Really Apple, Not a Single Video Adapter?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 4:36PM 
I know, I know, we've been aware for some time of what would and wouldn't be in the box with Apple's latest laptops. Adam recently had a Ford's Focused segment on the shrinking amount of included accessories with Apple products.
Still, looking at iFixit's teardown of the 17" MacBook Pro drove the point home. The 17" model, even at $2,799, doesn't include a DVI or VGA video adapter. Unless you want to use the ONE monitor Apple sells using the new "standard," you're out of luck. Or more precisely, out $29 for the adapter you need. So if you're a road warrior, and especially if you give presentations on projectors, load up on adapters because there's ZERO chance you'll get this laptop hooked up to a projector out of the box. There's nickel and dime-ing, then there's just stupidity. Come on, Apple.
Reader Comments (6)
the people demand adapters!
I would tend to agree.
I remember way back when Apple used to sell printers. One of the really cool things that Apple did was put in an appropriate cable to plug into your Macintosh in the box. At the time, most other printer vendors didn't include the cable, which means you bought the printer, brought it home, unboxed it, plugged it into the wall socket and...went back to the place you bought it to now buy a cable.
C'mon Apple. You got $2800 of my hard-earned dollars. With average margins around 30%, I imagine you can forgo the extra 1% and include a freakin' video adapter on the "Pro" models.
Apple, for being such an intelligent company, sure is stupid. My 15" MBPro, which I bought in November of 2007, DID come with a DVI to VGA adapter, and it's a good thing it did. I use it for presentations every day. Once upon a time, Apple also included adapters for the iBooks. I can only guess that Apple figured it was sending out far more adapters than were being used, and it was a waste. Even then, Apple could place a coupon with each machine that offers an adapter free of charge for those who do presentations on multimedia projectors or external monitors. Their current strategy would not sit well with me if I were buying a new MBPro today.
Just buy the darn adapter.
It's cheap.
Then get on with your life.
Some people penny pinch so much it is maddening.
If you have to penny pinch, don't get a Mac. Period.
That way, the usual, more affluent Mac users don't have to hear your complaints.
Atlantia, an Apple products distributor in Vancouver, has these adapters coming in mid-March. I talked to them today and left a pre-order request. You can reach them here:
Atlantia Contact page
James, I think that wouldn't be an issue if Apple didn't have such a big problem deciding what kind of video connection it would standardize on. In the last 10 years Apple has used VGA, DVI, S-Video, Composite, mini-VGA, mini-DVI, ADC, micro-DVI and now Mini Display Port.
Considering virtually every recent display supports at least DVI and VGA and no shipping Mac laptop uses any of them, I think the least they had to do was to ship a Mini Display Port to DVI adapter. It's cheap.