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If people are walking by an apple store every day, but go bargain-hunting on the internet when they need an Apple product, then sure. Lower the price, get the customers away from Amazon, and you can make sure they get the genuine item.
But if customers are going to buy from Amazon anyway, it's impossible to drop the price far enough to make counterfeits unprofitable, because counterfeits can always be more profitable as they can target lower specs.
If a 2.5A fast charger costs $10 to make, and a shitty 500mA counterfeit costs $5 to make, the counterfeiter will make 100% profit even if the legitimate manufacturer sells at the cost of production.
But I'm 100% in agreement that Apple underdesigned the strain relief on the MagSafe connectors, probably for aesthetic reasons.
The question is, who is going to win: the legion of teenagers and young adults who listen to audio via the headphone jack, or device makers?
(It's the legion.)
If you had a replacement that was better - cheaper, less of an annoyance than $5 headphones plugged into a cheap phone - then you might win. But the proposed replacement is superexpensive, battery-powered wireless headphones. When the no-strain-relief Apple cables break, probably within weeks, you're supposed to buy another superexpensive set. That's not going anywhere with the horde of teenagers. It's a non-starter.
Apple favors form over function and tries to make their cables in interfaces as small as possible. The result is that there's no room left in their designs for adequate strain relief. They end up using the smallest cables they can get away with and have a bushing around the cable as it enters it's housing to protect against lateral force and that's about it. There's rarely any internal strain relief mechanism.
That's not the same as implementing good strain relief. I used to work for a company that made medical devices. One of our products started with a cable with strain relief, and it kept breaking (a wearable monitor). We 'implemented better strain relief', and it kept breaking. It was revision D where we got it right and the cables stopped breaking. And if cables can't survive a 90-degree bend, then stop them from being able to be bent that far in the first place (we had to).
And to be fair, other companies don't have this problem, because they engineer their chargers for how people will use them - basically what you're describing is another form of "you're holding it wrong".
Instead of yanking the cable at a 90-degree angle and winding as tightly as possible, let the cable come out of the charger naturally, perpendicular to the charger, make a small loop, and then wind the rest of the cable gently around the two plastic hooks that are provided. If you do this, the charger will last a LOT longer.
The simple fact is that there is no way to make a wire that gets twisted and yanked and bent at a 90-degree angle, and which will nevertheless last forever. That's just not a thing we can do.
Another tip is: own 2 of these chargers, one for home and one for walking around, so that you don't have to wrap up your only charger over and over, every day.
Apple chose not to allow people to keep a cable connected not just for the aesthetics but also to keep them from reusing existing cables (instead of an hypothetical lightning mouse cord) and getting a poor UX.
Looking at his image comparison, with and without the circles, he's absolutely right that without the circle it is easier to see the image.
However, which looks nicer? I'm sure there was discussion at MS about which to chose, and it won't be the first time that visual appeal won out over function.
As an example, the lack of strain relief on Apple cables (and unfortunately many other companies have followed).
Another issue with the lack of the circle in theory is that it allows designers/developers to believe that they have free reign over this space. The circle may be as much of a hint to designers that they are limited to these areas to keep the UI as clean as possible.
If you tie up your cable in the loop-up-then-down-then-sidewise it will improve things, but then you will put it in your bag and it will bend at that spot anyway as soon as some pressure is applied on the up-loop.
This is why every manufacturer uses strain relief, including apple now.
Saying "users are using the product the wrong way!" is the epitome of form over function.
1: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31Jg9AjCdOL...
That wasn't a fundamental problem with the MagSafe connector, but yet another symptom of Apple's detrimental obsession with aesthetics. The cable (like all Apple cables in recent years) had inadequate strain relief. Apple knew this, but decided that frayed and burned cables were preferable to an ugly strain relief boot. The problems with Apple cables are easily prevented with a few inches of electrical tape or a couple of pieces of heatshrink tubing to provide a satisfactory level of strain relief.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/why-a...
I have a new electric kettle with a plug that incorporates a ring into the strain relief -- your fingers will always grab the ring to pull it out of the outlet, and that's where the cable-to-plug connection is strongest.
The 43% profit margin mentioned in the article definitely won't incentivize them to improve.
Form > Function
Why does Apple continue to ignore strain relief on their cabling?
It was an acknowledged design flaw, and Apple fixed it with more strain relief on later models, and a changed angle for a real fix.
The durability of the charger has little to do with the presence of a design flaw in the cable.
I'm calling BS on this whole thread. The reason for the breakage is in the green circles, not the red ones: http://i.imgur.com/EYSo5.jpg
The 2007 cables had small buttons on the sides that you had to press to disengage the connector from the device. This meant you had to pull on the body of the connector to remove it. The 2009 design removes the buttons and the catches, which means the plug can be removed by yanking on the cable. It's the yanking on the cable that is causing the problem in the image, you can tell because the wire sleeve is pulled back from the connecter rather than split horizontally, which is what would happen if it was a strain relief issue.
Yanking from the cable rather than the connector affects all cables. Apple connectors typically fit very snugly in their sockets (which is a good thing generally) which means it takes more force to pull them out, consequently pulling out the wires as well. It's not a problem unique to Apple by any means. Ever have a pair of headphones that start to crackle when you touch the connector? Same problem.
Apple cords do indeed have strain relief, and they are fine for typical use. They may not hold up as well as a longer relief when bent at high angles consistently, but generally they do the job they need to do when sticking out the side of a device.
Though I like the button design, if I were to guess why Apple removed the buttons, is because I'll bet people were still pulling on the cords to try to remove the connector and doing far worse damage to cord and/or socket due to the mechanical connection between the two.
Aside from Apple brand cables, which lack strain relief, I don’t think I’ve ever killed a single USB or Ethernet cable. If it weren’t for the transition from USB 2 to 3, I’d probably keep the same cables for my entire life at this rate.
Apple's cables have for generations now been fraying and cracking all because someone decided that strain relief was an unsightly and unnecessary thing.
It could be forgiven if it was on one era of products, and learned their lesson when people started getting electrical shocks, devices started dying, and things being set on fire - but no, they persist.
Even today they've only made the most minor of attempts at introducing strain relief.
I think between 2013 and 2018 I went through three replacement MagSafe 2 adapters at $75 a pop.
The MagSafe idea I miss. Their implementation? No.
Even your claimed failure rate, 2 replacements in 10 years, is abysmal! That's what, 3 or 4 years per cable? I have cables 20+ years old that are as good as the day I bought them.
[0] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Apple%20strain%20relief&type=c...
Apple has not implemented proper strain relief, with a perforated sleeve (presumably for aesthetic reasons), and they still use a thin, over-flexible wire. Their own website shows the cable wrapped tightly--on a page about avoiding cable damage, no less. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201600)
Blaming the user for, essentially, not being an engineer is common in the tech industry, and it really doesn't help anything, especially from a company that claims to be (and generally is!) as user-friendly as Apple.
Over time their strain relief has gotten shorter or longer https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/03...
So a lot of people's memories about Apple's strain relief may come from one of their darker periods when they were super short, stiff and useless.
In my personal experience their previous laptop MagSafe had absolutely useless strain relief and mine would always start going bad within 6-12 months. https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13878908/2...
The current braided MagSafe cables actually have zero visible strain relief but seem like they're simply stronger, mine has held up well so far.