Maybe there is chance Apple would listen a bit more to their user base nowadays, when the stocks are not so fine anymore. About every 3 years a buy a new a new Mac. This year I wanted to buy a new iMac, but it is the first time, I'm quite unhappy what I can get for my money (around 3000€).
I tried to check what is not convincing me:
- I'm using SD cards/USB memory sticks --> I don't like to fiddle around on the back side
- Although I will order a big SSD --> why not make a hatch or something better for people who want to add an additional cheap EVO850
So what should be done:
- Make it THICKER !
- Add one USB3.0 and an SD card slot to the side, while other connectors can be left on the back ...
- Add hatch for an additional SSD
- With more thickness Apple can return to better repairability (glued display ****)
That's all what I would like to see ...
First off, if current stock price woes have nothing to do with dissatisfied customers. Apple's customer satisfaction ratings are astronomically high. Wall Street threw a hissy fit over the next quarter's earnings projection - they were hoping for an instant return to profit growth after one down quarter, and didn't get it. Meantime, Apple's projection for the quarter just past was bang on, so Wall Street could only blame itself for expecting higher. And the reasons for the declines? The slowdown in smartphone purchasing hit all manufacturers, the slowdown in China's economy hit everyone, and currency exchange rates hit everyone...
And even if customer dissatisfaction
was a significant factor, and Apple "started listening" as of a couple of weeks ago - it takes time to design and build products. Don't expect anything in 2016.
The vast majority of iMac (or laptop) users do not want to get inside, or to add additional internal drives. Forget thinness for a moment - access hatches and the parts needed to secure the drive and connect it to the main logic board cost extra money. Should every iMac purchaser pay for something only a handful of users want?
The thing is, "repairability" almost always results in lower
reliability and
higher initial cost. Adhesive is about solidity; relying less upon screws that can come loose (or be lost and left out during sloppy repairs); screws that take additional time to assemble (though less to disassemble). Each connector adds additional potential points of failure...
Thicker would also mean more materials used for the enclosure, higher shipping weights, bulkier packaging... all of these affect efficiency and cost. On a per unit basis, small potatoes, but when there are millions of units involved...
As to the edge-mounted SD card slot and USB port? Currently, all the i/o connectors are on a single board, with a single interconnect cable to the main logic board. Move some of those to the the edge, and you have another assembly to deal with - higher parts costs, higher assembly costs. And while you might want SD and USB on the edge, someone else would insist on having the headphones there, someone else would complain that one USB port isn't enough... Yet they certainly would not move
all the i/o connectors to the edge - people want most of that mess in the back, where it can't be seen.
Even if Apple did provide for user-installed Flash storage, it would not be in the form of a SATA drive (like the EVO 850). It'd be a slim PCIe blade - far faster, far more compact, far easier to secure mechanically. The hatch would be closer to the dimensions of the RAM slots on a 27" iMac. You want to add a cheap, slow, bulky drive to an iMac? There's an i/o port for that.
Right, Thunderbolt and USB ports. Put your external SD card reader wherever you want. Get a Thunderbolt enclosure and you can add additional drives. That's what the ports are there for; so that the myriad customization desires of users can be accommodated while still keeping the base product at a price people are willing to pay. (And I don't want to hear the, "Apple's rich" part - investors want to see a particular gross profit margin - if that declined on an ongoing basis, there would be even more pain from Wall Street.)
