If you search for early articles on my blog, you’ll find numerous rants about the historically abysmal marketing by Steve Jobs et. al. I rant about how the box doesn’t matter, how Jobs would be the richest guy in the world instead of Gates if only he hadn’t priced Apple out of what quickly became a commodity market and how Apple marketing is about a lot of Kool-Aid drinking.

I still kind of think these things are true.

But what I have learned ever since I moved 3 blocks from the gravitational pull of Apple HQ in Cupertino is that the box does matter.  I wonder what could have happened had Apple and Jobs priced their computers just a bit differently (new ad tagline: Price Different?) in the 80’s and 90’s.  What if Apple charged only a little bit more for the design premium instead of a lot more?  By doing so, could Apple have mitigated the downward price pressure of the commoditization of the box and then, once they had control of the market, gradually brought their pricing back up to maintain a kind of stasis between commodity presence and premium pricing?  Gates and Ballmer have done this with the Windows and Office hegemony; Office has dominance because of the leverage point created by Windows.  Apple would also have raised the bar for the rest of the industry in relation to design.  But alas, no.

I am still amazed that Tanya and I own MacBook Pros.  Granted, I run Windows still on a VMware virtual machine and I am running Office 2008 for Mac but what is significant about me owning a Mac is that it is a $1300 personal acknowledgement that the box does matter.  I love, love, love the overall design of the MacBook. It’s extremely well-made, it’s beautiful, it has fantastic key feel, it’s display has amazing clarity.

I’m a fan. But I’m not a Kool-Aid drinker and consequently, I can see its flaws.

The one that annoys me lately is the magnetic power cord interface.  At first, I thought it was a cool, clever design.  Now it drives me crazy.

Apparently, the magnetic design is intended to make the cord safer than typical power cord solutions.  When you trip over the power cord on most laptops, there is a risk that your laptop can be yanked off the table and crash to the floor.  The Apple magnetic design is the solution to that problem.  Pretty cool.

But what has been happening to me lately is that when I put my laptop down for the evening, the power cord comes unplugged.  In the morning, I have a dead battery.

Yes, I can anticipate the response of my friends who are Apple employees:

• End user error.
• Why don’t you look to make sure you haven’t kicked it out before you go to bed, especially since you know it’s happening?
• This behavior is the result of a built-in Philistine detector and it taunts you because you suck.

All valid. Especially the part about me sucking. I hear that a lot.

So, I have a couple ideas for a design change to make it better. Redesign the magnetic adapter so that you can just snick it in and rely on the magnet for those who want the ease of detachment.  But add the ability to slide it to the right (or pull it toward you if you’re facing an open MacBook) to have the adapter snap into place and stay put.

Or make a change to OS X that gives you a visual alert on your screen to let you know that the power cord is unplugged: perhaps a little red sphere with a power bolt in it that fades in, vibrates a bit, offers a little audible accompaniment like a cute little pop (imagine the sound you can make with your finger and your mouth) and then fade out.

Hmmmm, Tom, this sounds like an easy programming project, eh?