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Apple Airport cards (802.11b) raised their prices to something like $500.


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This is really the main objection most users have against Apple in that they are a monopoly in their hardware business. It is not something they will give up easily and the reason why OSX86 will not be available for generic PCs. Apple Airport cards (802.11b) raised their prices to something like $500.

Re: Non Apple Wireless 802.11g PC Cards compatibility new [re: Pietro Siciliano]

12/04/05 04:48 PM

 

Apple Airport cards (802.11b) are still available from Apple, but at an insane price. Last I looked on ebay they had hiked up to about $150 ea hours after Apple raised their prices to something like $500. I'm sure they're going for more than $150 now.

 

Right now the best place to find an airport card is actually in a dead iMac. See if you can find a broken one somewhere used or at a garage sale for $25-50 or so that's dead (won't turn on etc) - the owner may not realize there's a little removable component in there that is worth more than the rest of the machine. Not all iMacs have airport cards. They were optional, but can be seen by looking inside the bottom memory hatch. Do not mistake the interposer card for an airport card... the airport card attaches to the interposer card for installing in an iMac. Only slot loading imacs have a chance of containing an airport card. iBooks might also have an airport card in them, though finding a cheap broken ibook may be more challenging. Those airport cards are under the keyboard. Four handled G3's and G4's may also have an airport card in them but it's far less likely, and they don't appear used nearly as often.

 

- I work for the Department of Redundancy Department

 

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This is not unique to Apple. All the vendors put ridiculous list prices on service hardware when they stop manufacturing them. Compaq quoted me $632 for a floppy drive once (for a DeskPro, with the custom front bezel). IBM has quoted me $400 for an optical drive, $2900 for a ThinkPad docking station, and more along those lines.

 

I've always assumed they have some policy (or some country has a regulation) saying they have to sell service parts for a certain amount of time after the product was discontinued, and they're complying with the letter but not the spirit.

 

Realistically, though, it's not that Apple raised their price to $500, they just stopped selling it. They no longer advertise it for sale, and the price as a service part is just labeled high enough that no one would ever buy it.

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This is not unique to Apple.
The "unique" part about this is that you have no choice (or very, very little choice) when dealing with Apple hardware because they are a hardware monopoly. You can buy virtually any third party hardware to use with your MS Windows OS, but not with OSX. This forum on compatible hardware just proves it. Even with the great efforts of so many out there, the list of hardware that is truly supported is minimal.

The inevitable conclusion is that every company wants to be monopoly if they can get away with it - it is just so much more profitable.

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what's the huge deal? you can get these on ebay for around 100-120 dollars, not that bad for a discontinued part... They were 80 or 90 new... and universal hardware on a PC? none has you has ever seen a dell or compaq or HP with a unique non-standard powersupply? you have to order it from the company, or perform an awkward dremel procedure to get a standard one to fit... same thing with floppy drives, i have seen dell systems where the front bezel was such that a regular floppy drive will just not fit into the slot... how about non-standard backplanes, assuring that you have to replace the motherboard with the exact same proprietary one, not a standard ATX... or $400 for a laptop 4x dvdrw from sony?

Edited by pants
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what's the huge deal? $400 for a laptop 4x dvdrw from sony?
You still don't get it. You don't have to buy from Sony, Dell, IBM or HP if you are using MS Windows. You can buy a generic PC that can run rings around all of them. You have a choice. I will stop complaining when OSX is available for a generic PC. That is all.
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  • 2 months later...

You only know when a company is at the top of it's game when people start complaining about it being a monopoly.

 

I'd be more than happy if my company was a monopoly. Might be able to afford Apple hardware then ;-)

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You still don't get it. You don't have to buy from Sony, Dell, IBM or HP if you are using MS Windows. You can buy a generic PC that can run rings around all of them. You have a choice. I will stop complaining when OSX is available for a generic PC. That is all.

 

and you DON'T HAVE TO BUY FROM APPLE! There are USB wireless critters that work on both Macs and PC's. Now be quiet and get one.

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And in fact, since those original AirPort cards are just barely disguised Orinoco cards, a regular PCMCIA Orinoco card can be hacked to fit, even in a white iBook. I think I saw a link a week or two ago on Make:blog about doing that. Me...I'm still glad I got my AirPort card for $70 4 years ago...still churning away too, in my iBook.

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  • 4 weeks later...

In regards to pip11's post, here's a HOWTO page:

 

http://tanais.livejournal.com/270720.html

 

I picked one up on eBay for about $15. It's recognized as an Airport card and everything. The only snag is it's about an inch longer than the original Apple cards which makes it a tight squeeze for an iBook. I got one to put in my Cube, pending acquisition of a tiny security Torx screwdriver to dissasemble the card holder for repositioning - but that's another story.

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