This is a classic example of two of the world’s leading lights, in technology, behaving badly/ineptly or some could say in collusion, by default, not necessarily with any malicious aforethought (one for the lawyers), perhaps…
The scenario runs like this:
Apple releases an update to its OS which changes the way it handles Bluetooth pairing. They will often do this regardless of any adverse effects these changes may cause to third party Bluetooth devices. Let’s face it, they often release updates that break their own Bluetooth devices, never mind third party ones.
This causes Bluetooth pairing issues with multiple vendor’s Bluetooth devices.
At this point the vendor of the Bluetooth device has two options:
- Officially end support for MacOS for the device and update their product support information on their Web site, to reflect this.
- Work with Apple to resolve the issue, whilst updating their product support information, detailing the known issue, until the issue is fixed and they are able to maintain proper support for the device on MacOS.
What has happened here is that Microsoft and Apple have not worked together, for whatever reason, to fix this bug. Add to this, Microsoft have not done the right thing and updated their product support information, for this device, on their Web site, to reflect either a known bug, that is being worked on, or official end for support of the OS, for this device.
In essence this is an example of both vendors not valuing the hundreds of people (check the thread counts for this issue on both the Apple and Microsoft support forums, as well as third party forums) who have, are and will continue to experience these problems, now and with future generations of Bluetooth devices. Ultimately, Bluetooth devices are seen as almost disposable peripherals. If the OS vendors break them, with OS updates, that change the way Bluetooth devices are handled, then they pretty well expect you to move on and buy another device that will work. This ongoing situation benefits both Apple and Microsoft, as well as other Bluetooth peripheral vendors, as it guarantees a reasonably significant percentage increase in sales of Bluetooth devices. In the end, the ultimate losers are, as usual, us suckers, at the bottom of the technology food chain.
The irony is that Bluetooth devices are often sold as the premium end of the peripheral market, with inflated prices to suit. Thereby making them less of a disposable device than cabled or RF wireless devices, which will undoubtedly work for you for longer, with fewer of these vendor driven, "built in obsolescence features”, AKA crappy Bluetooth support.
