Ampers & Dot

This week played host to one of my favorite annual events: Mobile World Congress. Each year at MWC, mobile device manufacturers preview their upcoming toys; showing off new features, crazy concepts, and basically making me salivate with gadget envy.

The big story in my mind this year was the preview of Windows Mobile 6.5, but because that wasn’t quite as exciting as I wanted it to be… I’m going to talk about something completely different that unexpectedly caught my attention: the GSM Association pushing for the standardization of Micro USB for mobile phones!

The quick rundown, is that nearly all of the big phone makers are on board to outfit every device with the same connection type. You’d only need one charger for multiple devices - if you were traveling and lost/forgot your charger it would be very easy to find a usable replacement - at the office and you’re phone’s dying, of course someone has a charger that fits - and a myriad of other reasons that this is just awesome.

Of course, it’s worth noting that I said “nearly all of the big phone makers”… not “all”. The one blaring exception of course, is Apple.

Apple will likely opt to stick with its proprietary Dock Connection for the iPhone, meaning that consumers will continue to be forced to use cables which cost boatloads and can pretty much only be found at Apple stores. You know what? This bothers me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m an Apple fan. But no matter how pretty the devices are, Apple’s stubbornness with its hardware has always driven me bonkers. Here are my three biggest gripes:

• One button mouse. Look, I get it: Apple designs simpler machines. Then why do I have to hold down a button before clicking every few minutes? Isn’t that actually LESS simple? Apple has known that a secondary click option is necessary, but instead of creating hardware that allows this - they give you a work around that complicates things and slows down work.
• Non removable batteries. This one is just pure extortion. Simple fact: over time batteries degrade and lose their ability to hold a full charge. Apple knows this. Yet, iPods, iPhones, and some of its laptops house batteries that can’t be removed by consumers. Of course you can PAY Apple to do it for you… but once a battery is dead most people just replace their iPods/phones instead.
• Price. NO details needed here. No one can argue Apple’s hardware is cheap. But with Apple stores selling Apple products, all with the Apple name, all proceeds go to… you guessed it: Apple.

Really, what it comes down to for each of my grips is indeed, stubbornness. It’s Apple being “Different” - keeping up its unique image (and keeping 100% control over hardware sales). But would changing any of these things really change Apple? Not even a little bit. Apple will always have cool looking, sleek devices that others try to emulate. It will always have the Apple Fanboys. And most importantly: Apple will always be unique.

So Apple’s unwillingness to standardize to Micro USB doesn’t surprise me, but it just adds to the list. Apple will continue to own its market by being the only one producing Apple-capable products - and it will similarly, continue to drive me bonkers.