Apple are clearly abandoning the concept of an all-Apple solution, and the concept that all their products are part of an ecosystem. I've said it before, iPhone and iPad are successful because "there's an app for that" and if Apple doesn't look after developers and content creators, how is that going to work? If they don't own the whole experience then how do they deliver "it just works"?
People go Apple because they want the integrated experience, but if that's not on offer anymore, if you have to actually research which is "the best" of any component in your setup, why not re-evaluate everything? Eventually it will get to the point where it's as much hassle to use Apple as it would be to use Windows or Linux and at that point, it will boil down to a decision on price, and Apple will lose heavily. Those HP Mini Workstations look pretty sweet, compared to a Mac Mini...
Yes, Apple shouldn't have given me any reason to look elsewhere, because I might like what I see. Which I did recently - for less money as a MBP, I bought a near top of the line desktop (dual boot Win 10 and free linux) and still have money left over for an ultrabook (which I might not buy because I'll try my iPad for mobility)
For all we know Apple is just canning Airport and launching a new product that replaces it and does other things.
It seems kind of silly for Apple to sell a handful of separate products --each replaceable by outside companies' offerings -- when they could instead sell one integrated Apple TV/Airport/Time Capsule/MacMini/whatever. Slap a touchscreen on it call it (Apple icon) Home and sell it for $299 (or $499 if you want a decent SSD).
Apple Airport Time Capsule is now $399, with 3 TB HDD.
"The Time capsule doubles as a backup storage hard drive for Mac computers."
It seems that they won't offer even anything like that, when the "people familiar with the matter" are right. From the article:
"Apple began shutting down the wireless router team over the past year, dispersing engineers to other product development groups"
"Apple hasn’t refreshed its routers since 2013 following years of frequent updates to match new standards from the wireless industry. The decision to disband the team indicates the company isn’t currently pushing forward with new versions of its routers."
> "Apple began shutting down the wireless router team over the past year, dispersing engineers to other product development groups"
It specifically says they put some of them on the Apple TV team and Apple is generally pretty secretive about entirely new offerings. "Apple is getting out of the router business" is clearly an extrapolation from "Airport is not going to get future updates". That may be correct but it's not a 'matter' that the sources are likely to be 'familiar' with unless they are senior executives.
Yeah I'm starting to get disappointed in the direction they're moving. My mb pro is from early 2013 and runs fine, but I'll be looking to upgrade in the next couple years. Nothing I'm seeing in the product line is very encouraging at this point. I'm very disappointed if this router news is true. Router firmware updates on most products are non-existent, but with my Apple router I haven't needed to worry about that.
People go Apple because they want the integrated experience, but if that's not on offer anymore, if you have to actually research which is "the best" of any component in your setup, why not re-evaluate everything? Eventually it will get to the point where it's as much hassle to use Apple as it would be to use Windows or Linux and at that point, it will boil down to a decision on price, and Apple will lose heavily. Those HP Mini Workstations look pretty sweet, compared to a Mac Mini...