16 MACWORLD AUGUST 2019
MACUSER 3 PRODUCTS THAT WOULD BE HITSdisplay, provided the high quality and
convenience of an Apple-made display,
even if it wasn’t cheap. (Though thinking
that their $999 price tag was high now
seems quaint.)
But once Apple’s displays were
discontinued, users were left to look
elsewhere, and many have found slim
pickings. Apple did partner with LG to sell
high-end displays, but they hit a few bumps
in the road (go.macworld.com/bump).
Perhaps the right answer is that if you want
something done right, do it yourself.
ACTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK
Another market that Apple previously
abandoned, to the dismay of many
consumers, was home routers. And yet,
during the WWDC keynote, Apple
announced a new initiative to improve
smart home device security by building
HomeKit support into routers, forging
partnerships with vendors like Linksys,
eero, and Spectrum.
Apple officially discontinued its AirPort
router line last year, but some—including
yours truly—still regret the decision. As
Apple itself points out, a trustworthy router
has become even more important with all
of the smart devices we use in our homes
these days. Just as Apple has tried to
prevent websites from tracking you and
developed a more private system for
logging into accounts, the company could
extend into hardware, offer a secure and
trustworthy router, rather than leaving
people to third-party partners.
Companies such as eero have proved
that there’s a space for easy, friendly, and
expandable network hardware. And now
that eero has been bought by Amazon,
many consumers want an alternative that
doesn’t belong to a company with aApple stopped making AirPort routers, but
maybe it should reconsider.