity after just 120 cycles and less than a year of ownership, even using a utility that allows you to set a limited maximum charge level to preserve the battery. And the battery is less accessible, less replaceable. Battery companies and device manufacturers don't care. There's no incentive for anyone involved and consumers have gotten used to replacing devices every few years. Solid state batteries with 10k charge/discharge cycles are never going to happen for the same reason incandescent bulbs are purposefully manufactured by every single lightbulb manufacturer to fail when they figured out a hundred years ago how to make them last forever. We need something like a e-waste import duty, tax, fee, or 'recycling deposit' on devices with non-replaceable lithium ion batteries.
  - h0l0cube 3y ago
    > Solid state batteries with 10k charge/discharge cycles are never going to happen for the same reasons, which are identical to the same reason incandescent bulbs are purposefully manufactured by every single lightbulb manufacturer to fail when they figured out a hundred years ago how to make them last forever. My first phone was NiCad Nokia. Later Nokia monochrome display phones used Li-ion well before smartphones. I use an iPhone now, but if a user-upgradeable Android phone came out with a solid-state battery, I would switch.
  - PaulKeeble 3y ago
Despegar 3y ago
If there's going to be removable batteries for any product it will be for new product categories like the Vision Pro. Apple is definitely not going to take established products like the iPhone and change it up just to be different (which isn't a sustainable competitive advantage because anyone can do it). Even with the Vision Pro it's a compromise that Apple is likely tolerating, rather than what the 'final form' of the product will be in 10 or 15 years.
hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
I'm all for Apple reversing their long-standing decision to make device batteries non-user-replaceable - an original decision which I personally loath, and one where the EU will most likely force Apple's hand anyway by requiring batteries to be user-replaceable. But excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little with this "Blue Ocean" nonsense. Apple makes an original, user-hostile decision for the sole purpose of increasing planned obsolescence and to make them more money, and then when the winds shift they might go back the other way - but, again, they'll likely be forced to anyway. No need for poetic blog posts. I suppose we're owed another "Blue Ocean" missive about how Apple led the way with Lightning connectors and then found another Blue Ocean with ... USB-C. Puhleeez.
- LaSombra 3y ago
  I have huge respect for John Siracusa. His articles at Ars Technica, pragmatic opinions on the world of computing always spoke to me, but this article sounds like something written by John Gruber. Apple indeed innovated in multiple ways and markets, but un-removable batteries wasn’t one.
  - ace2358 3y ago
    I also have massive respect for Siracusa and I find I have a few similar opinions that made it really enjoyable listening to him and reading his articles. But over the years, as John has gotten older (and as the other members of ATP) I find that my values are starting to diverge. It feels much more of a news show than a tech show and I find I’m not gaining much insight from their discussions or opinions. Even their tech insights are starting to feel out of touch with the rest of the world.
    - matwood 3y ago
      Marco was always disconnected because he's well off and could do whatever he wanted (good for him). When Casey and John had jobs, they were able to keep Marco grounded and the trio really worked. Now that Casey and John both only really do the podcast now, they all are a bit disconnected. I'm happy for all them to make money doing what they love, but the show definitely changed once they all became essentially full time podcasters.
Condition1952 3y ago
removable batteries was to allowed the laptop to run without a battery pack for as long as needed
FireBeyond 3y ago
> the Wii differentiated itself with its motion controls and a low price. It was a hit. > Lately, I’ve been thinking about the blue ocean strategy in the context of Apple. Like Nintendo ... Well, Apple is certainly not differentiating on 'low price'. And I don't know that high margin is "innovative blue ocean".
mynegation 3y ago
Sealed off user-interchangeable batteries are a solved problem. GoPro does it.
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  Indeed. Which is the solution camcorders and consumer cameras used for decades.
rezonant 3y ago
The Blue Ocean strategy is choosing a specific market segment underserved by your direct competitors and refusing to compete on the product attributes that your competitors are emphasizing, not just "trying something new".
- echelon 3y ago
  This article is a hodgepodge of Apple praise [1], incorrectly applied business analysis, and a misguided hope that Apple will be considerate enough to build user-serviceable parts. It makes no sense. [1] yes, the trillion dollar company is better than everyone else
lapcat 3y ago
My favorite MacBook Pro ever was my 17-inch 2006 model. Replaceable battery and matte display! I hate that these features were eliminated.
- Cupprum 3y ago
  I prefer these glossy displays, i think its actually quite sad that the external display market does not offer many nice monitors with glossy screen.
tpmx 3y ago
Waterproof batteries, transferring power to the device via induction? Then the bay where they are installed wouldn't need to be glued shut.
- arcticbull 3y ago
  I mean, they don't need to be glued shut now lol.
ChuckMcM 3y ago
The short version is: "Wouldn't it be disruptive if Apple went back to replaceable batteries?" but the author stopped short of where that leads. One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This is a big improvement in my user experience. Another of the things that have moved us forward is that power efficiency has gone up dramatically, as a result a smaller battery can give the same "run time" as a large battery of old without the bulk associated with the larger energy storage capacity. Why not combine them? Why not no battery in the device? Seal it against the elements. Then put in a pocket where a battery that is a wireless "charger" can drop into a slot on the device and provide the power. Current demands on a modern device are low enough that you just go wireless all the time for main power. Now your device takes a sealed "toaster pastry" sized unit that looks innocuous, but slide it into the slot and poof the device powers up, put it on a recharging mat and it starts charging up itself. Now you have no exposed terminals to "short out", no worries about the battery in your device becoming a "pillow of doom"[1]. And you can carry a couple of extras if you're going to be away from power for a while. You get all the benefits of replaceable batteries and none of the downsides with the possible exception of a "slot" in your device that looks funny when there isn't a battery in it. I totally should have patented this :-) [1] Just Google it :-)
- rzzzt 3y ago
  AKA spicy pillows, there is a subreddit with the same name dedicated to those puffed up bastards.
- silisili 3y ago
  That's pretty close to how power tools work, minus the wireless charging of course. My first concern would be warmth, my phone always warms up when wireless charging. Doing something CPU intensive would probably get the device blazing. My second concern would be size - is the total package going to get a lot bigger here? If we forgo the pocket and just use magnets at each corner maybe it gets slimmer, but can it be about as slim as they are today? If we could overcome those two hurdles, I'd be a huge fan of the idea.
todd3834 3y ago
I really enjoyed the first half talking about how Apple and Nintendo followed a blue ocean strategy. Then the second half ranting about removable batteries felt totally out of place. I’m not sure I buy the blue ocean strategy of that, although well written.
- dangus 3y ago
  I agree. It made no sense after the excellent first half. Apple has designed the Mac to become obsolete in approximately 10 years. That’s when you lose official OS support. And yes, you can get your battery serviced but nobody’s going to buy a $200 battery for a laptop worth $500. Adding it back wouldn’t be a blue ocean, it would just be Apple ceding profits to nobody. Apple’s blue ocean is stacking ecosystem benefits. If you have an iPhone it makes more sense to own a Mac or an Apple Watch. If you own a Mac or Apple Watch it makes more sense to own AirPods. If you own AirPods it makes more sense to own an Apple TV.
  - jen20 3y ago
    I don't disagree with anything you've written, but (somewhat) regularly buy new batteries for my Lenovo X220, at about the same price to value ratio.
- jldugger 3y ago
  > I really enjoyed the first half talking about how Apple and Nintendo followed a blue ocean strategy. Let me fix that for you. Blue ocean is roughly the idea of inventing new markets. While it might apply to Nintendo, that's really a stretch and I view it as product differentiation in a highly entrenched market where Sony and Microsoft are clear sharks in the water. If you look at Apple's product and marketing history, blue ocean has not applied in two decades. The iPod was hardly the first MP3 player -- Diamond Rio was already in that space. There were several smartphones in the market before apple shipped iPhone, people were speculating on when for years before it was announced. Smartwatches supported android 2 years before Apple Watch Series 0 shipped. HomePod shipped 5 years after the first Amazon echo. What Apple does is wait for other people to prove out the market, and then produce an expensive high end version. This is an effective strategy that captures a lot of high margin & affluent demand, but it's very clearly a red ocean strategy. A blue ocean strategy doesn't have to shout "Think Different," your product uniqueness is obvious and usually confusing. A red ocean strategy means focusing on margins, inventory, and balancing product differentiation versus convention. It means keeping your product secret until the big announce and suing competitors who copy you. At one point Tim Cook was calling himself the Atilla the Hun of operations, and was quoted in articles as saying "inventory is the root of all evil."
omneity 3y ago
This article wasn't particularly insightful or thought-provoking. Maybe I missed something.
Synaesthesia 3y ago
It could be easily done. Sadly Apple doesn’t seem to view that in its interest, despite its repeated claims to care about the environment. They could make slick, elegant devices which are still repairable and have replaceable batteries. I remember the original iMac G5 had a great design which let you simply remove the backplate with 3 screws and access everything. Of course in the next iteration they changed the design entirely so that opening it up became a huge ordeal.
makeitdouble 3y ago
> [fewer product sales per unit time] is a problem that can be solved using one of Apple’s favorite financial tools: higher product margins. It's weird people forget the main message Apple has been touting for years now: services revenue. Even without removeable batteries, with right to repair device longevity will increase, and they've seen the writing on the wall for a long time. Apple will continue increasing services revenue. They'll fight the bitter end for the 15/30% tax on everything, iCloud tiers, Apple Music, TV, etc. If they find a blue ocean, it will be in services. Their entry into emergency satellite calls and other "wouldn't you feel bad being dead because you didn't pay us ?" push could be that.
- Cupprum 3y ago
  I do not understand why you are being downvoted.
IshKebab 3y ago
Not going to happen. Battery life is good enough for 99% of people that they aren't going to want to swap batteries. Only nerds really did that in the first place. Battery technology has improved so much that removable batteries are less desirable.
fnordpiglet 3y ago
I’d rather have hot swappable batteries where you have a ten minute battery in the device and the main battery can be swapped out on the fly.
Grustaf 3y ago
Of all the things I've ever wanted to be different on my macbook, removable batteries have never been one of them. Now when battery life exceeds a (long) working day, why on earth would anyone want this? The very few times you will be away from a wall socket for more than 12 hours, you can just bring a power bank.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  At some point Apple refuses to replace the batteries of your macbook as they stop supporting the model. At that point you could be down to a few hours of battery life, with no third party repair shop willing to work on your laptop at a reasonable price. That's where you'd be with a 2017 macbook Air for instance. Replaceable batteries gives an out to that situation, as one battery maker somewhere in the world could be enough to keep the remaining laptops alive, with no need for invasive serviceing. Of course that brings Apple close to nothing in revenue, but would boost good will from users and let them tout sustainability? Also won't resonate if you're cycling through devices every 2 years anyway.
  - windowsrookie 3y ago
    The 2017 MacBook air has a ton of aftermarket batteries available for less than $60. It's really not that difficult to replace it yourself. The ifixit guide says it takes 15 minutes. https://www.ifixit.com/products/macbook-air-13-late-2010-2017-replacement-battery?variant=39371743789159 https://www.ifixit.com/products/macbook-air-13-late-2010-201... "with no third party repair shop willing to work on your laptop at a reasonable price." I am not aware of any third party repair shop who would refuse to work on a 2017 MacBook Air. Unless it is a repair shop that refuses to work on Apple products in general.
  - jlokier 3y ago
    Are you sure about that 2017 Macbook Air? I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and I'm getting the battery replaced next week by Apple. My laptop is over 10 years old and they're still doing it at their standard battery replacement price.
emadabdulrahim 3y ago
The first half of the article was great. But regarding going back to replaceable batteries, I couldn't disagree more. If you know anything about Apple's design philosophy, you'd know the last thing Apple wants is for users to even consider opening up their device to replace/swap a battery.
acdha 3y ago
The second part seemed pretty weak to me, too, but I think there's a potentially bigger shift which could be steel-manned out of the battery idea. e-waste is getting a lot of attention, as are right to repair laws, and general realization that we can't keep generating waste on a 20th century scale. Apple might have an interesting angle for embracing that because unlike their competitors they profit from the whole stack, have a robust service portfolio, and retail presence near a large portion of their customers. Turning device longevity into a competitive point really puts pressure on anyone who can't easily switch from Qualcomm's blink-and-you-miss-it support period or negotiate some kind of revenue sharing agreement between themselves, Microsoft/Google, and services like Spotify or Netflix, and unlike most other attempts to make it harder to compete with them this would actually be seen as a general good by almost everyone other than their direct competitors.
bonestamp2 3y ago
The real Blue Ocean strategy that Apple should apply would be to use AI to help analyze our behaviors and then actually change our behaviors to help us be happier and healthier, not just use it to sell us more stuff (as some competitors are doing).
svnt 3y ago
People not realizing this ship has sailed. Apple switched to supporting right to repair because 1) They are no longer dependent on the loss of battery capacity to drive new device purchases — meaning this issue is effectively over. Batteries now last all day for longer than most new device users will keep a device. 2) Margins on services sold to hand-me-down family devices are a growing high-margin and young-user market and much of the market isn’t open to buying a device here — they will only use the service if they get a device for “free.” 3) The net outcome is an increase in service revenue and decrease in recycling costs for Apple. All these trends will only accelerate from here.
- hellotheretoday 3y ago
  These are good points and interesting, I’ve never seen such analysis, but imo their support of right to repair is because they’ve steered the discussion into a direction they are comfortable with. The apple self service program is apples ideal of right to repair. A shitty program where you can buy board assemblies and larger parts for fairly high prices with no changes to their software approach whatsoever. A battery change through this program is ~$120 up front (if you rent the tools, which you probably should) with a $30 refund when you return your dead battery. A battery change via the apple store is $99. You can only buy parts if you give them the device serial number up front (so fuck independent shops) and you need to call apple at the end to pair the part on their end. A pointless program with tons of waste still created. A short on your laptop motherboard? Better buy a new motherboard. An issue with the camera on your MacBook? Better buy a new lcd assembly. They will suddenly become very against right to repair the moment it starts to actually fight for things like schematics and board diagram access, component availability and not just parts assemblies, parts pairing that’s done in a consumer friendly way, etc. imagine legislation that says apple has to change parts pairing so that if a consumer unlocks their phone the parts have to be able to be sold as well? Or that they can no longer enter a contract with Texas Instruments to buy 100% of their stock of a usb c controller ic for a MacBook Pro so repair shops can’t buy it on digikey or mouser? Etc. they will fight that hard and then just find a way to circumvent it (like making their own usb c controller ic)
Kon-Peki 3y ago
I thought that EU regulations were going to force smartphones to have removable batteries within the next few years. That’s hardly swimming out into the blue ocean. But regardless, easily removable batteries are going to create more e-waste, not less. Replacing a battery is perfectly doable right now, but there is a hurdle you have to jump over - you aren’t going to do it until you really need it. Once those batteries are easy to replace, people are going to be replacing them much more frequently, they’re going to be buying spares, etc. And people are going to be throwing old batteries in the trash without even thinking about it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- pests 3y ago
  I think its "replaceable" not "removeable" batteries, using "readily available tools". So don't think removeable batteries of the past held together by a sliding cover - more like grab an eyeglass screwdriver and a few minutes later its out. I think the distiction is slight but there is a difference between an object meant to attach/de-attach (like old laptop batteries) and the m2 hard drive in my laptop. Both are technically replaceable, only one was designed to be removeable.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  Batteries are still expensive. An iPad battery for instance is easily in the 100~200 bucks, same for laptops. The iPhone might come lower (50?) but even with a simple system, opening the device will till probably enough of a friction to not make it worth it to most people. To make a comparison to cameras, I don't know how many people care to buy spare batteries outside of pros and people actually going through 2 or 3 batteries on their trips. Everyone else is probably using the one coming with their camera until it dies and then replaces it.
ttfkam 3y ago
Two things I've been waiting on for years: • MST (DisplayPort daisy chaining) in MacOS. The hardware has supported it for over a decade. The OS is the weak link here. It's the difference between spending $75-$300 for a dock in addition to the cables and just connecting the monitors together along with a single cable to the first monitor. • Non-soldered storage. Seriously. Storage is the most likely component to fail. SSDs only have so many write cycles. • BIOS on a separate chip. To make matters worse, with the introduction of the T2 chip, the BIOS is stored on the SSD as well. This means if the SSD fails, you don't just lose your data; you have an expensive brick. You can't even boot to external drive anymore if one of the two SSD chips fails. • Safer SSD chips. If a cheap capacitor fails on newer Macs, 13V gets shorted straight to the SSD. The SSD commonly doesn't survive this. And since the BIOS is on the SSD now… Literal ten cent part blows up your multi-thousand dollar laptop with zero warning. https://youtu.be/RYG4VMqatEY https://youtu.be/RYG4VMqatEY
- andromeduck 3y ago
  Most people don't write terabytes per day and the ones who do can just double their storage.
  - javchz 3y ago
    But they do, specially in low RAM systems, as the SSD becomes like a backup ram to juggle extra information.
    - andromeduck 3y ago
      If you're swapping a dwpd.
    - webmobdev 3y ago
      More so when the RAM remains limited on Macs as it too is integrated with the CPU and hence is non-upgradable. This is even worse than soldered SSD, as we can still make an attempt to replace the SSD chips with new ones with careful soldering, but nothing can be done about the RAM. These deliberately irreparable new Macs are just shitty products.
s3p 3y ago
This article frustrates me. >Starting in 2009, Apple began to phase out removable batteries across its laptop line in favor of batteries that were sealed inside the case and were not user-accessible. >The upsides, which Apple touted, were many: lighter weight, smaller size, better reliability, longer battery life. What are you talking about? The link provided to Apple's press release for that laptop did not include anything about why a non-removable battery was advantageous. They provided other reasons the new battery was great, but they did not say the elimination of user-serviceability allowed for any of those benefits. >The iPhone defied so many other norms that the sealed battery was less remarked upon than it might have been, but it was still noted. Noted by who? Remarked upon by who? It sounds like this author is generalizing his own opinions to the entire population. I'm sure this comment sounds nitpicky but I just don't like this kind of fast and loose writing.
pipeline_peak 3y ago
Really bad article, the author doesn’t seem to have any idea what blue ocean strategy is about. It’s not about making “bold moves” in an unchanging market. It’s about cutting down cost through focusing on what really matters to an under looked consumer audience. That audience being one the competition isn’t even focusing on. Also low cost wasn’t just Nintendo’s choice, that was a major factor in the definition of Blue Ocean. Apple cuts down cost in some areas to compensate for quality and user experience, keeping the cost. They do this because they make luxury items. Yellow Tail Wine and Nintendo’s Wii were text book examples. They both found an untapped audience, novice consumers who don’t know nor care for over the top quality. In Nintendo’s case, hard core gamers valued graphics and performance as quality. To Yellow Tail it was Wine enthusiasts and their interest in vineyards, vintages, and hints of whatever. Apple products are novice, but they aren’t cheap. The Chromebook is a better example of Blue Ocean. It does only what an entry level consumer wants in a laptop. It browsers the web, writes documents. Google said “hey, pretty much everyone who owns a MacBook but isn’t an artist or techie could use this”. Like MacBooks it doesnt require expertise, it offers a similar user quality experience, but unlike them it’s affordable because it doesn’t have unnecessary hardware specs and Swiss watch leveled build quality. I don’t blame the author for not reading the whole ass book. But for god sakes, at least read the wiki page about it, don’t use a gaming magazine as your source. Because he clearly took the Wii example in the magazine and ran with it. He thought he could map it onto Apple products because what, they get rid of stuff and are innovative like the Wii was? I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the battery ramble irrelevant.
mensetmanusman 3y ago
Please make twist on cylinder battery replacements for the AirPods…
chaostheory 3y ago
The article is about Apple, but it describes the https://frame.work/ https://frame.work/ blue ocean of mobilizing the laptop where nearly everything is replaceable and upgradeable
mruniverse 3y ago
I thought Apple's Blue Ocean stuff were: * Macintosh * iPhone * Apple Store
throwawaaarrgh 3y ago
Their next big move will probably be some AI product that ties together their other offerings into their exclusive platform. The ideal would be that you buy all their products and they automatically learn how you live your life, ancitipate your needs and provide for them seamlessly. Other companies try to do this now but it's not seamless at all. If Apple can use some tricks to identify a user, link all their stuff together, begin predicting needs and popping up solutions for them, all tied into a privacy-first data warehouse (nobody can use your data except you on your Apple devices), that could capture much bigger segments of the worldwide tech product landscape. At least, that's my assumption based on their massive spend on infrastructure related to AI. I've been waiting for their cloud hosting project to jump out of stealth mode, if it's still in progress, but maybe it was never intended for anyone other than Apple's use. If that's the case then it makes more sense that they'd sort of pull a Google and invest more heavily in the backend server side for one product that could really be a killer, which would most likely be something AI. An answer to Google's search product that isn't search.
Mrirazak1 3y ago
I think Apple’s blue ocean strategy is unique in the sense that it’s not when you feel they should release something but more so when they feel it’s the right time to release something and doing so in an Apple fashion way by being late. Because they make it refined to their standards. In terms of blue oceans it’s where they see a lack of innovation because you can have many blue oceans within in anything you do if you see the problems that exist in a way that your competitors don’t and then you apply great engineering with great marketing (although sometimes it’s just marketing) to reach the numbers you need.
1letterunixname 3y ago
Nintendo died by hiding in the corner, being afraid to compete, not making anything cool, and instead making something nobody wanted in a category too small to sustain itself.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Nintendo died? Who's making these nice, popular hybrid portable/docked consoles then that I see all around my friends' living rooms and on public transit?
- pipeline_peak 3y ago
  Um, it was the most successful console that generation.
marban 3y ago
Tech success is less about envisioning the future but more about forgetting the past.
Sparkyte 3y ago
More like comparing wallgardens with few open tech standards. I was going to rant. But it is pointless. These companies find ways to hold customers because of their tailored experiences and it has less to do with technology and more with targeting.
ugizashinje 3y ago
Non US resident here, I just switched from macbook 13 to system76 lemur. Half the price and double performance, could not be happier. Market is ready for segmentation and users today are more tech savvy then before.
- niek_pas 3y ago
  > "users today are more tech savvy then before" What are you basing this on? How do you operationalize "more tech savvy"?
- Toutouxc 3y ago
  What kind of performance? The best Geekbench scores for a System76 Lemur Pro with an i7 are still significantly lower than those of a M1 MacBook Air, which is the slowest Apple Silicon laptop. The Lemur also costs $1,300+ with the i7 (i.e. not cheaper than the Air) and has a 1080p screen. Not saying it's a bad machine or anything, but the "half the price compared to a MacBook" meme is now more irrelevant than ever.
al_be_back 3y ago
I much doubt that giants such as Microsoft, Apple etc, rely on strategies such as "Blue/Red Ocean", it's too fancy/romantic to be practical at their level. They tend to focus on established markets, which is very messy and competitive.
reactordev 3y ago
I call BS on this. Apple’s strategy is not battery tech. It’s personal computing devices. Always has been. Always will. Wearables, services, AI-capable hardware, is where Apple wins. Wearables beyond the watch and the vision pro. Meta and Ray-Ban teamed up for some Google Glass-like shades. Apple will come out with Shade (TM) if they choose to go into that market. The point is, Apple has had a strategy for a while now. It’s not going to win against Android in the phone wars. It’s going to win in the AR/XR space if they can manage to get a decent wearable out and provide cores within cores within cores for AI NN’s.
- greedo 3y ago
  I would say that Apple has already won against Android. Android may have more units world-wide, but Apple owners spend more, are more desirable customers etc.
ekianjo 3y ago
Apple never had a blue ocean strategy. Almost none of their products sold because they were innovative. They sold well because they had a better execution and integration.
dwighttk 3y ago
I can’t really picture how removable batteries would work, but I do admit it’d be nice to be able to replace them… at least for like $25-50 max.
kristianpaul 3y ago
Apple software ecosystem is pretty unique and ubiquitous in its way, this allow then to introduce features like - Advance encryption in iCloud/iPhone its something not present in other products and services currently. - FindMy network to find lost keys and iphone - Private relay for more private browsing - AirDrop for fast file transfer
ksoped 3y ago
>Second, people still crave the advantages of removable batteries that were left behind: increasing battery life by swapping batteries instead of using a cumbersome external battery pack, inexpensively and conveniently extending the life of a product by replacing a worn-out battery with a new one—without paying for someone else to perform delicate surgery on the device. This whole paragraph is delusional. Apple users carrying and swapping out batteries? Apple supporting and allowing people to simply swap out a battery instead of going to the apple store for a certified repair? Apple??

Please make them cheaper and sustainable instead of adding removable batteries.

Make battery packs (call them "removable batteries, if you like") 100% completely and totally separate from the device itself - think of it like a UPS for a desktop...no (or practically "no") battery on/in the device, and instead you run the device with a Qi-compatible battery pack IOW - the device becomes 30-50% lighter (on its own), and the buyer determines how heavy his/her experience will be based on which Qi-pack [s]he has chosen to run their phone Want a 10,000mAh battery? No problem! Want only a 2,000mAh battery? Again: no problem! This even solves a problem Apple has let other vendors 'solve' with regard to cases - want an OtterBox? CrayolaCase? SiliconSoftie? Go get your case from any of a thousand manufactures Apple could provide a pair (or trio, etc) of Qi-packs for their devices, and let other manufacturers go banana pants coming up with other options This modularizes the iPhone in a smart way (not like that goofy Motorola method (which was reminiscent of IBM in the 80s open-standardizing the buses for their Personal Computer) whereby the only thing you "have" to get from Motorola was the core module Apple's "core module" with such a program would still be iPhone ... and that is still the biggest differentiator Apple has vs the 80 scadzillion Android makers out there: iPhone is only Apple. Android is whomever wants to make one.

KingLancelot 3y ago
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threeseed 3y ago
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. Because Apple has had this for years a while now with the MagSafe battery pack. I actually think it should become a standard that all companies adopt. It's far easier and quicker to use than removable batteries and doesn't remove valuable space inside the phone.
- ProfessorLayton 3y ago
  It’s also incredibly wasteful. 30-40% of a battery bank’s capacity is lost to inefficiency, and even worse with a case on. It would be great if phones commonly offered pogo pins on the back in addition to wireless charging.
foobiekr 3y ago
I used to feel like you - the non-removable battery thing was annoying, the non-modular flash was a deal breaker, etc. None of them turned out to matter, at all. What does matter is a solid feel and solid construction and the flash and batteries lasting the lifetime of the product. I'd rather have that than replaceable.
- highwaylights 3y ago
  But the batteries dont last the lifetime of the product. Most iPhones are still very useful devices by the time their batteries have deteriorated below 70% original capacity.
  - BreveDev 3y ago
    iPhone batteries can be replaced for $89 from Apple and last for years. This is not the problem you think it is
  - warrenm 3y ago
    I usually keep my phones for about 4 years The devices start glitching and/or won't run newer apps as well as they should long before the battery goes on them
    - highwaylights 3y ago
      Are the apps you're using substantially better than they were 4 years ago? Are they doing substantially more for you that you wanted from them? If the hardware is failing then I guess fair enough (it shouldn't be, that's a design defect), but inflated hardware demands to compensate for increasingly sloppy code isn't a reasonable justification to demand dropping another $500+ on a device that works fine. I recently gifted a used iPhone X to a relative. It's still an exceptional device on which the hardware works as well as it ever did, minus the reduced battery life. I would have been happy to keep using it if I could replace the battery simply and it was still getting O/S updates. (As it is, the device still receives security updates, which I can't really grump at Apple for after almost six years - but only because they're better than the rest of the industry. It's still a poor situation).
crooked-v 3y ago
This is basically what they're doing with the Vision Pro, though out of engineering necessity rather than preference: the headset by itself only has about 5 minutes of battery life, to give you just enough margin to swap out the external battery pack you keep in a pocket.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Hopefully that internal battery is purely optional, i.e. implemented like in most laptops and not like in most phones, where it's impossible to use a device with a dead battery even when externally powered. Otherwise it'd be the worst of both worlds.
LeafItAlone 3y ago
> instead you run the device with a Qi-compatible battery pack And lose 20% percent efficiency? A bigger battery for the same usage time and my device is constantly warmer? Sign me up! /s
- warrenm 3y ago
  I used Qi as an example - a couple folks have suggested some kind of pogo-pin arrangement (maybe a derivation of the MagSafe connector?)
ankushnarula 3y ago
Agree with the most of youir premise - but a magnetically aligned and secured pogo-pin interface on the bottom back edge of every MacBook might be superior to inductive charging, which wastes electricity and generates too much heat. Such battery packs could also include a second pair of pass-thru pins for stacking and connecting to a direct wall power adapter.
- warrenm 3y ago
  was not really thinking about MacBook, more iPhone (and, possibly iPad) ... but that is an intriguing idea, too: supply a basic battery that would last for X long, and have a pass-through (hermetically-sealed, if you wanted to move into the IPS zone for dust/liquid resistance) MagSafe (or similar) connector for additional battery packs on the bottom I could totally see getting a second laptop-footprint-shaped pod for my MBA that would click on and give me another 20-40h of run time between charges!

Animats 3y ago

The future is batteries with more charge cycles, not replaceable batteries. The solid state battery people are claiming 10,000 charge/discharge cycles. If they can achieve that, it's 27 years of battery life. The case will wear out first.

KennyBlanken 3y ago
Lithium ion batteries that can handle a thousand to several thousand charge cycles and only see 80% reduction in capacity have been available for ten years. My 2013 Macbook Pro has just such a battery, rated for 80% capacity after 1000 cycles, and it lasted over 6 years before the battery's internal resistance rose enough that heavy load would cause a brownout and the machine to force sleep. Yet they are not in widespread use; most devices have prioritized capacity/weight/size over longevity, Apple included. My current M1 has lost 10% of its capacity after just 120 cycles and less than a year of ownership, even using a utility that allows you to set a limited maximum charge level to preserve the battery. And the battery is less accessible, less replaceable. Battery companies and device manufacturers don't care. There's no incentive for anyone involved and consumers have gotten used to replacing devices every few years. Solid state batteries with 10k charge/discharge cycles are never going to happen for the same reason incandescent bulbs are purposefully manufactured by every single lightbulb manufacturer to fail when they figured out a hundred years ago how to make them last forever. We need something like a e-waste import duty, tax, fee, or 'recycling deposit' on devices with non-replaceable lithium ion batteries.
- h0l0cube 3y ago
  > Solid state batteries with 10k charge/discharge cycles are never going to happen for the same reasons, which are identical to the same reason incandescent bulbs are purposefully manufactured by every single lightbulb manufacturer to fail when they figured out a hundred years ago how to make them last forever. My first phone was NiCad Nokia. Later Nokia monochrome display phones used Li-ion well before smartphones. I use an iPhone now, but if a user-upgradeable Android phone came out with a solid-state battery, I would switch.
- PaulKeeble 3y ago

Despegar 3y ago

If there's going to be removable batteries for any product it will be for new product categories like the Vision Pro. Apple is definitely not going to take established products like the iPhone and change it up just to be different (which isn't a sustainable competitive advantage because anyone can do it). Even with the Vision Pro it's a compromise that Apple is likely tolerating, rather than what the 'final form' of the product will be in 10 or 15 years.

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago

I'm all for Apple reversing their long-standing decision to make device batteries non-user-replaceable - an original decision which I personally loath, and one where the EU will most likely force Apple's hand anyway by requiring batteries to be user-replaceable. But excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little with this "Blue Ocean" nonsense. Apple makes an original, user-hostile decision for the sole purpose of increasing planned obsolescence and to make them more money, and then when the winds shift they might go back the other way - but, again, they'll likely be forced to anyway. No need for poetic blog posts. I suppose we're owed another "Blue Ocean" missive about how Apple led the way with Lightning connectors and then found another Blue Ocean with ... USB-C. Puhleeez.

LaSombra 3y ago
I have huge respect for John Siracusa. His articles at Ars Technica, pragmatic opinions on the world of computing always spoke to me, but this article sounds like something written by John Gruber. Apple indeed innovated in multiple ways and markets, but un-removable batteries wasn’t one.
- ace2358 3y ago
  I also have massive respect for Siracusa and I find I have a few similar opinions that made it really enjoyable listening to him and reading his articles. But over the years, as John has gotten older (and as the other members of ATP) I find that my values are starting to diverge. It feels much more of a news show than a tech show and I find I’m not gaining much insight from their discussions or opinions. Even their tech insights are starting to feel out of touch with the rest of the world.
  - matwood 3y ago
    Marco was always disconnected because he's well off and could do whatever he wanted (good for him). When Casey and John had jobs, they were able to keep Marco grounded and the trio really worked. Now that Casey and John both only really do the podcast now, they all are a bit disconnected. I'm happy for all them to make money doing what they love, but the show definitely changed once they all became essentially full time podcasters.

Condition1952 3y ago

removable batteries was to allowed the laptop to run without a battery pack for as long as needed

FireBeyond 3y ago

> the Wii differentiated itself with its motion controls and a low price. It was a hit. > Lately, I’ve been thinking about the blue ocean strategy in the context of Apple. Like Nintendo ... Well, Apple is certainly not differentiating on 'low price'. And I don't know that high margin is "innovative blue ocean".

mynegation 3y ago

Sealed off user-interchangeable batteries are a solved problem. GoPro does it.

Waterluvian 3y ago
Indeed. Which is the solution camcorders and consumer cameras used for decades.

rezonant 3y ago

The Blue Ocean strategy is choosing a specific market segment underserved by your direct competitors and refusing to compete on the product attributes that your competitors are emphasizing, not just "trying something new".

echelon 3y ago
This article is a hodgepodge of Apple praise [1], incorrectly applied business analysis, and a misguided hope that Apple will be considerate enough to build user-serviceable parts. It makes no sense. [1] yes, the trillion dollar company is better than everyone else

lapcat 3y ago

My favorite MacBook Pro ever was my 17-inch 2006 model. Replaceable battery and matte display! I hate that these features were eliminated.

Cupprum 3y ago
I prefer these glossy displays, i think its actually quite sad that the external display market does not offer many nice monitors with glossy screen.

tpmx 3y ago

Waterproof batteries, transferring power to the device via induction? Then the bay where they are installed wouldn't need to be glued shut.

arcticbull 3y ago
I mean, they don't need to be glued shut now lol.

ChuckMcM 3y ago

The short version is: "Wouldn't it be disruptive if Apple went back to replaceable batteries?" but the author stopped short of where that leads. One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This is a big improvement in my user experience. Another of the things that have moved us forward is that power efficiency has gone up dramatically, as a result a smaller battery can give the same "run time" as a large battery of old without the bulk associated with the larger energy storage capacity. Why not combine them? Why not no battery in the device? Seal it against the elements. Then put in a pocket where a battery that is a wireless "charger" can drop into a slot on the device and provide the power. Current demands on a modern device are low enough that you just go wireless all the time for main power. Now your device takes a sealed "toaster pastry" sized unit that looks innocuous, but slide it into the slot and poof the device powers up, put it on a recharging mat and it starts charging up itself. Now you have no exposed terminals to "short out", no worries about the battery in your device becoming a "pillow of doom"[1]. And you can carry a couple of extras if you're going to be away from power for a while. You get all the benefits of replaceable batteries and none of the downsides with the possible exception of a "slot" in your device that looks funny when there isn't a battery in it. I totally should have patented this :-) [1] Just Google it :-)

rzzzt 3y ago
AKA spicy pillows, there is a subreddit with the same name dedicated to those puffed up bastards.
silisili 3y ago
That's pretty close to how power tools work, minus the wireless charging of course. My first concern would be warmth, my phone always warms up when wireless charging. Doing something CPU intensive would probably get the device blazing. My second concern would be size - is the total package going to get a lot bigger here? If we forgo the pocket and just use magnets at each corner maybe it gets slimmer, but can it be about as slim as they are today? If we could overcome those two hurdles, I'd be a huge fan of the idea.

todd3834 3y ago

I really enjoyed the first half talking about how Apple and Nintendo followed a blue ocean strategy. Then the second half ranting about removable batteries felt totally out of place. I’m not sure I buy the blue ocean strategy of that, although well written.

dangus 3y ago
I agree. It made no sense after the excellent first half. Apple has designed the Mac to become obsolete in approximately 10 years. That’s when you lose official OS support. And yes, you can get your battery serviced but nobody’s going to buy a $200 battery for a laptop worth $500. Adding it back wouldn’t be a blue ocean, it would just be Apple ceding profits to nobody. Apple’s blue ocean is stacking ecosystem benefits. If you have an iPhone it makes more sense to own a Mac or an Apple Watch. If you own a Mac or Apple Watch it makes more sense to own AirPods. If you own AirPods it makes more sense to own an Apple TV.
- jen20 3y ago
  I don't disagree with anything you've written, but (somewhat) regularly buy new batteries for my Lenovo X220, at about the same price to value ratio.
jldugger 3y ago
> I really enjoyed the first half talking about how Apple and Nintendo followed a blue ocean strategy. Let me fix that for you. Blue ocean is roughly the idea of inventing new markets. While it might apply to Nintendo, that's really a stretch and I view it as product differentiation in a highly entrenched market where Sony and Microsoft are clear sharks in the water. If you look at Apple's product and marketing history, blue ocean has not applied in two decades. The iPod was hardly the first MP3 player -- Diamond Rio was already in that space. There were several smartphones in the market before apple shipped iPhone, people were speculating on when for years before it was announced. Smartwatches supported android 2 years before Apple Watch Series 0 shipped. HomePod shipped 5 years after the first Amazon echo. What Apple does is wait for other people to prove out the market, and then produce an expensive high end version. This is an effective strategy that captures a lot of high margin & affluent demand, but it's very clearly a red ocean strategy. A blue ocean strategy doesn't have to shout "Think Different," your product uniqueness is obvious and usually confusing. A red ocean strategy means focusing on margins, inventory, and balancing product differentiation versus convention. It means keeping your product secret until the big announce and suing competitors who copy you. At one point Tim Cook was calling himself the Atilla the Hun of operations, and was quoted in articles as saying "inventory is the root of all evil."

omneity 3y ago

This article wasn't particularly insightful or thought-provoking. Maybe I missed something.

Synaesthesia 3y ago

It could be easily done. Sadly Apple doesn’t seem to view that in its interest, despite its repeated claims to care about the environment. They could make slick, elegant devices which are still repairable and have replaceable batteries. I remember the original iMac G5 had a great design which let you simply remove the backplate with 3 screws and access everything. Of course in the next iteration they changed the design entirely so that opening it up became a huge ordeal.

makeitdouble 3y ago

> [fewer product sales per unit time] is a problem that can be solved using one of Apple’s favorite financial tools: higher product margins. It's weird people forget the main message Apple has been touting for years now: services revenue. Even without removeable batteries, with right to repair device longevity will increase, and they've seen the writing on the wall for a long time. Apple will continue increasing services revenue. They'll fight the bitter end for the 15/30% tax on everything, iCloud tiers, Apple Music, TV, etc. If they find a blue ocean, it will be in services. Their entry into emergency satellite calls and other "wouldn't you feel bad being dead because you didn't pay us ?" push could be that.

Cupprum 3y ago
I do not understand why you are being downvoted.

IshKebab 3y ago

Not going to happen. Battery life is good enough for 99% of people that they aren't going to want to swap batteries. Only nerds really did that in the first place. Battery technology has improved so much that removable batteries are less desirable.

fnordpiglet 3y ago

I’d rather have hot swappable batteries where you have a ten minute battery in the device and the main battery can be swapped out on the fly.

Grustaf 3y ago

Of all the things I've ever wanted to be different on my macbook, removable batteries have never been one of them. Now when battery life exceeds a (long) working day, why on earth would anyone want this? The very few times you will be away from a wall socket for more than 12 hours, you can just bring a power bank.

makeitdouble 3y ago
At some point Apple refuses to replace the batteries of your macbook as they stop supporting the model. At that point you could be down to a few hours of battery life, with no third party repair shop willing to work on your laptop at a reasonable price. That's where you'd be with a 2017 macbook Air for instance. Replaceable batteries gives an out to that situation, as one battery maker somewhere in the world could be enough to keep the remaining laptops alive, with no need for invasive serviceing. Of course that brings Apple close to nothing in revenue, but would boost good will from users and let them tout sustainability? Also won't resonate if you're cycling through devices every 2 years anyway.
- windowsrookie 3y ago
  The 2017 MacBook air has a ton of aftermarket batteries available for less than $60. It's really not that difficult to replace it yourself. The ifixit guide says it takes 15 minutes. https://www.ifixit.com/products/macbook-air-13-late-2010-2017-replacement-battery?variant=39371743789159 https://www.ifixit.com/products/macbook-air-13-late-2010-201... "with no third party repair shop willing to work on your laptop at a reasonable price." I am not aware of any third party repair shop who would refuse to work on a 2017 MacBook Air. Unless it is a repair shop that refuses to work on Apple products in general.
- jlokier 3y ago
  Are you sure about that 2017 Macbook Air? I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and I'm getting the battery replaced next week by Apple. My laptop is over 10 years old and they're still doing it at their standard battery replacement price.

emadabdulrahim 3y ago

The first half of the article was great. But regarding going back to replaceable batteries, I couldn't disagree more. If you know anything about Apple's design philosophy, you'd know the last thing Apple wants is for users to even consider opening up their device to replace/swap a battery.

acdha 3y ago

The second part seemed pretty weak to me, too, but I think there's a potentially bigger shift which could be steel-manned out of the battery idea. e-waste is getting a lot of attention, as are right to repair laws, and general realization that we can't keep generating waste on a 20th century scale. Apple might have an interesting angle for embracing that because unlike their competitors they profit from the whole stack, have a robust service portfolio, and retail presence near a large portion of their customers. Turning device longevity into a competitive point really puts pressure on anyone who can't easily switch from Qualcomm's blink-and-you-miss-it support period or negotiate some kind of revenue sharing agreement between themselves, Microsoft/Google, and services like Spotify or Netflix, and unlike most other attempts to make it harder to compete with them this would actually be seen as a general good by almost everyone other than their direct competitors.

bonestamp2 3y ago

The real Blue Ocean strategy that Apple should apply would be to use AI to help analyze our behaviors and then actually change our behaviors to help us be happier and healthier, not just use it to sell us more stuff (as some competitors are doing).

svnt 3y ago

People not realizing this ship has sailed. Apple switched to supporting right to repair because 1) They are no longer dependent on the loss of battery capacity to drive new device purchases — meaning this issue is effectively over. Batteries now last all day for longer than most new device users will keep a device. 2) Margins on services sold to hand-me-down family devices are a growing high-margin and young-user market and much of the market isn’t open to buying a device here — they will only use the service if they get a device for “free.” 3) The net outcome is an increase in service revenue and decrease in recycling costs for Apple. All these trends will only accelerate from here.

hellotheretoday 3y ago
These are good points and interesting, I’ve never seen such analysis, but imo their support of right to repair is because they’ve steered the discussion into a direction they are comfortable with. The apple self service program is apples ideal of right to repair. A shitty program where you can buy board assemblies and larger parts for fairly high prices with no changes to their software approach whatsoever. A battery change through this program is ~$120 up front (if you rent the tools, which you probably should) with a $30 refund when you return your dead battery. A battery change via the apple store is $99. You can only buy parts if you give them the device serial number up front (so fuck independent shops) and you need to call apple at the end to pair the part on their end. A pointless program with tons of waste still created. A short on your laptop motherboard? Better buy a new motherboard. An issue with the camera on your MacBook? Better buy a new lcd assembly. They will suddenly become very against right to repair the moment it starts to actually fight for things like schematics and board diagram access, component availability and not just parts assemblies, parts pairing that’s done in a consumer friendly way, etc. imagine legislation that says apple has to change parts pairing so that if a consumer unlocks their phone the parts have to be able to be sold as well? Or that they can no longer enter a contract with Texas Instruments to buy 100% of their stock of a usb c controller ic for a MacBook Pro so repair shops can’t buy it on digikey or mouser? Etc. they will fight that hard and then just find a way to circumvent it (like making their own usb c controller ic)

Kon-Peki 3y ago

I thought that EU regulations were going to force smartphones to have removable batteries within the next few years. That’s hardly swimming out into the blue ocean. But regardless, easily removable batteries are going to create more e-waste, not less. Replacing a battery is perfectly doable right now, but there is a hurdle you have to jump over - you aren’t going to do it until you really need it. Once those batteries are easy to replace, people are going to be replacing them much more frequently, they’re going to be buying spares, etc. And people are going to be throwing old batteries in the trash without even thinking about it.

deleted 3y ago
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pests 3y ago
I think its "replaceable" not "removeable" batteries, using "readily available tools". So don't think removeable batteries of the past held together by a sliding cover - more like grab an eyeglass screwdriver and a few minutes later its out. I think the distiction is slight but there is a difference between an object meant to attach/de-attach (like old laptop batteries) and the m2 hard drive in my laptop. Both are technically replaceable, only one was designed to be removeable.
makeitdouble 3y ago
Batteries are still expensive. An iPad battery for instance is easily in the 100~200 bucks, same for laptops. The iPhone might come lower (50?) but even with a simple system, opening the device will till probably enough of a friction to not make it worth it to most people. To make a comparison to cameras, I don't know how many people care to buy spare batteries outside of pros and people actually going through 2 or 3 batteries on their trips. Everyone else is probably using the one coming with their camera until it dies and then replaces it.

ttfkam 3y ago

Two things I've been waiting on for years: • MST (DisplayPort daisy chaining) in MacOS. The hardware has supported it for over a decade. The OS is the weak link here. It's the difference between spending $75-$300 for a dock in addition to the cables and just connecting the monitors together along with a single cable to the first monitor. • Non-soldered storage. Seriously. Storage is the most likely component to fail. SSDs only have so many write cycles. • BIOS on a separate chip. To make matters worse, with the introduction of the T2 chip, the BIOS is stored on the SSD as well. This means if the SSD fails, you don't just lose your data; you have an expensive brick. You can't even boot to external drive anymore if one of the two SSD chips fails. • Safer SSD chips. If a cheap capacitor fails on newer Macs, 13V gets shorted straight to the SSD. The SSD commonly doesn't survive this. And since the BIOS is on the SSD now… Literal ten cent part blows up your multi-thousand dollar laptop with zero warning. https://youtu.be/RYG4VMqatEY https://youtu.be/RYG4VMqatEY

andromeduck 3y ago
Most people don't write terabytes per day and the ones who do can just double their storage.
- javchz 3y ago
  But they do, specially in low RAM systems, as the SSD becomes like a backup ram to juggle extra information.
  - andromeduck 3y ago
    If you're swapping a dwpd.
  - webmobdev 3y ago
    More so when the RAM remains limited on Macs as it too is integrated with the CPU and hence is non-upgradable. This is even worse than soldered SSD, as we can still make an attempt to replace the SSD chips with new ones with careful soldering, but nothing can be done about the RAM. These deliberately irreparable new Macs are just shitty products.

s3p 3y ago

This article frustrates me. >Starting in 2009, Apple began to phase out removable batteries across its laptop line in favor of batteries that were sealed inside the case and were not user-accessible. >The upsides, which Apple touted, were many: lighter weight, smaller size, better reliability, longer battery life. What are you talking about? The link provided to Apple's press release for that laptop did not include anything about why a non-removable battery was advantageous. They provided other reasons the new battery was great, but they did not say the elimination of user-serviceability allowed for any of those benefits. >The iPhone defied so many other norms that the sealed battery was less remarked upon than it might have been, but it was still noted. Noted by who? Remarked upon by who? It sounds like this author is generalizing his own opinions to the entire population. I'm sure this comment sounds nitpicky but I just don't like this kind of fast and loose writing.

pipeline_peak 3y ago

Really bad article, the author doesn’t seem to have any idea what blue ocean strategy is about. It’s not about making “bold moves” in an unchanging market. It’s about cutting down cost through focusing on what really matters to an under looked consumer audience. That audience being one the competition isn’t even focusing on. Also low cost wasn’t just Nintendo’s choice, that was a major factor in the definition of Blue Ocean. Apple cuts down cost in some areas to compensate for quality and user experience, keeping the cost. They do this because they make luxury items. Yellow Tail Wine and Nintendo’s Wii were text book examples. They both found an untapped audience, novice consumers who don’t know nor care for over the top quality. In Nintendo’s case, hard core gamers valued graphics and performance as quality. To Yellow Tail it was Wine enthusiasts and their interest in vineyards, vintages, and hints of whatever. Apple products are novice, but they aren’t cheap. The Chromebook is a better example of Blue Ocean. It does only what an entry level consumer wants in a laptop. It browsers the web, writes documents. Google said “hey, pretty much everyone who owns a MacBook but isn’t an artist or techie could use this”. Like MacBooks it doesnt require expertise, it offers a similar user quality experience, but unlike them it’s affordable because it doesn’t have unnecessary hardware specs and Swiss watch leveled build quality. I don’t blame the author for not reading the whole ass book. But for god sakes, at least read the wiki page about it, don’t use a gaming magazine as your source. Because he clearly took the Wii example in the magazine and ran with it. He thought he could map it onto Apple products because what, they get rid of stuff and are innovative like the Wii was? I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the battery ramble irrelevant.

mensetmanusman 3y ago

Please make twist on cylinder battery replacements for the AirPods…

chaostheory 3y ago

The article is about Apple, but it describes the https://frame.work/ https://frame.work/ blue ocean of mobilizing the laptop where nearly everything is replaceable and upgradeable

mruniverse 3y ago

I thought Apple's Blue Ocean stuff were: * Macintosh * iPhone * Apple Store

throwawaaarrgh 3y ago

Their next big move will probably be some AI product that ties together their other offerings into their exclusive platform. The ideal would be that you buy all their products and they automatically learn how you live your life, ancitipate your needs and provide for them seamlessly. Other companies try to do this now but it's not seamless at all. If Apple can use some tricks to identify a user, link all their stuff together, begin predicting needs and popping up solutions for them, all tied into a privacy-first data warehouse (nobody can use your data except you on your Apple devices), that could capture much bigger segments of the worldwide tech product landscape. At least, that's my assumption based on their massive spend on infrastructure related to AI. I've been waiting for their cloud hosting project to jump out of stealth mode, if it's still in progress, but maybe it was never intended for anyone other than Apple's use. If that's the case then it makes more sense that they'd sort of pull a Google and invest more heavily in the backend server side for one product that could really be a killer, which would most likely be something AI. An answer to Google's search product that isn't search.

Mrirazak1 3y ago

I think Apple’s blue ocean strategy is unique in the sense that it’s not when you feel they should release something but more so when they feel it’s the right time to release something and doing so in an Apple fashion way by being late. Because they make it refined to their standards. In terms of blue oceans it’s where they see a lack of innovation because you can have many blue oceans within in anything you do if you see the problems that exist in a way that your competitors don’t and then you apply great engineering with great marketing (although sometimes it’s just marketing) to reach the numbers you need.

1letterunixname 3y ago

Nintendo died by hiding in the corner, being afraid to compete, not making anything cool, and instead making something nobody wanted in a category too small to sustain itself.

lxgr 3y ago
Nintendo died? Who's making these nice, popular hybrid portable/docked consoles then that I see all around my friends' living rooms and on public transit?
pipeline_peak 3y ago
Um, it was the most successful console that generation.

marban 3y ago

Tech success is less about envisioning the future but more about forgetting the past.

Sparkyte 3y ago

More like comparing wallgardens with few open tech standards. I was going to rant. But it is pointless. These companies find ways to hold customers because of their tailored experiences and it has less to do with technology and more with targeting.

ugizashinje 3y ago

Non US resident here, I just switched from macbook 13 to system76 lemur. Half the price and double performance, could not be happier. Market is ready for segmentation and users today are more tech savvy then before.

niek_pas 3y ago
> "users today are more tech savvy then before" What are you basing this on? How do you operationalize "more tech savvy"?
Toutouxc 3y ago
What kind of performance? The best Geekbench scores for a System76 Lemur Pro with an i7 are still significantly lower than those of a M1 MacBook Air, which is the slowest Apple Silicon laptop. The Lemur also costs $1,300+ with the i7 (i.e. not cheaper than the Air) and has a 1080p screen. Not saying it's a bad machine or anything, but the "half the price compared to a MacBook" meme is now more irrelevant than ever.

al_be_back 3y ago

I much doubt that giants such as Microsoft, Apple etc, rely on strategies such as "Blue/Red Ocean", it's too fancy/romantic to be practical at their level. They tend to focus on established markets, which is very messy and competitive.

reactordev 3y ago

I call BS on this. Apple’s strategy is not battery tech. It’s personal computing devices. Always has been. Always will. Wearables, services, AI-capable hardware, is where Apple wins. Wearables beyond the watch and the vision pro. Meta and Ray-Ban teamed up for some Google Glass-like shades. Apple will come out with Shade (TM) if they choose to go into that market. The point is, Apple has had a strategy for a while now. It’s not going to win against Android in the phone wars. It’s going to win in the AR/XR space if they can manage to get a decent wearable out and provide cores within cores within cores for AI NN’s.

greedo 3y ago
I would say that Apple has already won against Android. Android may have more units world-wide, but Apple owners spend more, are more desirable customers etc.

ekianjo 3y ago

Apple never had a blue ocean strategy. Almost none of their products sold because they were innovative. They sold well because they had a better execution and integration.

dwighttk 3y ago

I can’t really picture how removable batteries would work, but I do admit it’d be nice to be able to replace them… at least for like $25-50 max.

kristianpaul 3y ago

Apple software ecosystem is pretty unique and ubiquitous in its way, this allow then to introduce features like - Advance encryption in iCloud/iPhone its something not present in other products and services currently. - FindMy network to find lost keys and iphone - Private relay for more private browsing - AirDrop for fast file transfer

ksoped 3y ago

>Second, people still crave the advantages of removable batteries that were left behind: increasing battery life by swapping batteries instead of using a cumbersome external battery pack, inexpensively and conveniently extending the life of a product by replacing a worn-out battery with a new one—without paying for someone else to perform delicate surgery on the device. This whole paragraph is delusional. Apple users carrying and swapping out batteries? Apple supporting and allowing people to simply swap out a battery instead of going to the apple store for a certified repair? Apple??