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Product Reviewer Explains Why Apple's Charging Cables Break So Easily

A green initiative and an emphasis on aesthetics over functionality backfire

By Rain Noe - May 25, 2021

in Object Culture

Here product reviewer Greg Wyatt Jr., founder of the Apple Explained YouTube channel, gives a succinct explanation of why the company's charging cables are so freaking fragile.

I'm hoping you will watch the 3-minute video because I'd like to support content creators like this, who use their platform to educate laypeople on how things are made, what goes into their products, and how those decisions are made.

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Sue Brettell

4 years ago

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I have been a Mac user since 1988. A fan for sure. And I love their aesthetic values. But I've had to replace an Apple laptop charger in the past and now I always keep part of the charger lead wound on the pull out prongs to help protect the vulnerable part. I trained as a ceramicist, a discipline that aims to achieve a balance between form and function. The most beautiful vase in the world is no good if it doesn't hold water! I've been applying those principles to digital design for three decades: if a website doesn't function well, it doesn't matter how pretty it looks.

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Patricio Ortiz

4 years ago

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They completely failed to design a decent strain relief.
Woven fabric cables tend to get caught and fray by velcro hooks that frequently are inside backpacks and briefcases.
For alternate, but not less informative product design reviews I recommend AvE YT channel. Specially his analysis of Dyson's hairdryer.

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Chris Simon

4 years ago

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I’ve been putting poly- tubing on my lightning cables since I had an iPhone 5 and OtterBox case. There just wasn’t enough of the plug body you could grab onto once you plugged in..

Still use the tubing on newer iPhones today. Heck of a time getting it on. If you don’t foobar it up, you’re good.

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Jonathan Brill

4 years ago

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This all makes an assumption that Apple doesn't want cables to be consumables. There are a dozen ways to do strain relief with the materials they use. The company excels at durability testing and has fantastic mechanical engineers.

The reality is that some bean counter made an intentional choice to make crap cables that increase total cost of ownership. Now that more of Apple's margins come from software, they've identified crap cables as a reason people leave the ecosystem. Instead, they've decided to focus on a whole new set of high lock in, no marginal cost software products.

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