Re: Why Does Apple Hate Me?

In article <XQCJg.36802$43.24767@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!nnrp1.uunet.ca>,
Clever Monkey <clvrmnky.invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tim McNamara wrote:
In article
<NOSPAmar2005-9EF9B4.14531131082006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Eric Lindsay <NOSPAmar2005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I do think Apple were a little premature in dropping the modem in
laptop models, but I imagine that the USA market may demand
totally different facilities to some other countries, where say
WiFi is rare.

IMHO not including a built-in modem in a laptop is a significant
error. I suspect it was a cost-saving measure. Many laptops are
used in business situations for long-distance or local travel, and
daily connectivity and/or fax capability is important. Having to
use an external modem strikes me as a step back to the 80s.

Maybe. I suspect Apple did a review of typical use of their laptops,
and found that the modem users were outliers. It is totally
anecdotal, but every single laptop owner I know has never found a use
for a modem. This is true even for most of the business users here at
the office.

Well, I'm an outlier then. I am a consultant to long term care
facilities (nursing homes) and it is not uncommon to have to fax
something to print it because the IT infrastructure is so outdated
(talking Windows 98 or Windows NT) and there are no suitable printers to
plug into (no USB port, no Ethernet port, only an old parallel port).
Or having to fax something because it needs a signature, or because the
facility doesn't have e-mail. I've got facilities that don't even have
computers except one in the business office for the bookkeeper. I work
with staff that don't own computers and don't even know how to send or
receive e-mail if you put them in front of one.

Basically I deal with a lot of 20th century IT systems on a weekly basis.

The rise of the RIM/Blackberry pagers has made the ability to check
email with a computer over a tweaky modem connection less useful.
Sending faxes while on the road just isn't all that important, at
least for the software business. Every customer we can hope to sell
to already has an email address. A short call into the office to
send person X document Y (or the URL for the docs; everything is
already available on our website) is all that is needed.

I'm guessing Apple determined that most of those modems they shipped
were staying dark, and this trend was only continuing.

Like you, Apple functions in a world where your experience is normal.
But that's only part of the world. The rest of us are not living in the
shiny high-tech world of computers. A lot of the U.S. is not computer
literate, and that holds true in much of the world- and is a much larger
issue in most of the world.

Note that I'm not saying that no one needs to use a modem. I'm
saying that it is likely that the number of people who need one are
tailing off. If this is the case (and my anecdotal evidence suggests
that it is) then it is a smart business choice to remove this cost
from laptops to keep unit-costs (and the costs for post-release
maintenance, documentation, support...) down.

I mean, if the existence of a modem was the deciding factor for a
significant number of new laptop buyers (and laptops are usually
replaced quite often, so this is a busy market) I can't see Apple
choosing to abandon those sales. Decisions like this are not done on
a whim. I would bet the price of a new USB modem that someone ran
the numbers and found the use of modems well into the tail end of the
bell-curve.

Perhaps. But it is a trivial thing to include a modem, frankly.
.

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