RSS

Intelligent Editorial: Obsolescence

By Andrew Case Sat, Feb 23, 2008 @ 3:12 PM

If you are a major fanboy shield your eyes. Hehe I knew you wouldn’t anyway so let’s get started. I am really sick of obsolescence, not only on Apple’s front but also anywhere else (HDTV sound familiar?) This, however, is an Apple site so I’ll stick to Apple topics. I know new products mean that Apple is moving forward but they also mean that you need to buy something new pretty often if you want to keep your product working.  Maybe I am over-reacting and maybe not, but I am really sick and tired of needing to buy something new and as a kid not being able to afford it. Apple is a company, that I do understand. They, as a company, need to make money to stay alive. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that they need to support their products for longer periods of time. I’m not saying make software for the Lisa again but for God’s sake don’t make stuff obsolete so quick. I’m a recent convert so I still am critiquing Apple a little bit. Apple recently more than ever seems to be having a few problems. The stock drop for example. Through all of the problems however, they still seem to have a bit of a self-important “attitude”. When they made the iPhone closed to Software Developers that only seemed to further enforce that point. And, yes, I do know that here should be an SDK coming out. The attitude seems to be coming through a lot lately.  As I close this I do ant to make it clear that if given the choice I still would never go back to the Windoze platform. I really love my Mac. I am just pointing out a couple of things that, on occasion, bug me about Apple as a company over all. Maybe I am over-reacting, and maybe I’m not. I guess you guys can be the ones to decide. 

  • Dan Neal

    The problem with your posting is that you never got around to listing a single recent item that was being obsoleted (No, the Lisa doesn’t count).

    I understand your frustration at not being able to buy all the latest Apple toys, but the old stuff still works. It even works with the latest OS. I’m using a last generation Titanium Powerbook G4 and it runs Leopard just fine. It’s not as fast or shiny as the MacBook Air, but I can still be productive on it and am in no hurry or need of a new notebook.

    Just my opinion…

  • Steven Finder

    Intelligent editorial? I really can’t quite figure out what you are trying to say. It would be helpful to pick one topic and work through it rather than jump all over the place.

    For example, you start by complaining that Apple brings out new hardware in an effort to obsolescence their equipment. You didn’t make a good case for that but at least that is a fair topic for discussion. But then in the middle you jump to the stock drop (completely ignoring that all stocks have recently gone down) and then on to bring up points about the iPhone.

    I would argue that none of your points are legitimate, but it is difficult to make a cogent reply when you are all over the map.

  • Tedious

    It seems that the old geek saying “Only the latest and greatest count. Everything else is obsolete!” has confused young geeks.

    “Obsolete” and “surpassed” are not synonymous. I know that “common usage” in tech circles uses it this way, and that’s where the confusion lies.

    The term “planned obsolescence” predates this new usage, and refers to a practice of making functional equipment useless through incompatibility of replacement parts and/or connectors.

    A printer that still works but you can’t buy ink for is “obsolete”. If a printer company purposely changes their ink cartridge shape every two years for no reason other than to boost sales is practicing “planned obsolescence”.

    When Apple removed ADB, SCSI, serial ports, and the floppy drive, dozens of peripherals were suddenly obsolete.

    When the G5 came out, you could no longer boot to OS9. You were forced to use “Classic” mode in OS X. This was the first stage in weening you off OS9 apps.

    When Leopard came out, Classic mode was removed – obsoleting OS9 apps once and for all.

    Nothing sold by Apple in the last 11 years (other than OS9) is obsolete. They can still function, parts are available, and they can use all the popular file formats, communications protocols, and connectors.

    In fact, many would argue that OS9 itself isn’t obsolete. It’s still available, as are apps. They use all the popular file formats, communications protocols, and (if a G3 or newer) connectors.

    That said, your tirade against constantly surpassing itself is a valid complaint… it just isn’t “planned obsolescence”.

    I’m sorry that Apple is offering something for sale better than they were last week – but it in no way diminishes the usefulness of it’s previous offering. While no longer holding the title “latest and greatest” it is far from obsolete.

    In the same vein: five year old machine is not an “antique”.

    I fear if we continue referring to old machinery as “dinosaurs” that in five years kids will believe that they were once living reptiles.

  • Joshua Schnell

    @tedious, I tend to agree with your opinion. The only thing that really pisses me off is the ipod updates. That shit is annoying! You can’t deny! lol

  • http://www.amazing.com/communities/show/3796 David H Dennis

    Actually, Apple is better than any company I know at letting people hang on to their historic equipment and still keep it up to date.

    For instance, I’m typing this on a PowerMac G5 that I bought when it was introduced in 2003. Four years later, and it’s still running all the latest applications and operating systems. I have the current Leopard on here and all the newest software would run on it just fine.

    Now, if you’re complaining that you’d like an Air, because the Air is so cool, well, it’s Apple’s job to create something attractive for you to buy, as often as you can afford to do so. Otherwise, as you quite rightly admit, they go bust.

    We don’t want Steve’s jet falling out of the sky because he couldn’t afford the fuel to keep it flying, right?

    Save Steve! Buy the Air!

    :-).

    D

  • http://www.crazydailylife.com Andrew Case

    No this is not over a MacBook Air sir. But it would be nice to have one! This was more over software and its depleting usefulness. Obsolete was a bad word choice.
    :)
    Andrew

  • Richard Springer

    I tend to agree with this editorial rant about Apple obsolesence. I am sure we are all quite happy that we own a Mac, and as a graphic artist I am fundamentally indebted to Apple for much of my success in this field, but after cycling through all the System 10 reinventions I feel enough is enough.

    I could probably regale you with tales of my many Mac’s starting with the SE-30 up to my current G-4. But I refuse to relegate this computer to the closet with 4 older Macs that somehow still work.

    A recent trip to my local Apple store left me feeling quite blue and out of touch. My purpose was simply to upgrade my G-4 to the full 2 gigs of ram it will hold by purchasing 4 500 meg sticks of compatible ram. Several of the salespersons in the store never even heard of my G-4 mirrored doors computer, and they had no ram sticks for any such machine . Finally an elderly gentleman came over to me and told me that Apple doesn’t support that computer any longer. “Go to an aftermarket vendor”, he said.

    I love to see all the success from Apple and own an I-pod and love it too. But all I wish is that Steve would realize that us old timers have helped build his empire and if it anin’t broke, don’t fix it!