From the very dawn of the personal computing era, the PC and Apple platforms have gone very different ways. IBM compatibles surged in popularity, while Apple was able to more closely guard the Maci…
They’re a business. Reducing their costs (while charging you a premium) is absolutely what they do.
Apple’s whole deal for decades now has been building a vertical supply chain. Using their own SSD controller is one less component they have to pay others for.
They just don’t give a shit about downsides: aftermarket repairers or user upgradeability.
There are some companies as bad as Apple (John Deere comes to mind), but it’s certainly not the norm.
User-replacable standard m.2 SSDs are bog standard and non-standard formats are really rare. Apart from Apple I can not think of many companies that do that. IIRC Red Magic cameras, and Synology NAS but that’s the only ones I can think of.
Is this a take in regards to soldering in new flash chips or replacing a board and then needing to wrestle Apple support during an RMA to replace a faulty component (because I quiet confidently believe, Apple will cross check your hardware with their records from the serial number).
And I don’t believe regular PC manufacturers/OEMs are that hard to argue with if I insert my own SSD.
The SSD in the M4 mini is upgradable, for those who aren’t aware.
It’s replaceable, it’s not upgradable.
Apple doesn’t use standard NVMe M.2 drives. The controller is built into the SoC rather than being on the storage device itself.
I’m aware, but I have upgraded my 256GB to 2TB so not sure what you’re on about. See: https://appleinsider.com/inside/mac-mini/tips/how-to-upgrade-the-ssd-in-your-m4-mac-mini
And: https://expandmacmini.com/
Saving this for later.
it never ceases to amaze me the amount of time, energy and money apple spends engineering things to be worse for customers.
In this case Apple also prioritizes performance.
It’s more cost effective to integrate the controller.
Being worse for customers is just a happy accident.
You and I both know that Apple doesnt do this shit for cost efficiency.
They do it to make make shit worse for consumers and “unauthorized” repair services.
They’re a business. Reducing their costs (while charging you a premium) is absolutely what they do.
Apple’s whole deal for decades now has been building a vertical supply chain. Using their own SSD controller is one less component they have to pay others for.
They just don’t give a shit about downsides: aftermarket repairers or user upgradeability.
Why? Anti-features aren’t just Apple. All big tech do it to users.
Edit: And automotive, white goods companies, etc, etc
There are some companies as bad as Apple (John Deere comes to mind), but it’s certainly not the norm.
User-replacable standard m.2 SSDs are bog standard and non-standard formats are really rare. Apart from Apple I can not think of many companies that do that. IIRC Red Magic cameras, and Synology NAS but that’s the only ones I can think of.
Is this a take in regards to soldering in new flash chips or replacing a board and then needing to wrestle Apple support during an RMA to replace a faulty component (because I quiet confidently believe, Apple will cross check your hardware with their records from the serial number).
And I don’t believe regular PC manufacturers/OEMs are that hard to argue with if I insert my own SSD.
https://expandmacmini.com/
It’s pretty easy
And how much does Apple like that?
Fuck em
Doesnt work during an RMA.
After that: Yeah, sure.
You could always just swap the original part back in if you need to do an RMA.