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Apple Now Relying On Customers To Fix Their Products

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Apple’s latest luxury tech product strips away vital functionality for pretentious aesthetics and they leave a messy ecosystem of accessories to clean up the mess.

When the company cut the cord and dropped the universal audio jack from their iPhone 7 back in September, they offered to include a lightning-to-audio converter but it still took less than a day for customers to realise that Apple was selling them short and push back.

Apple relied on established companies like Belkin and crowdfunded upstarts like Fuze to fill the gap and bring back basic functionality to their products.

Likewise, this miscalculation Apple made about their true wireless AirPods has already resulted in a growing demand for AirPod straps.

And now, today, The Line Dock has launched its bid to address the shortcomings of the new Macbook range. It adds USB ports, HDMI, MiniDisplay Port, four Qi charging pads. a USB-C port and a 20,000mAh battery, with additional SSD hard-drives available as an add-on.

Sure, there’s a case to made that this approach encourages innovation and growth for accessory companies and allows Apple to focus on the aspects of the product they know best.

However, for users who just want to buy a fully-featured phone and not buy into a half-baked, infuriating and overwhelming ecosystem. It’s a setback that leaves them with a half a product at a premium price, which they then have to go and complete by spending additional time and money supplementing with accessories.If Apple wants to retain the mainstream customer base it took wholesale with the original iPhone, it needs to rectify this situation.

Accessibility is important, and the gradual stripping away of that accessibility has quite literally cost Apple when it comes to market share. The streamlining of their products used to be a good thing for users but now its become an obstacle for that same mass audience they try to court with a new handset every year.