Apple Pisses on Loyalty, Lies
On Wednesday Apple, Inc. held a special invite-only event for the press where they were widely expected to release new iPods. They did, in fact, do just that. Which is wonderful for all the future iPod owners out there; the new iPods are nothing short of amazing. Everything got a refresh, and everything looks fantastic. Except for the new iPod nano. It looks way too much like this guy:
Winslow if from the delightful comic Questionable Content.
Apple also announced a few other things, including a (currently) pointless relationship with Starbucks, the ability to download stuff from an improved iTunes Store wirelessly, and a $200 price drop for the current model of the iPhone. Wait, what?
So no new features or anything, just a huge price drop? Yes. And only after being out for two months? Yes. That sounds fantastic, but what about about all of the loyal early-adopters that ran out to buy the iPhone on the first day? What about them?
Good question.
In something akin to farting in ones face, Apple left a bad taste in the mouths of iPhone early-adopters and Apple loyalists by essentially charging them for supporting the company. Not cool. This news came shortly after announcing the addition of custom ringtones for the iPhone. Which also sounds great. Except you have to pay for them. Even if you already own the song. You still have to pay for them. Which is funny since there’s already an easy way of adding free ringtones to your iPhone.
On a bit of a side note (and all things considered this is minor) Apple also promised a new version of iTunes “tonight.” This was to add some of the new features they discussed at Wednesday’s event. It’s now 1:20am on Thursday. No new version of iTunes. Nothing. Just a sore spot in the wallet, and the shame of being man-handled for a lousy two hundred bucks.
Sucks to be us, I guess.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I was tempted to write a similar post but I decided against it and I’m glad you did. Without questions, the news coming out of this special event pretty much blew for those of us already with iPhones. But I was more upset that they didn’t acknowledge the fact that people are making programs that should already be on the iPhone. The price cut, eh, I really don’t care as much as the next guy. That’s what happens when you are on the cutting edge of technology, you cut get cut sometime. If someone told me that the iPhone was getting a price cut two months later while I was in line waiting for it, I would have still waited and bought it because I love technology. Like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite.
The fact of the matter is that some stupid Starbucks functionality and the ability to download songs off of iTunes wirelessly is not enough of a reason for me to update my firmware and wipe out all of the cool stuff I have on it right now. Apple needs to get a clue, talk to all of the developers who are making awesome and wonderful apps for the phone and give the consumers what we want.
You let me down Apple, you let me down hard.
Check this article out if you didn’t get a chance to read it: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-09-05-jobs-qanda_N.htm
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
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