According to MacRumors it appears something may be afoot as LG UltarFine 5K Displays in many of Apple’s European stores are disappearing (a handful of countries still have some). What has been noted is that they’ve run out of stock. For the moment, they’re still listed in U.S. stores.

However, this time in many of the aforementioned European countries, the LG UltraFine listing has been completely removed from Apple’s online stores altogether. Purportedly this is to make room for an upcoming Apple monitor affordable to the masses.

They could rightfully point out that there are a plethora of manufacturers that build compatible monitors to choose from. But they’re well aware that Apple fans are going to purchase the Apple monitor, particularly as they’re already in the shop. And this irks me to no end.

I have had a decades long love-hate relationship with Apple. They’ll do something that I find admirable, like helping out schools in financial straights by donating to them iPads. I applaud that humanitarian gesture. Then they simultaneously pull a stunt to put a stranglehold on some sector of the industry. The blatant example is the removal of chargers with your iPhone.

From a business perspective it makes complete sense. But through the eyes of a consumer, why aren’t you helping me find another way to charge my iPhone? As everyone knows by now, they rightfully claim that Apple loyalists have most likely amassed a mountain of chargers. End-users quickly find to their dismay, the chargers they have are USB-A. Apple’s including USB-C>Lightning cords in their iPhone boxes. It’s environmentally nonsensical that you are now forcing millions of customers to chuck the chargers they’re lumbered with and buy another type of Apple charger.

We’ve been played. If you really want to demonstrate how strongly you revere the environment, you would allow us to return our old chargers for you to responsibly dispose of and give us a small credit towards the purchase of a proper one. But you don’t, do you.

It’s reprehensible. When people run into this problem I refuse to send them to any Apple Store, either online or brick-and-mortar. No, let the free market work.

I send people to Anker or Ravpower. (I use a nice, small Anker charger for my SE 2020. I have no experience with Ravpower products but have heard positive things about them.) I love the Anker charger as it’s footprint is smaller than Apple’s, therefore not rendering the adjacent plug useless.

I encourage people to pursue third-party options. Not only because I feel there are superior products but also to not let Apple benefit by forcing me to buy one of their chargers under false pretense.

I am definitely floored by the engineering accomplished by the engineers at Apple. It’s turned my future purchasing plans around for about the third time in the last year.

But the Cupertino Spaceship is large enough that surely they could make room for one more department – the Department of Ethics.

©2021 Frank Petrie