[JJ_SO]

Sure, e.g. Fuji is providing firmware updates all the time - also for their lenses.

 

And it's not the fault of the genuine manufacturers that Sigma has not obtained a license.

 

Tamron, Tokina, Zeiss do have obtained a license? I simply don't know.

 

Even if they refused to issue a license, the responsibility is completely on the side of the third party manufacturer and you can't really blame Canon or Nikon for not caring about Sigma.

 

I'm not blaming them, but I doubt they don't care. Meanwhile the Sigma lenses became a serious competition to the genuine ones and also eating marketing shares. So they do have reason to try to lock them out. 

 

As such I fail to applause Sigma for providing a workaround here. They are simply charging for a device that reduces servicing costs for THEM, not US.

 

I agree with the costs, but you don't see the time what service is costing us. Besides, Sigma has a servicepoint in Switzerland, a quick one, too. Tamron I had to send to Germany, twice. The shipping costs were not very far away from the costs of the dock. It took them about 5 weeks.

 

To me, it's the same like sensor cleaning. Of course it can be done at the manufacturers servicepoint. And Nikon is not responsible to provide me a free cleaning set only because DSLRs get dust on sensors...

 

You don't need to applause. I would understand your critics better, if the dock would be necessary to make their lenses work - but it's only a feature for users who like to get the last 2 or 3% focus accuracy or performance out of the lens or who want to customize certain behavior. Sides of that, Sigma lenses work fine without this dock.