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Apple will no longer license aftermarket power adapters for iPhone 5

appleinsider.com

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Re: Apple will no longer license aftermarket power adapters for iPhone 5

#2

Post by Macha »

Given how dreadful Apple's own cables were (or at least they were in my experience back when I had an iPod Touch 2G), this is likely to be expensive for many iOS device owners.

Weren't they meant to be allowing microUSB chargers in the EU though? Even if they do it with an adapter that plugs into their own connector, that provides a way to avoid their costly cables.

Re: Apple will no longer license aftermarket power adapters for iPhone 5

#6

Post by saurik »

mmanfrin wrote: post #3

Because licensing them means they miss out on their $39.95 per cable.

An alternative explanation (as they could raise their licensing fees instead, and the costs of managing licensing fees is much lower than constructing and distributing cables; when you look at their profit report these cables are just not a major part of their business) is that they found that third party cables often had minor aberrations that damaged the contacts on the device, leading to increased warranty repair and replacement costs under programs like AppleCare (which is much more likely to be a major cost, given how almost all of their money at this point comes from selling mobile hardware: if even 1% of users end up getting a new iPhone for free because of some shoddy cable, the result would be tremendous and should easily swamp any money they might make selling cables).

Re: Apple will no longer license aftermarket power adapters for iPhone 5

#7

Post by nickpinkston »

Macha wrote: post #2

Given how dreadful Apple's own cables were (or at least they were in my experience back when I had an iPod Touch 2G), this is likely to be expensive for many iOS device owners. Weren't they meant to be allowing microUSB chargers in the EU though? Even if they do it with an adapter that plugs into their own connector, that provides a way to avoid their costly cables.

I reeeeally hope this is true - fucking Apple squeezing the blood from this rock of a market...

Re: Apple will no longer license aftermarket power adapters for iPhone 5

#10

Post by ckrailo »

saurik wrote: post #6
mmanfrin wrote: post #3

Because licensing them means they miss out on their $39.95 per cable.

An alternative explanation (as they could raise their licensing fees instead, and the costs of managing licensing fees is much lower than constructing and distributing cables; when you look at their profit report these cables are just not a major part of their business) is that they found that third party cables often had minor aberrations that damaged the contacts on the device, leading to increased warranty repair…

I'm not sure I buy this argument. USB cables are everywhere (and ports are everywhere)... like the macbook. Then again, it'd be more costly to remove USB ports from a macbook since nobody would buy such a laptop in the current market. But if that were the real reason for this, wouldn't it be better to switch to a small USB form factor like most phone manufacturers?

Also 1% seems really high. If it were destroying phones, my random guess is .1% or .01%.

Could you explain more your thought process here? Maybe I'd get the argument more. (Also, keep up the good work. Lots of respect.)

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