Marco Arment on the New iMacs’ Reliance Upon Apple-Branded Hard Drives

I agree with Marco on this. OWC’s reporting on the technical aspects is interesting, and I can see how a company like OWC wants iMacs to have user-replaceable commodity hard drives, and I can see how technical-minded users would want the same thing, but that’s not what the iMac is.

Update: Think of it this way. The new iMacs’ hard drives are like the batteries in iPods and iPhones. Traditionally user-serviceable, and user-serviceable in most products in the same category. But if Apple thinks the advantages of a proprietary non-user-serviceable part outweigh the disadvantages, they’re going to do it. It’s that simple. People should know this before buying a new iMac. But it’s silly and fruitless to complain that Apple is somehow acting out of spite.

★ Friday, 13 May 2011