I’m typing this post from my newly resuscitated iBook (2005 vintage). Over the holidays, someone accidentally stepped on the end of the AC adapter, crushing the metal shielding and bending the center pin beyond repair (I tried to bend it back slowly and it snapped off).

After the initial shock, I thought, oh well, I’ll just order a new adapter. More shock. The official G4 iBook AC adapter is $100 at the Apple Store.

For something that is known to be so poorly designed, (the new adapters are purportedly much better), you can imagine my surprise at the price of a simple AC adapter. I know it comes with that Apple je ne ses quoi, but surely that can’t be worth a $100???

Given the options: expensive white paper weight or working iBook, I ended up purchasing the adapter but I wasn’t happy about it. I felt seduced and used by Apple.

I bought into the Apple mythology of dream like user experience and ease of use whole-heartedly only to have my affections spurned. Apple needs to make the experience of having a broken AC adapter and loss of access to the files on the device much less traumatic and painful. As is it really affects my perception of the brand because it makes me think that Apple is only great until something goes wrong at which point they couldn’t care less about your experience. By lowering the price to match customer expectations Apple would extend the goodwill generated by the promise and the experience of their product.

In the short term, sure, it will cost them more, but in the long term, people will buy more Apple products because they know that should things go wrong, Apple will be there with a palatable solution. People might even buy a second adapter in case of such an emergency.