Apple Charges For 802.11n, Blames Accounting Law 471
If you have a Core 2 Duo Macintosh, the built-in WLAN card is capable of networking using (draft 2) 802.11n. This capability can be unlocked via an update Apple distributes with the new AirPort Extreme Base Station. Or, they will sell it to you for $4.99. Why don't they give it away for free, say with Software Update? Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (which was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal). iLounge quotes an Apple representative: "It's about accounting. Because of the Act, the company believes that if it sells a product, then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn't finished delivering the product at that point."
Don't tell Microsoft! (Score:4, Interesting)
sounds like (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh wait
mmm.. boooze.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Either that or someone high up in apple is really jumpy right now and it playing it safe to insane degrees.
Re:bs (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Well understood (Score:3, Interesting)
mandelbr0t
Upselling features (scum marketing) (Score:2, Interesting)
"upgrade" to "Premium" or "Ultimate" versions with your credit card,
how long before Apple turns around and says
"I see you are trying to use your bluetooth adapter. For a one-time use
feature please authorize a $2.99 charge to your credit card. If you want to
use this feature for longer periods of time the following plans are
available: 2 weeks of operation $8.99, 4 weeks of operation $14.99.
Time limited options extend automatically with recurring charges to your
credit card. Unlimited feature activation $49.99 one time charge."
Re:Doesn't Make Sense to Me (Score:3, Interesting)
This whole thing looks more to me like Apple being "once bitten, twice shy" with regards to things that might possibly interest the FTC, rather than any big conspiracy.
Oh, poo on that... (Score:4, Interesting)
It's funny how BIOS updates and other drivers aren't seemingly worried about SOX...or how Microsoft Update isn't either...
Re:Option (c) (Score:4, Interesting)
Similarly, what if: with the products there's a disclaimer that Apple makes no guarantees that there will be future product enhancements, only bug fixes for the declared product lifespan (like MS does with Windows support lifetime declarations), and that any future product enhancement that MAY exist MAY OR MAY NOT be offered for free to existing users of this product.
This is where we get asinine workarounds just to comply with poorly drafted and overly expansive laws that are crafted too quickly and reach too far. This is why accounting, and law in general, is so byzantine needed the existence of entire cadres of lawyerbots just to navigate the waters...
Re:Origin of this whole problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh yeah baby! In the wild days of telecom in the late 80's, a company called Datapoint had a bonus structure based on revenue billed in the quarter. One group of sales managers booked millions of dollars of orders to "Joe Customer", "A. Warehouse", etc., in order to meet or beat their numbers. They collected hundreds of thousands in bonuses, and then quietly shipped the machines to real customers over the next quarter, at which point, they would start the whole game again.
I'm not a Sarb-Ox expert, but the fines and possible jail sentences are bad enough that a company already under scrutiny over options pricing would be pretty careful to err on the side of caution.
I, for one (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't care in the slighest either way. On the one hand, $4.99 is literally and figuratively peanuts (about what I earn in 12 minutes, or a massive half hour if I were on national minimum wage); and on the other, even low-speed WiFi is still faster than my high-speed internet connection.
I don't care about upgrading, but if I did, their price is lower than the cost of my time to find a trustworthy 3rd party.
Credit card processing minimum charges? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Apple, Steve Jobs. (Score:1, Interesting)
If you watched the last 5 minutes of the Macworld 2007 Keynote speech by Steve, what you see is a guy scared that he is going to lose his position, which is why he spends those 5 minutes thanking people at Apple, thanking John Mayer, and just otherwise looking very emotional and inwardly scared.
I'd bet, barring a hearing with the government in which they say "No, you need not charge for this", that Apple will charge $5 bucks. It's a waste of money. Our wireless speeds are far faster than any internet connection they will be hookedup to, unless you're at a University campus. Why bother spending for it? It won't yield any extra download or upload speed.
Re:Wow (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hardware vs. software? (Score:1, Interesting)
IIRC, the cards were showing up under Windows (under Boot Camp & Parallels) as 802.11n. I'm not sure what mechanism is used to demonstrate that, or if anyone actually tested it with an 802.11n router, but that suggests to me that it's not a firmware issue. Maybe someone with more insight into how Windows recognizes network cards could clarify.
Weak Excuse (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Option (c) (Score:1, Interesting)
You're just wrong. Apple appears to be the only company that has explained in public, but major auditors have made this a requirement.
Source: KPMG
-signed anonymous employee at large public software company
Re:IAACPA - I Am A CPA (Score:3, Interesting)
Would there be any problem with Apple offering the upgrade for $5 and offering a $5 instant rebate?
Re:Because software features aren't accounted for. (Score:3, Interesting)
Your argument concerning material misstatements is self-contradictory. The original statement that it has a b/g wireless chipset is patently false, because it omits that the chipset is in fact draft-n hardware. The law has a long history of treating omissions as material misstatements.
More importantly, I don't accept the premise of the argument. Not only have you failed to justify how software is different from hardware under SOX based on the law, you have failed to justify how a clearly upgradable binary object (a.k.a firmware) is hardware rather than software. The chipset did not change. The programmed functionality did.
The upgrade mechanism does nothing to solve a rational argument concerning material misstatements. If you want to argue hardware, there was one. If you want to argue functionality, there wasn't one. Neither changes thanks to a firmware flash.
Re:Because software features aren't accounted for. (Score:3, Interesting)
IMHO, they screwed up and are now using a technical loop-hole to avoid being fined for a material misstatement. Worse, they found a way to turn the loop-hole into profit. Even worse, they probably did it on purpose because it would have been an embarrassment when the mac-dorks discovered the hidden n functionality by reading the financial filings and some 15 year old hacker came out with a kernel patch to enable it before they did.
Re:bs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Don't tell Microsoft! (Score:3, Interesting)
If EAP-FAST wireless authentication added FM tuning, then that is an additional feature.
Re:Were you sold something you didn't get? (Score:3, Interesting)
The story is not accurate, at least in the sense that Apple's excuse is a valid one. The only way this could be considered "a feature of the product that was not delivered until a later time" would be if the laptops were advertised as having this feature to begin with, which they weren't. Nobody was sold these by Apple with the idea that 802.11n support would be forthcoming. Apple is just trying to deflect complainers.
Given that all 802.11n setups are draft and proprietary at this time, the only way this card is going to be officially supported by Apple is if you're using one of the soon-to-be-released new Apple Airport Extreme base stations, which comes with the patch. So this paid update will only be useful to people who plan to get onto an Apple router but didn't buy it. And if you're in the position to get onto the router, you probably know the owner and can just get the patch from them. I somehow doubt they are going to be tracking these like Excel licenses.
Re:What about Xbox? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's not unethical at all.
Is Apple going to be raising the prices of ALL their airport-extreme hardware an extra $5 or $10 to compensate for the N capability in newly shipped machines?
Re:Don't tell Microsoft! (Score:2, Interesting)