OWC started a ruckus in the Mac community last Thursday when it reported Apple uses a proprietary cable and custom firmware to regulate the temperature of the new 2011 iMac, and “revoke the freedom promised in 1984.” If the hard drive with Apple’s custom firmware is removed from a 2011 iMac the computer’s internal fans will spin at maximum speed until the appropriate drive is replaced. Apple has been using the hard drive’s internal thermal sensor in all of its iMacs since 2009, and each hard drive manufacturer required its own custom sensor cable. Prior to 2009 the thermal sensor was placed outside of the hard drive and I suspect Apple’s move to internal sensors and custom firmware has only increased the accuracy of the iMac’s thermal measurements while requiring fewer parts. OWC is upset because custom firmware means that only hard drive supplied by Apple can be used to replace the hard drives found in 2011 iMacs. OWC’s inability to sell replacement hard drives hurts it sales, but does a lack of third party internal hard drives hurt Apple’s iMac customers?

1984 won’t be like 1984

Apple’s computers have a mixed history of proprietary parts, limited expandability, and complex repair procedures. Steve Jobs made sure the first 1984 Macintosh was bolted shut without a single expansion slot of any kind. The only component that was upgradable was the memory, and each chip had to be replaced by a skilled technician with a soldering iron.

After Steve Jobs was outed in 1984 John Sculley lead the Mac in a less restricted direction. During the Macintosh II era of the late 80s and early 90s Macs had so many ports, slots, and bays as to rival the most upgradable PCs of the time. Even Apple’s PowerBooks adopted an increased number of ports and interchangeable media bays. It is true these early Macs used harder to find, more expensive NuBus cards and SCSI hard drives than their PC competitors, but nothing about these technologies was especially proprietary. Apple just chose the best performing, albeit less compatible technologies available at the time. If anything the expandable Macs of this era eventually hurt Apple’s sales by diluting the market with boxy looking computers that were hard to differentiate from their PC counterparts.

Think Different

Upon Steve Jobs return the Mac’s intelligent design sense resumed and upgradability was split between Apple’s simplified four model product matrix. The pro focused Power Mac and PowerBook retained their expandability, while the internal components got easier to access. The new home focused iMac and iBook took on streamlined shapes that reduced expandability and limited the number of available ports. Over the years slimmer more attractive designs have become more important to Apple’s customers and upgradability has decreased. Today only the cabinet sized Mac Pro can truly be called expandable. All of Apple’s other Macs have been reduced in size and weight, trading their upgradability for a more appealing design.

Hello (again)

The iMac is unique among Apple’s product lineup because its streamlined design and reduced weight does little to aid mobility. Instead the iMac’s design is all about appearances. The iMac makes a more pleasing desktop computer the thinner it gets, and it is this appeal that helps sell more iMacs. Squeezing all of the iMac’s essential components into a thin all-in-one design means making some tradeoffs, and the most obvious of those tradeoffs is a lack of accessibility to internal components.

Since 1998 the only iMac that has been easy to open was the iMac G5. Apple even encouraged customers to perform their own repairs by removing the iMac G5’s back panel, following a color coded screw system, and replacing modular components. The experiment was a failure because Apple’s customers were more comfortable driving their computers to the local Genius bar than performing their own repairs. The next major revision of the iMac removed the easily accessible back panel, color coded screws, and modular parts in favor of a even thinner design. Since then iMacs have only gotten more streamlined, and their insides harder to get into.

The Computer for the rest of us

The 2011 iMac is especially hard to get into and as the past has shown inaccessibility has not prevented Apple’s customers from buying bolted down Macs in the millions. As Apple’s products have become more streamlined and less accessible Apple’s sales have improved. The iMac G5 demonstrated that Apple’s customers aren’t ready to do their own repairs, and now that there are more than twice as many Apple Stores since the iMac G5’s release in 2004 requiring customers to easily open their own computers is less of a problem. Other than OWC, the people hurt most by Apple’s adoption of proprietary hard drive firmware are the tech enthusiasts who would forgo the Apple Store and upgrade their iMac hard drives alone. As a ex Mac Genius I am one of those people, but like Marco Arment I know the tradeoff of purchasing an iMac.

The iMac is a very clear, known tradeoff to the types of geeks like us who would even think about replacing its internal hard drive ourselves (or having an unauthorized place do it to save money or add unsupported parts).

You get a beautiful, slim, all-in-one, high-end Mac, with one of the best LCD panels on the market built in, for a very good price relative to PCs and an excellent price relative to the other Macs. For these benefits, you give up all after-purchase internal customization, expansion, and self-repairs, except RAM. If you want a more customizable desktop, you can either get a Windows PC (which, if you want a Mac, isn’t an alternative), you can spend a lot more money for a Mac Pro, or you can just deal with the iMac’s limitations.

California Civil Code Section 1793.03 ensures that Apple will maintain 2011 iMac hard drive supplies for the next seven years. Consumers should not be worried proper hard drive replacements will dry up before that time. The decision to streamline the design of the iMac and reduce the number of parts may be in Apple’s best interest, but it also makes the iMac more attractive and less prone to failure. If you are looking to easily upgrade your iMac in the future you have purchased the wrong Mac, and if like me you believe the future of Apple computers is iOS than the consolidation of parts in the iMac is only the beginning.

Although OWC may not be supplying hard drive upgrades for future iMacs they do provide a plethora of powerful products including these free iMac inner view desktop backgrounds.