Not that I know of. The iPod and dock system is successfully enough to not have to bother I suppose. Even MHL does. It cover all devices, so either are equally as proprietary, as I said. Apple have been using it for a long time. I see no reason for them to jump to MHL, or any other connector.

were. Now all they like doing is suing people.

Money, Apple is still a company whose only objective is to make money. I guess they don't feel it fits with their business goals.

No, it doesn't.

They tightly control hardware to ensure nobody is buggering up their reputation.

They learned a very costly lesson when they allowed cheap box shifters to make Macs in the 90s.

Seriously? You don't think Apple are doing anything other than suing people? As for Samsung they seem to copy any market leader (their Sony Nex equivalent is even called Nx) so good move by Apple to bring this under control.

Well what else have they done ?
Made a new laptop that is totally impossible to upgrade, you can't even change the battery. And charged a small fortune for it.
iOS6 has just nicked a stack of features android has had for ages

"good move by Apple to bring this under control" yeah, if you say so.

Oooh, look..... ignorant rubbish being posed about Apple products from people who believe every other ignorant idiot on the internet.

I have a MacBook Air.

For a laptop that can't be upgraded, it has gone from having a spinny disc to an SSD, without leaving my house. I could have replaced the battery, too.

You may also want to look at similar form factor devices, as they're all pretty much the same in terms of needing more specialist knowledge to open and upgrade them.

Prrice of progress - the screen can't be done any other way if you want it as thin and hi-res as that.

The battery is a surprise, but I'm sure a repair kit will come along soon, as it always does for stuff like this - and RAM soldered to the board is hardly a massive surprise for a laptop.

It's certainly not anything unusual for a modern 'ultrabook' design.

I hadn't realised there was a new MacBook Pro - these days, if my computer works, that's good enough for me, so my Air will soldier on for another few years.

I see so your view is that Apple has become the most valuable company in the world by just taking people to court. That seems logical.

In terms of upgradeability it's innevitable as the computer finally reaches the stage of being commoditised. It's not the norm now for people to replace the screen in their TV, the motor in their washing machine or the sensor in their camera. In the same way computers will reach a stage where they are similarly replaced rather than upgraded at end of life. Certainly it's many years since I swapped out any parts from my computers and this is from someone who used to build his own. This may not suit you but, perhaps, the target audience for the Macbook pro is not you.

You mention iOS knicking features from Android but fail to mention the iPhone brought about a total change in smartphones. Oh how I fondly remember the Windows phone I had prior to the iPhone with its clunky interface and almost total lack of apps.

I really don't get the hatred of Apple. Maybe it's innevitable being the market leader in some areas and recalls the hatred of microsoft in the past bit at least there's a viable choice of you don't want anything Apple makes.

Have they lost any market share or revenue as a result? Do you know anyone who now refuses to buy MacBook Airs?

I doubt it.

The market stands it.

I can't change either of the batteries on my Asus Transformer Prime. That never even crossed my mind as a reason not to buy it.

I can't change the coils in my self-built PC's PSU. Guess what, I still bought it.

I can't change the chip on the graphics card. Or change the drive controller on the motherboard.

Things move on and, as someone else said, become more of a commodity. And as a result, become more cost-efficient to produce as an integrated or sealed unit, thus more affordable.