Apple’s Greed

Apple made a bunch of announcements yesterday mostly about new iPods. But, they also announced the demise of the 4GB iPhone. That’s not really a surprise since the price difference between the 4GB and the 8GB models was small compared the price of the 4GB so it wasn’t much of a stretch to just get the 8GB. Apparently the rest of the world agreed with me and almost nobody bought the 4GB.

What annoys me is the $200 price drop of the 8GB phone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see the price come down, but I’m not happy about what it says about Apple. Anyone who is an early adopter of new technology knows that it’s going to cost more than if we wait. That’s a given. However, such a big drop so soon after the initial release stings.

Apple had to know this was coming and they set the initial price to gouge their most loyal customers. That’s not really a smart thing to do. It will certainly make me less likely to jump on a new Apple product bandwagon. Historically, Apples prices have tended to remain fairly stable for a long period of time so this came as a fairly rude surprise.

When you factor in their ringtone pricing and policy it’s just plain apparent that it’s greed at work. Making people buy the song from the itunes store and then pay again to convert it to a ringtone strikes me as being greedy. And what about the music I already paid for on CD? Why can’t I convert that to a ringtone? Of course, I can with third party tools but the latest itunes appears to get rid of ringtones from other sources.

Not that I even want to do much with ringtones. But, Apple’s announcement did give me an opportunity for some righteous indignation and that’s always a fun pastime.