Cripple Hammers

One of the ongoing jokes on Kasey Stern's Camera Conspiracies YouTube channel is about Canon using a 'Cripple Hammer' to intentionally limit their cameras and not use all the technology available to them. It's a comedy channel but there is a lot of truth in it too.

We don't know what technology any of the major camera and tech companies have available to them, but it's definitely not just Canon. Most frustrating to me is Apple, differentiating the iPad and Mac by essentially ‘crippling’ both, iPad with basically a phone OS (although it is at least now separate from iOS) and a buggy file management app, and Mac with no touchscreen. iPad could be a 'true' computer, a laptop replacement. And most of us are getting so used to touchscreens, on phones, tablets and cameras, that it's starting to feel strange to not have the option. How many Mac users occasionally touch the screen to scroll a website for example? For anyone using Windows 11, it's natural and convenient.

There's also the iPhone still not using USB-C. This year? It looks likely, at last.

For all that though, Apple and Canon make excellent and enjoyable products, and maybe that’s why they can away with the restrictions.

I can understand the perspective and marketing demands, to keep different models distinct and positioned to not compete for sales. Maybe most tech companies do it. It doesn't make it any less frustrating as a consumer when an ideal product isn't quite as good as it could be.