
Apple exited the home Wi-Fi market at the wrong time - walterbell
https://9to5mac.com/2018/12/30/apple-wifi-wrong-time/
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OldHand2018
On the contrary, I think Apple exited the home Wi-Fi market at the perfect
time. They had a premium-priced product that didn't have the features that the
new premium products were about to offer.

I bought the Eero during their 3-pack pre-order and have been using it since
their first batch shipped to their first customers. It's a wonderful product
and I tell everyone who asks how much I like it.

But... I can't help but get the feeling that they are having trouble building
a sustainable business. They've kind of set themselves up as a service company
that sells one-time-purchase hardware. I get sales emails from them all the
time trying to get me to buy into their "subscription" service, which is
offering things that I couldn't care less about. And at the same time, I have
a nagging feeling that they are collecting data about me and will someday
monetize it when they are desperate for cash.

If Apple is observing the market, they could sweep in with a product that
offers everything that people want while respecting privacy and has a
sustainable business model. Just because they left the market doesn't mean
they have to stay out.

~~~
eeeeeeeeeeeee
I replaced an aging Apple Airport system with eero and I’ve noticed the same.
They are somewhat aggressive about trying to upsell subscriptions (malware
protection, filtering for kids, etc).

I hope they have a sustainable business on hardware alone because it’s the
only system I was able to get working in this house and it’s very reliable.

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danh1979
Still running a 2009 AirPort Extreme at our house. I haven't yet brought
myself to replace it, even though I'd probably see a significant benefit from
802.11ac support and better ipv6 support

It has been reliable for nearly a decade with barely a few thoughts. Much more
than I can say about any previous router I had.

I can't decide whether to go as open-as-possible-but-more-expensive, or with
something like Ubiquity, or what.

~~~
throw0u1t
It depends on the home. I use 2.4GHz and disable 5GHz because it causes a lot
of issues.

The latest issue I have is where the phone I'm writing this on keeps switching
from 2.4 to 5GHz when in the bedroom. However, when it switches from 2.4 to 5
it becomes unusuable due to the poor SNR ratio. I wish I could pin it to
2.4GHz, instead I keep having to wait for it to drop the connection and
renegotiate on 2.4GHz.

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gnicholas
I have wondered why homepods don't include the ability to act as a network
extender, at least for just Airport networks. From a hardware perspective, it
obviously could serve this purpose, and adding in a functionality like this
would help justify the high price.

My guess is that future versions of homepods will offer additional features
like this, and hopefully the long-distance charging that Apple seems to be
working on: [https://www.computerworld.com/article/3234911/mobile-
wireles...](https://www.computerworld.com/article/3234911/mobile-
wireless/apple-just-bought-its-own-wireless-charging-company-heres-why.html)

As an aside, I just bought my second homepod and was disappointed to learn
that one cannot use a linked pair of homepods to listen to anything from a Mac
other than iTunes content. This is bizarre because a pair of homepods can be
used as the output device for any app on iOS. But if you want to watch that
youtube/hulu/netflix video on your computer? Tough luck — you can't use the
homepods as a stereo pair.

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gumby
I thought this would be a simple "hey mesh routers now cost more" but the
author thought of some interesting use cases that they have forgone.

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rhexs
Apple made the only router that my parents could setup. I’m guessing the
Google WiFi probably has a similarly friendly user experience, but I’d rather
not sell them out to Google.

It was a shame that Apple abandoned the airport.

~~~
Jyaif
My personal experience: I got 2 airports express for my parents. Both of them
died within a year (permanent orange LED meaning the circuit was fried). Now
they are on Google Wifi, and so far it works.

~~~
rhexs
Fair enough. I’ll have to read their privacy policy in detail. I’d love the
trust I have in google for security updates, but am wary of the potential data
collection.

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cherrygarcia
Apple does seem to be in a good position to advertise network privacy oriented
features on their devices. This made me feel nostalgic for a time when Apple
made complicated things simpler.

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chmaynard
The iPod is history, except that it lives on inside every iPhone. I wonder if
Apple considered including a full-featured AirPort router inside the 2018 Mac
Mini?

~~~
FractalParadigm
I'm not sure this would work. Many people that I've noticed seem to hide their
networking gear, usually in whatever room the service comes in from the ISP
(which is more often than not basements), because that's the most convenient
place without running wires all over the place. People are typically using
their systems everywhere _but_ those rooms, because WiFi makes it simple to
put a system wherever it is most convenient. Even if assuming, say, 40% of
users have their main system in the same room as the modem/router, it's
unreasonable to expect a lot of those users to use such a feature. Adding the
cost, complexity, and size to a system for a feature very few users would use
seems almost ridiculous.

Although, you could probably argue it already has one - macOS has native
capability to share your ethernet connection wirelessly. No idea how many
devices this could support, and it obviously lacks any features you would find
in a router (firewall, port forwarding, etc.), but it's certainly an option.

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magwa101
Converted my house from slow, intermittent apple wifi system to google wifi.
Night and day better. Apple makes consumer products, google makes hi-tech
"cloud" services.

~~~
throw0u1t
You'll need to explain it more than that.

How was the Apple Airport slow? What kind of diagnostics did you do? What does
the Google WiFi do different that makes it work so much better?

