Earlier today I sat staring at a customer’s new MacBook being asked why Apple would only put one port on a laptop. Mind you, one port that both charges and allows the connection of USB devices. I didn’t get it until about an hour ago when I finally realized the direction Apple is heading.
Apple’s success with the iPhone and iPad product lines created a direction the new management of Apple seems to want to follow. It seems pretty straight forward that if your biggest seller is phones then make everything in your product line like your phones and you’ll sell more. Right?
Microsoft seems to have gone in an oddly different path. A few years back they introduced a phone and new common operating system for all devices that never really took off. In fact, Windows 8 was a huge disappointment for PC customers because there were too many changes that made computers hard to use.
My customer stood in front of me questioning why a laptop would have one port. Her real question was why she spent $1,000.00 only to have to spend another $100.00 for something to add ports to a laptop. “Basically,” she said “I bought an iPad with a keyboard.”
It seems like Apple and Microsoft are heading in completely different directions with their product lines. Microsoft seems to be returning to its roots while Apple is veering off into a world of portable and more portable devices that serve less business customers’ needs.
With the introduction of Windows 10 it became clear that Microsoft realized their mistake and wanted to do right by customers by making Windows less frustrating. Swiping from the right to power down a computer and having to use weird key combinations that created workflow issues disappeared with 10. What came back was a familiar start button and menu.
Apple is killing the functionality of its laptop line by stripping ports and making them impossible to upgrade. To me, the benefit of a laptop is the ability to use it as a computer anywhere I go. I don’t have to carry anything else to make it function as I need. And if something needs to be swapped it should be possible.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my MacBook Pro and wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m also a diehard iPhone user. For whatever reason I don’t use my MacBook for work and have always used my trusty PC (I’m using it now). I love both formats but I feel Apple and Microsoft fill two different niches and that disparity is becoming more apparent with every change each company makes.
All day I’ve had the old “I’m a PC” commercials rerunning through my head as I drove around. Even though the two companies continue fighting for market share I’m not sure either will come out ahead. Microsoft will always dominate the gaming and business markets while Apple will be the leader in high end leisure products.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)