Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Software, Bad Apple
Rumors: Apple's 802.11n enabler for $5?
MacFixit reports that Apple plans to offer its 802.11n enabler for a $5 fee. It will enable 802.11n on Intel Core 2 Duo iMacs (except 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac), Intel Core 2 Duo MacBooks, Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros, and Mac Pros with the AirPort Extreme card option. They will also bundle the enabler with the new Airport Extreme Base stations. This is not a huge amount of money, but one wonders why the enabler wouldn't just be a free download. I'm not sure the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act" explanation offered by one of the comments holds much water. On the other hand, it's not going to be a huge profit item for Apple either.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dash said 1:38PM on 1-16-2007
One word (acronym, rather): EULA.
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Andrew Hamilton said 1:46PM on 1-16-2007
Does anyone know if and when Apple will be selling new 802.11 n wireless cards for those of us who have earlier, Intel Core Duo MacBooks?
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Marcus said 1:47PM on 1-16-2007
Apple is being cheap. Seriously cheap.
I hope they reverse the decision.. otherwise I can imagine the update will hit numerous illegal websites within hours of its release.
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big d said 1:54PM on 1-16-2007
ehh, thats what file sharing is for. don't pay for that stuff.
on another note, how many things that should be built into mac os x aren't? Sure I can crop digital camera photos, but what about basic images, for say an upload?
How many little utilities do we need just to make os x behave like the old mac os used to...
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emperor boswelox said 1:54PM on 1-16-2007
a 'cracked' version will probably be available long before they start selling it.
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anacronismo said 2:02PM on 1-16-2007
Does this mean that all new macbooks are N enabled?
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russdogg said 2:07PM on 1-16-2007
the core duo 2 macbooks are N enabled, not the older core duo macbooks.
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Brock Batsell said 2:11PM on 1-16-2007
Erica, I think you underestimate the intricacies of federal law. Sarbanes-Oxley has good intentions, and has helped quite a bit. However, it was written and enacted very quickly after Enron and not all of its provisions were as well thought-out as they could have been. If you step away from Apple and take a look at the provision in question in general, I think you'll agree that it makes sense from an idealistic perspective.
The provision requires that products and services that are not complete upon transfer of ownership or transfer of payment must not be accounted as profits in total until they are delivered completely. In other words, say I am redesigning a website for a very large corporation, and it will take me 2 years, but I require the payment upfront. I cannot account (we're talking strictly accounting here) that payment as complete profit in the first quarter of the redesign. I have to distribute that profit across all 8 quarters (although depending on the situation, I can redistribute it in different ways). Yes, I already have the money in hand, but as of yet, it is what is termed unearned profit. As the profit is earned, the capital is transferred to my earned profit account. I think looking at this generally, we can all see how this helps prevent corporations from fudging the books to make it look like they're earning more money than they should.
Now if we look at this particular situation, I think it's fair to say that since the 802.11n feature was not announced or described as a feature of the products that were bought 1-2 quarters ago, adding on that hardware feature could be construed as the product having not been completely delivered at the time of sale by Apple's attorneys, and, more importantly the SEC. If they charge a separate price for the hardware feature upgrade, then they can represent it as a separate product and sale, and thus be free of any suspicion by the SEC. At $5, Apple is making no substantive money off of this, and there would be no reason to alienate its customers unless it felt it had to to comply with federal law. My $0.02.
P.S.: My apologies if any of that was incoherent, I'm in a rush and didn't have time to proofread.
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Matthew said 2:12PM on 1-16-2007
There's been a lot of discussion about this elsewhere.
My guess is that Apple will offer a free download and a CD/DVD version for a shipping/handling charge of $4.99. That falls in line with their various Up To Date programs.
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Ian said 2:23PM on 1-16-2007
apple should have just said bring it in and you can upgrade to n for $10. Then no one would have to bitch ab it already being there and being 5$.
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prateeko said 2:26PM on 1-16-2007
This is pure BS. I already paid almost three thousand dollars for my seventeen inch mac book pro! How much more is Apple looking for?!
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FamousPete said 2:27PM on 1-16-2007
Sure sounds like some nickel-and-dime BS to me.
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Chris said 2:34PM on 1-16-2007
The Sarbanes Oxley claim is close, but not exact. I am an accountant and auditor, and there are accounting standards in generally accepted accounting principles that require that a liability to be assumed if a product is shipped that requires some further work to be done in order for the product to be complete. Since Apple would essentially be admitting that its product is not "complete" since it still requires the additional software to activate the 802.11n, they might be required to restate their earnings if they shipped the software for free. That said, there is nothing to prevent them from charging a nominal fee, like $0.01, to get around this.
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Willyboy said 2:45PM on 1-16-2007
How many points is this going to cost??
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DrWho said 3:05PM on 1-16-2007
I'm inclined to believe that this is due to legal/accounting reasons rather than nickle and diming reasons. And not in the least because those proposing this have offered much more coherent arguments than those who think apple is squeezing them for every last $ they can.
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david said 3:15PM on 1-16-2007
wow, another great post.
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Joe Coughlin said 3:39PM on 1-16-2007
I wouldn't be surprised to see this in Leopard for free if Sarbanes-Oxley is the problem and I wouldn't be shocked if Apple didn't care who downloaded it on the internets for free.
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ten_eighteen said 4:17PM on 1-16-2007
I agree with previous comments that have said that Apple is being cheap. They really are, and it is becoming more and more frequent of an occurance, which is especially evident with the iPods. One example is that they stopped selling the iPods with an AC adapter. Also, I think it is ridiculous that software updates for the iPods do not work on previous generation models, even when it is just a simple update of the menu system.
It becomes hard to like a company that continues to screw over their loyal customers.
Just my $0.02
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parker said 4:22PM on 1-16-2007
somebody please answer this!!! nobody has ever answered this question that was raised
2. Does anyone know if and when Apple will be selling new 802.11 n wireless cards for those of us who have earlier, Intel Core Duo MacBooks?
We paid almost 3grand for this and it would be BS if we can't get it
Posted at 1:46PM on Jan 16th 2007 by Andrew Hamilton
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Ravi said 4:34PM on 1-16-2007
You wonder why a company wants to charge for products and services?
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