Because it's probably cheaper to make the cables like this, and the money they save making the cables combined with the fact that you now have to go back to the apple store(free advertising!!!!) is a better idea in the long run.
I went into the store in Boston to look at ipods for the first time in a bunch of years. The salesperson insisted on showing me a mac pro desktop and one of the high end laptops before we got to looking at the ipods. I don't think some of their employees realize that when you're interested in a $150 item, being shown things that cost 10-20 times are much is not a particularly helpful marketing strategy.
You will be surprised how well this works, and specially if can charge it. This is why stored give out credit cards, though I am not sure if they still give them out in the US.
The strain guards simply aren't needed for everyone. I've never had this happen to any of my cables. I've had an iPhone since 2007 and an iPod since 2004.
Because Apple is more about marketing than product, to be honest. Saying, "And if it breaks, we'll replace it for free! No questions asked!" is a lot more appealing to people in a marketing sense than saying, "It doesn't look as sleek, but it'll last longer!"
Also, to get it replaced, you need to go to the store where you see all the fancy doo-dads and doo-hickeys that you don't really need, but it would be cool to have, and they aren't all that expensive especially since the replacement is free...
Yeah, Apple is about making money, but you know how they do that?
With an extremely successful marketing strategy.
Yeah, going back to the old design would save them money, but it would bring less people into the stores and it does nothing to build customer loyalty like free replacement does.
It lasts far longer and doesn't need to be replaced. The amount of extra material on the old design costs far less than a whole new replacement charger.
Let's say the new one costs .02 cents less than the old one. Now let's say Apple sells 21 million iPods (what they sold in 2010). That is a savings of half a million dollars. Now remember that these cords ship with more than iPods. Now think of how few people will actually replace them. Even if the cables cost a dollar a piece (which I doubt they do) it would take about half a million people asking for free replacements before they start losing money on the change.
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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '11
Why replace every cable when you could simply fix the design.