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Well, Satalite Broadband is avaiable everywhere, we we want to be picky and have 'net access in a true middle of nowhere scenario.

ConnertheCat wrote:

Macskeeball wrote:

Dropping internal modems from the Mac laptops in particular already was a bit soon.

Most people said that about the lack of Floppy in the iMac too.  I disagree - I worked for a dialup provider, it is dead.

So, according to you anything with less than...what? 50% usage is dead?.
Listen up Conner, this is a point I know you have a hard time accepting: Doing something too early is the same as being wrong.

Macskeeball wrote:

Pariah wrote:

mudogramx wrote:

Dial-up is dead.  You can get DSL for $14.95 a month.

Huh, dead is it? Funny how 60% of people use that "dead" technology to access the web.

Actually, take a look at these search results. More than 50% of Americans with Internet access now use broadband. Dial-up is still not dead, however.

That's a good price on DSL (if it's widely available), but some dial-up providers charge half that... that's a respectible savings for some financialy strapped people.

From the customer satisfaction standpoint, 50% is the cutoff point at which you only make half of the population any happier.  So long as you give that 50% an option, even if it does cost them more money, you'll only offend about half of them. 

If it costs you X amount for the circuit board real estate that could be used for something else, and Y amout for the components to go on the board, and you sell Z units, you have saved the company (X+Y)*Z dollars, and you get a promotion.  Or a bonus.  Or something... maybe a bigger christmas turkey.

But, we are overlooking another valid point here.  I'd wager that your average Mac user/purchaser is not averse to spending a reasonable margin extra a month for better than dial up service.  This is in comparison to the stereotypical pc using grandmother who can't see beyond the AOL browser window... and would still be using AOL even if she had broadband *shudder* 

Taking away the internal modem keeps apple's costs down, and that they have 'blessed' their own branded modem is acknowledgement that dialup is not dead.  Just not the majority usage anymore, and not likely to regain marketshare in the foreseeable future.

ConnertheCat wrote:

Pariah wrote:

ConnertheCat wrote:

Most people said that about the lack of Floppy in the iMac too.  I disagree - I worked for a dialup provider, it is dead.

So, according to you anything with less than...what? 50% usage is dead?.
Listen up Conner, this is a point I know you have a hard time accepting: Doing something too early is the same as being wrong.

I have a good feeling that most of the 50% using dial up are PC users running windows '95 (shudders at the hours spent over winmodem driver conflicts) or OS 8.0 (shudders over explaining how to install remote access from CD).  Mac users on the whole tend to have more money (the machines are more expensive), and probably are more willing to pony up the extra $10 a month for broadband.

And if you live out in the sticks, smurf you.  Move.  *awaits Pariah's hilarious comeback*

I have been using broad band for going on 7 years now. Well, actually DSL for 6 months then real broadband since then.
The point is it it not inovative or inventive to simply drop features. It is miserly and cheap and if Dell did the same thing we would be all over them.

Putting the arguments aobut why someone might want a modem for a new iMac aside - any ideas on some good alternative brands to the Apple external modem? I get lost when doing a Web search - it needs to be USB and Mac compatible?