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Jan 16

The “convenience fee”, and why I want cheaper Mac products

Apple, Tech Add comments

Nothing makes you curse more than the “convenience fee” that companies like Ticketmaster try to sell you. When I first say that I would be charged more for printing a ticket out compared to mail/will-call I was appalled. The whole point is that I am saving you money guys! No having to pay for call centers. No having to ship things.

Some companies see things backwards and want to squeeze money out of you. I feel this way with Apple sometimes, and agree with a certain Brian on the rentals.

How is it that I pay the same for a rental via iTunes as I would from Blockbuster? Blockbuster has the overhead of the brick and mortar crud (not for long ;). Apple just needs a few servers. Yet, because of the convenience they charge the same and take in all of the profits.

And what about the rest of the Macworld fun?

  • You can’t have a great iPhone year every year, but it is clear that this one wasn’t for me
  • A small laptop with a battery pain in the butt, no ethernet, etc etc. No thanks. My pain point wrt laptops is not to do with size. My batteries are a constant pain in the butt, so I can’t imagine having to take the bugger in a year later to get a replacement, let alone dealing with the flights to europe! I do think that certain people will love the Air, I am just not the target audience. This isn’t a developer machine, and I am not the kind of guy who buys one of each laptop and deals with the sync issues
  • The iPhone update went smoothly for me. I didn’t have any of the update server issues that others had. That being said, although I am very happy to be able to catch up to 1999 and send multiple people SMS messages, the new features are hardly earth shattering. Wobbly icons are cool, but come on :)
  • $20 to add apps that you get on the iPhone, and can get via a jailbreak, for the iPod Touch. Really?

When you get a name for constant innovation, it is tough when you don’t blow peoples minds one year. All I wanted was 3G :)

5 Responses to “The “convenience fee”, and why I want cheaper Mac products”

  1. Stephan Schmidt Says:

    In capitalism companies charge what people are willing to pay. No mystery there.

    Peace
    -stephan

  2. Scott Morgan Says:

    “willing to pay” I haven’t met anyone willing to pay $1800+ for a below par notebook. It’s good it fits into an envelope, that will reduce the shipping costs when you have to send it into Apple to get your battery replaced.

  3. Reader Says:

    I was wanted to note why what I heard about the $20 fee for the Apple iPod Touch at macrumors.com

    “we remind users that only the iPhone and Apple TV are currently using Apple’s “subscription revenue” accounting model. As such, Apple has explained that it can give software updates for those devices, when possible, for free. The iPod touch does not fall under this model, and therefore under Apple’s reasoning, a major feature upgrade must incur a charge.”

  4. Charles Miller Says:

    Regarding the iPod Touch update, it seems to have been totally missed by the tech industry that this update contains software licensed from third parties (namely the WiFi location database in their Maps app). Said parties would presumably require Apple to account for each software update shipped, and pay licensing fees accordingly.

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