Apple is well known for pushing the limits of technology…sometimes too far, as can be seen from their much belated introduction of Thunderbolt/Ethernet & Firewire adapters when they were confronted with the ugly reality that the world was not ready for computers lacking those ports.
IMO it is because Apple continually pushes the envelope that they continue to exist. Apple has always been a technology leader. If apple were not
the technology leader they would long ago been subsumed as just another Windows PC. If you want to be a technology follower then you should be using a Dell computer running Windows 95. Being a technology leader means they will inevitably stumble from time to time. More often it is simply a matter of waiting for the rest of the industry to catch up with the new technology. Your complaint about Thunderbolt sounds almost exactly like what late adaptors were saying when Apple abandoned SCSI or when Firewire was introduced.
Further, Apple has, with its introduction of Internet Recovery, shown more or less complete disdain for un-technologically prepared users, so I'll guess that they're preparing to make a huge grab in the huge business computing market - where cutting-edge technology is demanded and money is readily available if its expenditure is justified - that has eluded it for so long…at the expense of us little guys who've only given it a 5% share of the computing market.
I pity Apple's measly 5% share of the computer market. Of course with only that 5% share Apple has vaulted past Microsoft, Dell, HP,
etc to be the first or second most valuable corporation in the world. As to your comment about cutting edge technology in business and industry, one of the reasons Windows is such a dog is because their business customer base demands compatibility with applications that in no few cases were originally written to run on MS-DOS. Updating those applications might cost business a few dollars they do NOT want to spend. In fact Wall Street will punish them for spending it. Apple has, I believe wisely, chosen to tell foot dragging users they have to move on. In the long run Apple's is the more cost effective path, but business and especially Wall Street is notoriously driven by short term goals and to &*!! with the future.
I would not hold my breath waiting on FIOS. AT&T has already announced a decision to cease installing fiber optic and to not offer their fiber optic service in any more neighborhoods. In fact, they are not planning on installing landlines of any type in new neighborhoods. Apparently their vision of the future is strictly cell phones and 4G.
