Design First, Functionality Later

from the missing-wifi? dept

Wed, Sep 1st 2004 1:27pm — Mike Masnick

Unfortunately, this may be taken by some as an Apple bashing post, but it's surprising to find out that the fancy new iMacs everyone is talking about don't include built-in WiFi, but are simply WiFi "ready." Apple has been such a big proponent of WiFi with their Airport offerings that it just seems strange that this offering wouldn't also include WiFi -- especially as it would cut down on one more design-unfriendly wire sticking out of the machine. The article also complains about Apple's failure to include a TV-tuner card with TiVo like qualities. While that would have been nice, and could have been a major selling point, it doesn't seem as egregious as forgetting the WiFi.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Oliver Wendell Jones, 1 Sep 2004 @ 2:03pm

The drawback to all-in-one machines
No matter how much stuff you add to a sealed box computer, you'll still find a majority of the people who shove you into one of two categories:

1) Cheapskates - "Why did you include X, Y and Z? I need a cheaper machine and don't need all the fancy fluff".

2) Gadget Geeks - "Why did you leave out X, Y and Z? I need all that fancy fluff in my machine!"

#2 is also the main reason that I don't own a 'sealed box' PC.

If I really want a TV tuner card with Tivo capabilities, I just buy one and install it in my machine that includes expansion slots for just that sort of purpose.

Even with a laptop, which is a mostly-sealed PC, you usually have a couple of PCMCIA slots which let you add most features that would normally go inside a PC box AND the USB ports that let you add pretty much everything else outside of the box.

I guess Apple knows best about what their customers want, or at least the customers believe that Apple knows best so there is no point in doing anything excepting whatever Apple gives them.

I do agree in this day and age that WI-FI should be built into just about every PC.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2004 @ 3:06pm

Re: The drawback to all-in-one machines
"I guess Apple knows best about what their customers want" ... amazing eh?
My wife and I fell solidly into the don't-want-WiFi category when we bought her "WiFi ready" iBook a few months back.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Sullivan, 1 Sep 2004 @ 5:36pm

Schools!
iMacs are bought by schools in great numbers, many of which use wired LANs for their classroom networks and the $50-99 savings per unit is significant for them in not having Wi-Fi cost built in. Adding it is quick and easy if the customer wants it, and you can order it preinstalled by Apple. Giving customers the choice is a better move for Apple on a feature like Wi-Fi that is an added cost that not everyone will use.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jo, 1 Sep 2004 @ 11:57pm

No Subject Given
"it just seems strange that this offering wouldn't also include WiFi -- especially as it would cut down on one more design-unfriendly wire sticking out of the machine."

huh? The iMac G5 has a built in antenna. From the Apple web page (technical specs)

* Built-in antennas and expansion slot for optional 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme Card.

All Macs that have
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 2 Sep 2004 @ 12:08am

Re: No Subject Given
No, the point was that without the card, if you wanted to connect, you'd need an ethernet or dialup cable. Having WiFi built in standard would avoid that need.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chomper, 2 Sep 2004 @ 8:04am

No Subject Given
This is more nitpicking than anything else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John, 2 Sep 2004 @ 12:54pm

No Subject Given
"No, the point was that without the card, if you wanted to connect, you'd need an ethernet or dialup cable. Having WiFi built in standard would avoid that need."

I still don't see why this is a big deal in a desktop machine? If you want WiFi then put in an Airport card (and buy a router -- with an ugly wire or two hanging out the back). To this day I have friends whose PC's lack a sound card and they couldn't care less. It would be just lovely if every computer had everything, but since Apple has always offered WiFi as an installable option, what's the big deal that they still do the same thing?

Personally, I find the lack of pre-installed WiFi on a laptop a bigger deal. On a desktop, so what?
[ link to this | view in thread ]