Slashdot Mirror
Apple Abandons Development of Wireless Routers, To Focus On Products That Return More Profit (bloomberg.com)
Apple has disbanded its division that develops wireless routers in a move that further sharpens the company's focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue, Bloomberg reports. From the article:Apple began shutting down the wireless router team over the past year, dispersing engineers to other product development groups, including the one handling the Apple TV. Apple hasn't refreshed its routers since 2013 following years of frequent updates to match new standards from the wireless industry. The decision to disband the team indicates the company isn't currently pushing forward with new versions of its routers. Routers are access points that connect laptops, iPhones and other devices to the web without a cable. Apple currently sells three wireless routers, the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time capsule. The Time capsule doubles as a backup storage hard drive for Mac computers.
as someone who supports consumer grade routers, this is the best news I could get today. these airports are the worst
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Circa 2010 (IIRC) the Airport was the best selling router on the planet. Now it's not selling.
Glad they explained what they are /s
"Routers are access points that connect laptops, iPhones and other devices to the web without a cable."
Samsung announced that they are abandoning the development of smartphones, focusing on more profitable products like ordnance weapons.
I'm so glad my Airport router died. In true Apple fashion, you needed external software to configure it. Totally bizarre.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Routers are a dime a dozen, but Time Capsule used to be unusual: it was the only network device usable for Time Machine backups. IIRC this was because Time Machine needs an HFS disk to back up to, and just about all routers don't support HFS.
iPhoto also had this requirement, and was unusable when you parked its library on a FAT32 disk.
Has this changed, and do other routers support Time Machine these days? Or does this mean the end for the easiest-to-use backup solution ever?
What amazed me is this news:
Routers are access points that connect laptops, iPhones and other devices to the web without a cable
Oh... THAT'S what routers are.... I have apparently been holding mine wrong this whole time...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Most designs of these devices aren't routers, rather they're layer 3 switches with an attached wireless access point. The ones that aren't are just a combination of three devices: A router, a switch, and an access point.
"Routers are access points that connect laptops, iPhones and other devices to the web without a cable....
Thanks for clearing that up for me - what is this place now, Facebook?
Routers aren't viewed by consumers as a fashion statement, and therefore cannot command the usual high price that other Apple fashion statements command.
Like that $300 book of pictures of just their products?
Because if your Desktop and Documents folders live on iCloud drive, and your music streams from the iTunes store, why would you need a Time Machine backup any more?
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
Most designs of these devices aren't routers, rather they're layer 3 switches with an attached wireless access point.
That is the difference between a wireless router and a wireless access point, in theory. In practice, I have seen devices with one ethernet port and one wireless interface have routing, and I have seen a device with multiple ethernet ports and one wireless interface not have routing. And how they're sold is fairly irrelevant, you need to read specs and/or reviews.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Most of the people these days who would consider springing for an Apple-branded access point...
When you start your comment off with an unsubstantiated, made-up factoid, it lowers the strength of the position you are trying to support.
.
iow, Nice Try. Wanna Play Again?
The annoying part for me when it comes to having to replace them will be finding some new solution for AirPlay; admittedly this will be a nice motivator for finally ditching iTunes.
Apple's killed off peripheral businesses in order to strengthen their core businesses before.
For example, Apple used to have a $1B/year printer business, which was highly profitable. They killed it, because doing so for them to get all the major printer companies to ship their standard printers with support for both PC and Mac, which ultimately grew Mac sales.
They used to sell a digital camera, the first consumer digital camera that was easy to use with a computer. When the digital camera industry developed some decent standards and became easy for consumers to use, Apple killed their digital camera, and sold Canon, Nikon, etc.
Same for AppleTalk -> EtherNet, ADB -> USB.
Apple introduced their routers when routers were extremely consumer hostile with horrible software, and Apple's routers are well made and very easy to set up and use, making it easy for Mac owners to get online. Now, routers have gotten a lot better, to the point where Apple doesn't need to invest R&D in making them usable.
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
The original Airport Extreme was a pretty good 802.11g access point and was pretty good value when it was introduced. .11g was pretty rare then and most APs were buggy crap (I bought a D-Link one about 6 months later and it rarely managed an uptime of a week). The Airport Express was nice if you needed something portable, but if you didn't plan on taking it with you then you were paying a big premium for the size. Now, half-decent APs are dirt cheap and there's no space for differentiation.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
One thing Apple routers had was the ability to set themselves up as a Bonjour proxy, so for example your Mac could advertise its iTunes library sharing, but go to sleep. The router would repoint the address to itself, and if you tried to access that library from another device, the router would send a wakeup to the Mac, then repoint Bonjour back at it.
Also, while the rest of the world uses uPNP, Apple routers use NAT-PMP.
Are these technologies just dead now?
And in response to the comments above about more availability for network drives to be used as remote Time Machine backups, instead of requiring a Time Capsule, will Apple decide to kill off remote backups entirely because the experience is no longer guaranteed or even consistent with third-party devices?
Michael J.
Root, God, what is difference?
Too bad, I had nothing but good experiences with the Airport line.
Trolling is a art,
I can see where Apple would want to stop focusing on making devices like routers...
However there is one very negative side effect - going forward where will the Time Capsule support be? That is actually a huge selling point AND customer loyalty point, because it works so well for maintaining backups when people are otherwise terrible at it.
What I'm hoping is that Apple will go the same route they did with the monitors and LG, that they will partner with some other router vender to make new routers that still have drives built in configured for Time Machine... the next year should be interesting to see how Apple transitions a number of things.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is actually funny reading, I love how much there is going on in a "wireless router". Have your ever tried explaining to someone that WiFi isn't the Internet? I swear I was almost beaten to death by a flash mob of millennials.
I find this disappointing. For me the AirPort Express was *THE* choice to use -- and I still use AirPlay on them too.
My biggest problem was covering 90 thousand square feet area (indoors and out). I bought thousands and thousands of dollars worth of various router brands (and returned them all) trying to do this. Key word would be reliably. They all suck. Except Apple's. The AirPort's ability to relay / extend the network wirelessly made it the winner. They just work...
Their form factor made them easy to deploy too -- no ugly antenna's all over the place. Sure, lack of antenna may have limited their range ... I just bought more of them.
Now I'm back to square one again. Ugh.
and get over your childish tech tribalism--hopefully you'll learn that technology is supposed to "automagically work together". The point of technology is to make peoples' lives easier, not to serve as a basis for chest-thumping.
They're not selling any. Every man and his dog gets a "free" wireless switch/modem from their ISP; Corporates will rarely choose these Apple products; Who's left?
The only wireless router I've ever owned that didn't need to be rebooted all the time (or ever) and didn't have weird compatibility problems with certain clients that needed their wifi toggled to fix weird performance and latency issues. Yes, you can complain about the configuration and interface, but you do that like once, and the rest of the time you hope to leave the thing alone.
Now - where can I buy a router this isn't full of sales gimmicks and just works right? Clearly going to the high-end of consumer routers doesn't cover that.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
With the amount of choices out there for hot spots, routers, and WAPs who cares if Apple doesn't produce one. It's like complaining if a car model is no longer being produced.
Sent from my TARDIS
Now I can't have a sleek, friendly overpriced filter to match my sleek, friendly, overpriced desktop, all-in-one, laptop, notebook, tablet, fablet, phonelet, phone, Bluetooth earplugs and charging stations! My life won't match! It will be like I've lost my identity! I feel so... open-source. So dirty. Confused. Where is Steve to talk me what to think? How can I be creative anymore?
Why doesn't Apple grow a pair of balls and just state such news in a press release in stead of these organised rumors?
Also, I never realized that access points had cables, which is what that statement seemed to suggest
What? You didn't have a brand new shiny Apple Macbook at the ready at all times to configure your router? For shame!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The average consumer has no idea what's going on. They think they have a "3d TV" that uses "AI" connected to the "wireless internet" with their "modem."
o There are no 3D consumer televisions. Only single POV stereovision.
o There is no AI. Because there is no "I." Yet.
o There is no wireless Internet. It's 99.9999999999999999999% wires, and a good deal of the rest is optical.
o Hardly just a modem.
And the above? That's the stuff they are close to getting right.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
No, it just means that Tim Cook, pencil pusher, cancelled the product line to improve short term profitability without worrying too much about long term effects. I presume that iThings will just suck more as a result, which will only be important to an iThing victim.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
You can trash that subject all you want, but Apple products used to offer features with value, once you accounted for all the benefits. Value may not be lowest price. I've owned three Apple routers from the very first flying saucer (with phone modem) to the 3TB Time Capsule. Each has been trouble free and required attention, like never. Earlier Airport software allowed me to look at my logs, I knew problems were in the air when that was taken away for a pretty interface. There have been no updates in a long while. Steve Jobs used to spend his time at product announcements promoting the benefits the new products brought to users. Now, it is all about profit. Tim Cook ought to sit down and watch Steve's one man shows from the first iMac to his last. The new pro series laptops did the right thing with USB-C, the wrong on so much more. Nothing to see here folks, walk away. OS X has been nothing but trouble since El Capitan for me and others. USB is not reliable and the SDHC reader is iffy. No wonder it is gone from the new laptops. Photos can't properly sync with my iPhone. iTunes turned into a clumsy mess and gives me alerts about my iPhone software update after I've updated it. My next computer will likely be a Microsoft Surface and my next phone a Google Pixel. BTW, I use Linux at work, it ain't there yet. When Apple gave me what I considered good value, I spent my money there. I don't see it any longer. Nothing to do with this announcement, all to do with the lack of vision and value.
Up here in Canada, it's increasingly common for the ISP to provide all-in-one router and modem units. And... what end user even has a clue what putting a modem into "bridge" mode means... other than more work?
At some point, it's just more confusing for Apple to sell routers. I suspect they'll launch some sort of AP-only in the future to support various proprietary stuff.
I think you've hit the nail on the head with this. When I first got my Airport Extreme N, it was the only device out there with 802.11n that I could get my hands on so I could connect my shiny new 802.11n enabled laptop to the home network. These days the ISP's give you a wireless router when you sign up and most people just use that. I also got an Airport Express 2nd Gen so I could use AirTunes via the optical out to my amp. Worked great. Replaced that amp with a newer version which supported AirTunes directly so I didn't need the Express anymore. It's a crowded market space and Apple don't really have any extra value any more to provide.
I have an ASUS WiFI router and a TimeCapsule WiFi.
AirPlay is way more reliable and consistent over the Apple WiFi than the non-Apple products for some reason. Like multi-cast AirPlay device discovery is more optimized on Apple gear. I really like using highly reliable Apple Express remote AirPlay audio, but wonder if those too will be discontinued?
I mean I know more people listen to music now just on their phones, but I happen to like casting it to a real amplifier with nice speakers wireless. With a mini setup as massive music server, I can use WiFI to push music all over the house to wired and wiress speakers - something bluetooth isn't really able to handle.
Pondering this one.
Apple got into the router business because they wanted to facilitate the move to wireless connectivity for their laptops, and nobody else was making routers that were designed to be easy to set up and use. Other companies have since picked up that mission and run with it, so Apple no longer has anything unique to offer. And Apple can't get premium pricing without that since they can't sell routers as a fashion statement; normally people don't see them.