Comment by barrkel | Hacker News Reader

Comment by barrkel | Hacker News Reader

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When I bought my MBA back in 2011 or so, I wanted 4G of memory. I didn't want a bigger SSD, but I had to get one - no choice. I didn't want a faster processor, but I had to get one - no choice. I ended up paying a lot more for stuff I didn't want or need, simply because the device wasn't upgradeable - not by the user nor the store I bought it from. How was my user experience? What was Apple's profit?

Apple segment their product range just like any sensible company. There's a range of products that increase in power, and in profit margin. People who can afford to buy the highest end products end up paying over the odds, because they're usually the least sensitive to price.

This doesn't mean that Apple is about user experience. Frankly, that's hogwash. They're about corporate profit, in the medium term. And if people end up buying lower end devices and upgrading it themselves, I can easily see them seeing this as a lost profit opportunity, and doing something like whitelisting. It's little different than Intel eventually getting around to locking down frequency multipliers, and selling unlocked chips at a premium.

You are the one who made the choice to get the tiniest, slimmest computer available. You made that choice. Don't come griping now that you had no choice: you did. You chose to get a computer so conveniently slender that, as an inevitable and obvious consequence, there was not room in the design for socketed RAM. Quit your griping and enjoy what you bought, or buy a slightly larger machine that has room for more upgradable components.

Are you a laptop designer? How do you know it's not possible?

FWIW, it wasn't the tiniest slimmest computer available, and I already had a lighter PC laptop that also had a DVD drive (Toshiba Portege). It was one of the lighter options that ran OS X, but only a handful do by design. If I could have gotten something slightly bigger, lighter and with more upgradeable components, I would have. But Apple didn't sell it.

In any case, this is missing the point. You're reacting to what you perceive as my griping. But I'm not actually griping. My point is that Apple is motivated by profit, and divides the hardware they produce with market segmentation. If they get the segmentation wrong, or if there is a bunch more profit that can be extracted by segmenting it differently, they'll extract it, like any company should. Limited hardware expandability is a part of that segmentation, as it reduces the bleed of low-margin parts into high-margin segments.

Of course everything is _possible_. But with the added space of DIMM sockets, something has to give. Bulkier laptop, less battery space, or something else. That is why you don't see iPad or iPhone competitors with DIMM sockets either.

Of course Apple doesn't have a big incentive to add such ports, but the fact that they've left them on the desktop Macs and the non-retina (and bulkier) MacBooks are an indication that it's not primarily a business decision, but more likely a design decision.

There is literally no room in the Air for socketable memory. Look at the teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+...) if you don't believe me. This thing is 80% battery, 20% highly dense circuit board.

There's barely enough room on there for an upgradeable SSD.

Until they make a standard DDR3 socket that's smaller, there's simply no way to fit removable memory into a computer that thin.

That's a terrible example. The MBA is too thin to have SO-DIMM sockets. I can't think of a single ultrabook in that size range that has user upgradable memory. The Thinkpad T440s is a good example. Its thicker than the air, half a pound heavier, and fits a smaller battery. But its one of the rare ultra books to have upgradable memory.

Remember, Macbooks used to have user serviceable memory and replaceable batteries. They also used to be 5 pounds for the 13.3". You think an appreciable percentage of people upgraded their memory back then? If not, how could Apple increase their service revenue by getting rid of a feature very few people used to begin with?

My 1.1kg Toshiba Portege R500 has (I still have it) upgradeable memory, cardbus port, replaceable battery, as well as a DVD-RW drive, SD card reader, gigabit network etc. The MBA is heavier and needs dongles for this and that if I want to plug it into a projector or a wired network. If I could have gotten an OS X machine along the lines of the R500, I would have. I simply prioritize functionality over form.

Perhaps Apple drive away buyers like me? Hell, even the mac mini I bought was next to impossible to upgrade. AFAICT, Apple make user-hostile hardware. It's no small part of the reason why I try to avoid Apple products unless the market, or my job, forces me not to.

The R500 had a flimsy plastic case, smaller screen, and a 40% smaller battery. The battey is the most space consuming component in a laptop, so trading it off can save weight and space for more features, but its just a different design choice.

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