{"id":3988,"date":"2011-04-07T05:07:09","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T11:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonapollovoss.local\/?p=3988"},"modified":"2018-09-21T02:07:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T06:07:42","slug":"apple-s-monopolistic-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2011\/04\/07\/apple-s-monopolistic-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple&#8217;s Monopolistic Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">I just bought a brand new iPod Classic 160GB because I had completely filled up my old 80GB one with music.\u00a0 I am a big fan of the iPod because I am a big fan of having my immodest music collection with me wherever I may be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">So I plugged my new iPod into my computer to register the product to activate my warranty coverage.\u00a0 So imagine my horror when, instead of being taken to a product registration page, I was taken to the iTunes Store.\u00a0 Devilishly, the iTunes Store refused to let me pass to the next screen until I provided my full credit card information!\u00a0 I consider this to be despicable monopolistic and unethical capitalistic behavior on the part of Apple.\u00a0 Why?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">First, the bait and switch.\u00a0 I answered in the affirmative that I wanted to &#8216;register&#8217; my new iPod and instead was taken to iTunes to register the real product: me and my demographic information.\u00a0 It used to be that my e-mail address and serial number were enough.\u00a0 Now a full fledged profile of me can be created by collecting my credit card information.\u00a0 I consider this to be a violation of my privacy.\u00a0 Can you think of any other product where you have to provide your credit card information in order to register the product that you have already bought?\u00a0 Gross.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Second, &#8220;the first one&#8217;s free.&#8221;\u00a0 I have no interest in the iTunes Store, really.\u00a0 There are probably many other people in a similar situation as me whose power of resistance is less than mine.\u00a0 Apple is betting that folks will eventually be curious about the Store and when that time comes, purchasing something there is &#8220;just a click away.&#8221;\u00a0 Imagine walking into a new store for the first time and they already have your credit card information and a sales person walked up to you and proceeded to try and sell you something.\u00a0 I think that we would all be furious.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Third, this sets a precedent for future generations.\u00a0 While I think you would agree with me that Apple&#8217;s behavior is past the bounds of good taste, imagine a kid who gets their first credit card.\u00a0 Given Apple&#8217;s huge popularity with youth culture it&#8217;s very likely that one of the first places that credit card information is handed out is at the iTunes Store.\u00a0 How long until other companies follow suit?\u00a0 By the time my step-kid, now 20, is my age, 41, this may just be &#8220;business as usual.&#8221;\u00a0 But I consider this to be &#8220;business very unusual.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Fourth, what if Apple suffers a security breach and all of that credit card data from product registration is used for illegal purchases, or worse, identity theft?\u00a0 Sigh.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">How can Apple get away with this?\u00a0 I have no idea, but apparently every day they do get away with it.\u00a0 When a company starts displaying hubris of this sort it makes me take a closer look and it makes me look for alternative products and alternative investments.\u00a0 I know that this blog missive probably rings hollow.\u00a0 After all, Apple is The Most Beloved Company of All Time &#8211; but its incidents like this that often lead to arrogance, then to customer disappointment and corporate malfeasance, then to disaster.\u00a0 Regardless of whether that happens or not: shame on you, Apple.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Jason<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just bought a brand new iPod Classic 160GB because I had completely filled up my old 80GB one with music.\u00a0 I am a big fan of the iPod because I am a big fan of having my immodest music collection with me wherever I may be. &nbsp; So I plugged my new iPod into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}