the constant skeptic

A disparaging article has been posted in the Guardian recently….

Apparently many long time Apple loyalists are ready to switch. Their complaint? Apple has become greedy.

“after years of near religious devotion to Apple and its high priest, chief executive Steve Jobs, there are signs of a revolt in the blogosphere. A series of controversial decisions by Jobs has tarnished Apple’s reputation as an effortlessly cool outfit which was always on the side of the consumer against the Goliath Microsoft. Worst of all, it is now being compared to Microsoft as unexciting and money driven.”

THINKING OF DESTROYING YOUR IPOD?

    BIKINIRAMA_iPhone_011

I think that the main issue that Apple is dealing with now is how they have mismanaged their jump into the cell phone market. Offering one price for the IPHONE and then drastically reducing it just two months later does not resonate well with consumers for obvious reasons. I was expecting Apple to drop the price 100 USD for the holiday season in December, but 200 USD after only a month or two is just ridiculous, but it appears that it was necessary. The price adjustment reflects Apple’s realization that the wireless phone market is something of an anomaly where the product is tied to the servicing company - in this case ATT. Since many consumers in the US have mixed feelings towards ATT, those who would have bought the IPHONE on another carrier are holding back until their carrier of choice offers the IPHONE as well. So to entice consumers to buy it, they drop the price.

    The only question I really have is why no 3rd party apps sanctioned by Apple to use? If Apple wants to control 3rd party apps, why not develop some cool add on applications themselves that will do exactly what consumers are trying to do with the third party apps they are installing?

“Apple has warned that installing one of the unlocking programs could make the phone ‘permanently inoperable’ when future software updates are released.”

    Also, Apple had to have known that hackers were going to unlock the IPHONE at some point, but did they expect these numbers:

“Some 250,000 of the iPhones sold so far have not been activated to run on AT&T. But in September Apple hit back by issuing a software security update that made some iPhones freeze up and erased some self-installed programs, such as games and instant messaging.”

In the final analysis, it appears that Apple jumped the gun by releasing the IPHONE during the summer before thinking about all of the repercussions it was going to cause, and what consumers in the US actually want to do with their cell phones (why can’t we take video on iphones?). Apple should have waited until December 2008 and released the IPHONE with 3rd party partnered apps packages, video capability, and an instant messaging system, and a starting price of 399 USD, oh and they should have started with Verizon and moved to ATT the following year.

Either way, Steve Jobs is still God, he is not getting greedy (why would he need to?) all that is going on is just growing pains as Apple joins the ranks in the cellular phone market, which Google is expected to join soon as well with their GPHONE.

Tags: iphone, gphone, apple, stevejobs, jobs, steve jobs, questions, unlocking, how to, guardian