Well, said, drmca.

Michael Arrington, Jason Calacanis – two latest members of the growing circle jerk of elitist self-entitled tech royalty (and Calacanis can’t even present cogent arguments that make any sense, just nothing but sound and fury, signifying nothing).

Dammit…what bastards these companies are for creating opportunity for others in the first place…

I’m a huge Mac user, but I also hate alot of Apple’s BS that’s going on right now. Their App Store policies are bunk. But there are soooo many options out there for music. iTunes just happens to be the most popular and widely used one. Nobody cries foul when an iPod can’t work with other syncing and music management software, but only when the device they bought that *wasn’t* an Apple product can’t sync with iTunes.

It’s real popular to hate on Apple right now, but most of it is illogical and unfounded. Except for the App Store BS. That’s just crap.

It’s something that has been changing but VERY slowly. Sony and any artist that associate with Sony/BMG seem to be a rather good example of a revolt, of sorts. Most of their high-lining talent seem to have this big market push for Real Networks’ Rhapsody (Jenifer Lopez, Beyoncé Knowles, Rob Zombie, Etc.)… and it’s something that is pushed hard, customers get allot of access to things through Rhapsody that would take prolonged amount of time to reach Apple or hasn’t been released otherwise (via CD or anything else).
To say that it hasn’t helped is an understatement (it’s been ongoing for a few years now), Apple’s presence in the market is so vast that even though Sony does it’s best to avoid them… they will still (grudgingly, I assume) release product through iTunes (which in turn in tie completely into the iPhone and iPod only).
This is what happens when ONE company rules on both ends of the channel (the method to pool all content and the consumers). They become this 800 lb. gorilla that needs to be dealt with either by market pressure (which isn’t working currently, since I can’t name one company big enough in this space to sway the minds of labels/artist[s] and customers to come to them) or intervention of some kind, it’s happened before to (and that intervention is still ongoing depending on where you are) Microsoft and if Apple keeps acting like it does (catering only to itself, DRM content or not), it will happen to them.

It’s more a matter of how that bugs me, any time intervention happens… it’s a desperate play, no matter how good it is. If Apple continues to invite legal scrutiny, it will happen… and the results of such are never pretty.
I would rather that it NOT come to this at any cost. Since we will all lose more than we gain when it does happen. Which is why I say that it should be made to light to Apple that this behaviour is not welcome… they can’t just keep catering their channel only to themselves at the exclusion of others. The more that they do that, the more a Lawer at the DoJ is licking his lips.

@Dion Almaer:
It’s something that I think people have to come to realize. That dependence on one source for content can be VERY dangerous to all involved.
Maybe that it why I am liking the shift in the Mobile space, it tend to be something that doesn’t happen for very long. Mobile developers, by their very nature, tend to be nomads when it comes to platforms… loyalty isn’t something that will last long since the technology there is always changing, so soon rather than latter there is a new platform to explore. An customers equally as fickle for a new device, so for now… it keep governing bodies from getting involved, since the market it doing it’s job.

It a rather small thing that any company in open-source business seems to get. People can and will move, they can’t stop that… nor should they make it hell to do so. Why? It tend to push these businesses to value EVERY customer that looks at their product, so they got to at least give someone something of value to keep them coming to them for the same product that someone else has.

With most things that Apple is involved in (save for OS’s) they don’t have that kind of drive. They seek to dominate to the point of completion, they drive to own 100% of any market that they are in. Diversity and Competition in any market tends to help keep any business for getting out of control with dominance… it something that iTunes and iPod doesn’t really have, music distribution (and Personal Media Players) is diverse but nothing seem to be at the level of keeping up with Apple. It seems to be happening with the iPhone as well but between mess-ups with Apps, the constantly changing face of mobile, and better products from competitors, I doubt it will happen or if it does, it will not be for long

Still it’s something to keep an eye on.

As Jason points out, lot of us give Apple a LOT of money each year, so it is OK for us to think about what we want to help fund too.

Apple creates fantastic products, but everything is grey. As much as you call out “everything else is crap!” you can’t think that Apple has been as restrictive as they are withOUT thinking about lockin and the like.

Also, if you allegedly looked at the alleged iPhone SDK agreement you may allegedly think about how it allegedly goes incredibly far against the rights of alleged developers. If they allegedly ask you to allegedly sign away your future alleged rights (via allegedly saying “if you sign this, you also are signing anything that we allegedly change in the alleged future).

Note, although you are taking a strong stance, the point at hand here is to talk about what Apple may or may not be doing and weighing up what it means.

Cheers,

Dion

As for the ecosystem being tilted towards Apple, that’s not necessarily a fair statement. What is a fair statement is that Apple’s respective products across the ecosystem are generally better than their competition. The issue isn’t that people are forced to keep using iTunes. The issue is that they would prefer to keep using iTunes because by and large people like it better than alternatives, and it’s free. If I switched to a Pre, and all I would have to do is point it at my root directory containing my MP3s and AACs. But I won’t, because I prefer using iTunes because i like it better than the alternatives.

The thing that bugs me the most about this is that there’s a backlash building based on a false sense of entitlement that is essentially trying to penalize Apple for doing a good job. They make great software and people prefer iPods because they are so much better than the alternatives. The idea of penalizing them for this is, in my opinion, philosophically wrong in every way. People can use alternatives. But they don’t, not because they are forced to, as was the case with IE and Microsoft, but because they would prefer not to.

There’s a big difference between someone saying, “man I wish Apple would support Ogg Vorbis” or “I wish Apple had iTunes on Linux” and “Apple has to support Ogg Vorbis” and “Apple MUST put iTunes on Linux”. The people who use the “must” form of those statements are mistaken. And that’s the root of the whole thing: people are angry at Apple because they don’t do everything they want them to do, and also because they’re “stuck” with Apple because the alternatives are crappier. I can understand the wish to have additional features, but to treat Apple as if they’re conducting criminal behavior because they don’t cater to your every personal whim is, in my opinion, ludicrous.

I don’t buy the “just buy another X” or the comparison to Gillette though. While expensive, I am hardly “locked in” with a razor. I can change pretty quickly.

With iTunes though, that isn’t the case. I also don’t think that many users really understand their actions. My parents probably don’t understand what AAC / DRM means. iTunes makes it very easy to buy HD / AAC for a reason. I often mess up and get HD for an extra buc just because of the labelling!

You can always “use something else”. We didn’t have to use Microsoft during the monopoly years either, yet that didn’t mean that they had used monopolistic practices.

I am not saying that Apple necessarily has, but it is good to at least think about what it means to build out your AAC playbook, or what it would mean if you saw a new phone that you would like to switch too etc.

One of the reasons that open platforms are so great is that we have choice. The more the merrier, and this is why I am re-thinking my feelings towards Apple. That is all. I find it interesting to see “you wrote a post on this, I must delete your podcast from iTunes!” Taking it a touch too far perhaps?

All I want is to start discussions. There are some really good valid points just on this little blog post, and I learned about interesting points of view.

Thanks,

Dion