Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's 'Replacement' Surface Pro Charger Cable Is an Off-Brand, and Short (theinquirer.net)
Carly Page writes with a story from The Inquirer, where: As part of its Surface Pro charger recall, Microsoft has chosen to replace the sleek, shapely matt[e] plastic original with a cable approximately half the length and ordered from an off-brand manufacturer, in our case China's I-Sheng Electric Wire and Cable Company. Writer Peter Gothard points out a plausible reason for the length, though: "The extraordinarily short length of the cord is presumably to discourage behaviour that resulted in the "tightly wrapped" or "repeatedly bent" cables catching fire in at least 56 separate incidents."
You forgot to include the obligatory "/s". The rubber shielding on Apple's power cables is anything but crack-resistant.
(Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft's choices don't suck, but don't hold up Apple as an example to aspire to in this instance.)
I think the design goal was to look and feel expensive and trendy. How it wears is a different discussion.
No, the Design Goal was to provide increased flexibility over the typical PVC-jacketed cables, under more environmental conditions (particularly cold).
It was likely inspired by the cables on the soldering stations in the engineering labs at Apple. The base-to-pen cable is often silicone rubber-jacketed, and in my personal experience, they are unusually flexible and supple, tend not to kink nor tangle, and stay that way over time. The exact same characteristics that are exhibited by my MacBook Pro's silicone-rubber (or EDPM)-jacketed AC adapter cables.