My thoughts on Apple
I am a long time Mac user, and general Apple fan. I am even a shareholder which had his AAPL stock value more than tripled in the past two years.
So you can safely assume I like Apple. But lately, Apple has done several things I completely disapprove.
First of all, the US-only iPhone launch. I still can't possibly think of a reason why Steve Jobs (or the rest of the company) decided to sell the iPhone in just one country, and not everywhere (or at least Europe).
We thought the decision for that was the subsequent launch of a 3G version of the iPhone for Europe, but now they will start selling the exact same phone, 4 months later, in November, in Germany and the UK.
Needless to say, most of the people who really wanted an iPhone in Europe (including me) already have it.
And guess what, Apple? I would have paid €800, for instance (yes, that's $1100) for an unlocked phone if you had sold it. Instead, we were forced to buy it via an US friend, a trip to NYC, or even eBay. And your revenue for that process was nil.
Luckily, in September, after a struggle between iPhoneSimFree and the iPhone Dev Team, a software unlock was developed, and we finally updated our nice widescreen iPod to an iPhone.
And this week, after a previous warning, a new firmware update was released that not only removed the possibility of unlocking the device, but also impeded the installation of third party applications.
If that wasn't enough, the iPhones that were once unlocked or somehow modified to allow the installation of applications have been bricked, and Apple is refusing to give support to these "modified" iPhones.
It seems we will be staying with the 1.0.2 firmware for a very long time, even if we don't get the iTunes WiFi Store.
Maybe it's time to stop buying music in the iTunes Store and spend our money in the new Amazonmp3 Store, where music is DRM-free, some songs even cheaper, and still compatible with iTunes.
So you can safely assume I like Apple. But lately, Apple has done several things I completely disapprove.
First of all, the US-only iPhone launch. I still can't possibly think of a reason why Steve Jobs (or the rest of the company) decided to sell the iPhone in just one country, and not everywhere (or at least Europe).
We thought the decision for that was the subsequent launch of a 3G version of the iPhone for Europe, but now they will start selling the exact same phone, 4 months later, in November, in Germany and the UK.
Needless to say, most of the people who really wanted an iPhone in Europe (including me) already have it.
And guess what, Apple? I would have paid €800, for instance (yes, that's $1100) for an unlocked phone if you had sold it. Instead, we were forced to buy it via an US friend, a trip to NYC, or even eBay. And your revenue for that process was nil.
Luckily, in September, after a struggle between iPhoneSimFree and the iPhone Dev Team, a software unlock was developed, and we finally updated our nice widescreen iPod to an iPhone.
And this week, after a previous warning, a new firmware update was released that not only removed the possibility of unlocking the device, but also impeded the installation of third party applications.
If that wasn't enough, the iPhones that were once unlocked or somehow modified to allow the installation of applications have been bricked, and Apple is refusing to give support to these "modified" iPhones.
It seems we will be staying with the 1.0.2 firmware for a very long time, even if we don't get the iTunes WiFi Store.
Maybe it's time to stop buying music in the iTunes Store and spend our money in the new Amazonmp3 Store, where music is DRM-free, some songs even cheaper, and still compatible with iTunes.
