[Bud]

Apple doesn't make horrible cables, iffy anecdotal gif-evidence notwithstanding. Apple's reputation is quite decidedly for making high-quality cables.

"No innovation on the desktop" doesn't really mean anything. Who else is "innovating on the desktop" right now?

"Getting rid of ports" can also be interpreted as "moving to new and superior ports". Apple has always been brutal in weeding out obsolete interfaces and introducing new ones.

[Larrikin]

Every single Apple wire I've ever had up until the past couple years have all been trash. Whatever that white coating was only ever intended to look good in commercials. I never had a single wire ever fray on me besides theirs. It seems like they may have finally fixed the problem they've had for a decade since my latest replacement power brick seems to be going stronger than all the other wires, but I am probably just lucky so far

[ymolodtsov]

They’ve actually changed all the wires a few years ago: they feel more plasticky and are much sturdier.

[vbezhenar]

I don't know what high quality cables you're talking about. Apple's cables are the only cables in my life which decay themselves without any interaction. I never saw this phenomenon nor before nor after. And I'm talking about video iPod, iPhone 4S, iPad 3, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro. I owned all those devices and all cables broke after 1-2 years of use. Thankfully, cheap Chinese cables work flawlessly, so it wasn't a problem for old iDevices (didn't have to find lightning cable replacements yet). But it was a big problem for macbooks with their terribly overpriced PSUs.

[mgkimsal]

seen both sides of this. have had years of mostly ... mid-to-bad cable experiences. had some friends who seemingly never had issues with their stuff tell me i must be 'doing something' with mine ('using too much' or 'being abusive'?). Then... a few years ago, they started having their cables break/fail/burn. They 'get it' now. And... I've known other people who've never or rarely had issues. The impression is that Apple is one company and everything goes through the same level of QA. My experiences seem to indicate that's not true, at least with cabling.