@DarkHelmet "It's not a slipper slope, iTunes is Apple's, end of story."
By that logic, Windows is Microsofts, and if they want to prevent you from installing Firefox, they can. Or iTunes, for that matter.
The point is this is a dominant player in a market abusing that position to harm a competitor (or more specifically, a competitor's customers). And why? To make that product / company less appealing to consumers.
Right. The FIRST iPhone wasn't subsidized, so they didn't have to recoup the cost of the subsidy and could happily let you sign another contract. The fact that you had to sign a two year contract to buy an unsubsidized phone is the big joke on iPhone 1.0 owners - you were turning over a two year contract just for the privilege of owning an iPhone.
The argument from the cellphone industry in the US (agree with it or not) is that they give you a cheaper device up front in exchange for two years of guaranteed payments. Given that the cost of buying phones outright (even outside the US) is relatively inline with what they claim the "unsubsidized" phone price is, this actually seems like a fairly reasonable deal. When the iPhone originally came out, Apple claimed it was going to "change everything" about how the cellphone industry worked. Then they discovered that the $600 upfront cost was a hurdle for all but the most devout Apple fans. So in less than a month they lopped it down to $400. Still too high for mass-adoption, so they went to the SAME model that everyone else uses - get the carrier to shoulder the upfront cost for the device in exchange for the promise of future revenue.
So here we are, little over two years later, and Apple has, in fact, changed nothing. Simple features that exist on many phones (like MMS, tethering) have yet to make it. What's worse, the App Store policies make it such even installing SOFTWARE that you want isn't legal, if it gets in the way of the carrier's profits. So while Apple users are understandably upset that they can't upgrade to Apple's latest and greatest, they did sell their souls for a $200 discount on the iPhone 3G.
You can always just cancel your contract and pay the $175 cancellation fee. Then sign up as a new user. If you had Google voice, you wouldn't even lose your number.
On the post: Apple Does As Many Expected: Kills Palm Pre iTunes Syncing
Re: Re: Excessive Reach????
By that logic, Windows is Microsofts, and if they want to prevent you from installing Firefox, they can. Or iTunes, for that matter.
The point is this is a dominant player in a market abusing that position to harm a competitor (or more specifically, a competitor's customers). And why? To make that product / company less appealing to consumers.
On the post: iPhone Owners Discover, Lo and Behold, It's Just Another Cell Phone
Re: Well...
The argument from the cellphone industry in the US (agree with it or not) is that they give you a cheaper device up front in exchange for two years of guaranteed payments. Given that the cost of buying phones outright (even outside the US) is relatively inline with what they claim the "unsubsidized" phone price is, this actually seems like a fairly reasonable deal. When the iPhone originally came out, Apple claimed it was going to "change everything" about how the cellphone industry worked. Then they discovered that the $600 upfront cost was a hurdle for all but the most devout Apple fans. So in less than a month they lopped it down to $400. Still too high for mass-adoption, so they went to the SAME model that everyone else uses - get the carrier to shoulder the upfront cost for the device in exchange for the promise of future revenue.
So here we are, little over two years later, and Apple has, in fact, changed nothing. Simple features that exist on many phones (like MMS, tethering) have yet to make it. What's worse, the App Store policies make it such even installing SOFTWARE that you want isn't legal, if it gets in the way of the carrier's profits. So while Apple users are understandably upset that they can't upgrade to Apple's latest and greatest, they did sell their souls for a $200 discount on the iPhone 3G.
You can always just cancel your contract and pay the $175 cancellation fee. Then sign up as a new user. If you had Google voice, you wouldn't even lose your number.
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