Now I’m REALLY getting worried…..
Apple reportedly stops developing AirPort WiFi router products, moving employees to other projects

Let’s be honest, a lot of people bashed the new MBP and in all honesty I was also disappointed and I’m not going to repeat that now.It’s clear apple is choosing in laptops a different route than a lot of us has hoped, but now that I read this…. I’m really beginning to wonder if Apple has TOTALLY lost it’s way.

When I changed from windows to Apple the reason was simple, EVERYTHING worked seamlessly. In our home and studio we have all macs and the integration between them is absolutely out of this world, it works flawlessly in most cases. For work it’s important we have a solid wifi connection but also that we can run around with cameras and phones and laptops and keep the connection between different rooms, the airports are great for this, setup is incredibly easy with a simple app and it… well it just works.

But…..
At home we of course also want some switching (we have a house where we use 3 airports for complete coverage) but I also want airplay. We have the airports connected to our home theater set and a receiver in another room so we can listen to music wherever we are.

Apple is now stopping the production of the airports…. now let’s stop and think about this.

there are other routers…
But airplay is JUST apple, back to my mac is not always supported, time machine doesn’t work on all routers (connecting a harddrive), iTunes multiroom audio is gone probably, meaning that if they stop production and sales of the airport we loose all this “cool” stuff that works like a charm, we lose the easy management of several routers *(we have a total of 6) via one app…. and….

pffff
This is another step from Apple that I really don’t get.
For us it means we are now actively looking at alternatives, because if a router stops we have to replace it immediately.

According to Apple it wants to focus more on consumers and I get that, although I find it a weird choice, but this is a CONSUMER product, it’s one of the easiest and best working routers I ever worked with to be honest, so IF apple is indeed aiming for the consumer then why the heck do they take out the ONE thing that connects everything in both the house and the office…..

or are they coming out with a new device?
Maybe a build in router in an Apple TV?
Which would be ridiculous because it would mean we have to place a lot of Apple TVs in locations where we don’t want it, and extra Apple TVs in locations where we do need them…..

I don’t know anymore, but being an Apple user is getting harder and harder. I’ll wait and see how Windows operates on the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro and make a decision maybe sooner than later.

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Apple, and everything works like a charm but the airports are part of that experience, if you take that out it’s a question of how will my wifi work… will there be a router with airplay from a cheap brand that sucks with wifi and makes it necessary to reboot every week or so (we had those) or will there be expensive high-end routers adding Airplay if they have to pay a lot of money to apple for it while they only aim at businesses?

For us who use the router both for business and personal this is going to be a huge hurdle, we need solid routers that are stable and powerful, but I also need airplay for the music in the studio, our Apple TV’s (which are connected via wifi), our iPads and iPhones etc. etc.

It’s becoming a mess….
Come on Apple….
Don’t keep us in the dark but at least be open about what you’re going to do, for the first time in a long time I’m actually afraid that I will have to redesign our whole infrastructure.

 

Apple created an awesome ecosystem and is now slowly (well talk about slowly, it’s going PRETTY fast) totally destroying that.

 

Let’s hope they are creating something MUCH cooler, but the way it’s presented at the moment is that IF we see a device like this it will probably be a device (like I mentioned with the Apple TV) that has “onboard” wifi routing capabilities, in other words aimed at people that can place it in a small house and cover the house that way, maybe a Siri hub or smart house whatever, we have a device like that for our home but it’s a disaster to place it correctly so it covers the area we need, mostly also because the only option to extend the range is to buy another one (and at 250.00 that’s a bit expensive). So if Apple is going that way it’s yet another Apple part of the Eco system that gets axed in our setup, like you guys we also don’t have an unlimited budget.