It's Official: Apple is the New Microsoft
Ten years ago, Microsoft was the company everyone loved to hate.
The most vociferous Microsoft haters slammed the company for being a greedy industry bully that used its monopolistic, clunky, copycat operating system to force software on users and coerce partners into unfair licensing deals.
Don't look now, but the role of the industry's biggest bully is increasingly played by Apple, not Microsoft. Here's a look at how Apple has shoved Microsoft aside as the company with the worst reputation as a monopolist, copycat and a bully.
Apple the monopolist
The core complaint about Microsoft in the 1990s was that its Windows market share gave it monopoly power, which it abused in multiple ways. Attorneys General and others zeroed in on the "bundling" of the Internet Explorer Web browser, which they claimed was forced on users because Microsoft offered it as part of Windows.
People love iPods (including me; my family of four has purchased 12 iPods in the past few years). But iPods come bundled with iTunes. Want to buy music from Apple? Guess what? You must install iTunes. Want an Apple cell phone from AT&T? Yep! ITunes is required even if you want only to make phone calls. Want to buy ringtones for your Apple phone? ITunes.
Apple not only "bundles" iTunes with multiple products, it forces you to use it. At least with Internet Explorer, you could always just download a competitor and ignore IE.
Not fair, you might say. Any hardware device that syncs data with a PC as part of its core functionality has software to facilitate that syncing. True enough. But operating systems have browsers as part of core functionality, too. Doesn't MAC OS X come with Safari? Doesn't the iPhone?
And "bundling" works. Steve Jobs bragged this week that Apple has distributed 600 million copies of iTunes to date. The overwhelming majority of those copies were iTunes for Windows. And iTunes for Windows' popularity isn't driven by software product quality. ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most nonintuitive application on my system. But I need it because I love my iPods.
At least with Windows, you could reformat your PC and install Linux or any number of other PC-compatible operating systems. Can I reformat my iPod and install something else? Can I uninstall iTunes but keep using the iTunes store and my iPods? Apple strongly discourages all that, claiming that the iPod, the iPod software and iTunes are three components of the same product. But that's what Microsoft said about Windows and IE.
[Source-Google news]
27 comentarii:
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"ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most nonintuitive application on my system"
I don't begrudge the point of view that Apple is keeping a very tight grip on its user experience and that there is, indeed a danger of monopolistic practices [which never pan out right], but that statement is just plain nonsense.
I've been using iTunes since version 1.0 and I have -never- known it to be anything other than the most reliable, carefree piece of software that I've ever used. And it's free. I only have about 6,000+ songs so I could see where maybe for users with a lot of music it could slow down, but I would not call it clunky and I have never found it to be hard to use.
The conlusion thus is either you have vastly superior software or maybe it's not as bad as you say. If it's the former: do tell me what other jukebox you use [or are aware of] that even comes close to the quality and ease of use that iTunes is. I promise you: if it's superior to iTunes [and I'd have to see that with my own eyes] and it's reasonably priced [as opposed to free], I'll buy it and use it.
Somehow, I doubt that is going to happen.
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I Agree with this 100%, the only reason I have iTunes on my computer is because of my iPod, and it's an horrible software, crappy player, it forces things on you, I only need it to transfer mp3 on my iPod, I don't care about the store, I don't care about all the useless feature of it. It's slow, it's pointless, and the guy who thought of that program should run into something really sharp.
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"do tell me what other jukebox you use [or are aware of] that even comes close to the quality and ease of use that iTunes is."
Here ya go buddy, WINAMP. Of course it can't transfer anything to your absurd apple product, but I have 16,000+ songs and it runs beautifully.
iTunes is the exact reason I won't buy an iPod, that program is just awful. I has to use it to transfer music to my iTunes powered SLVR so I'm not making a non-factual claim. It sucks.
Major props to the person that called out apple like this.
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iTunes is HORRIBLE. I've had to replace my song son my iPod mutltiple times (and it takes HOURS UPON HOURS since I have a lot) because iTunes has decided all on its own to delete my music when i go to sync it. it's horrible syncing software and always has been, and the "prettiness" of it isn't worth having to reload music on your iPod a lot. besides, windows media player is just as pretty.
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just to let you all know, i use winamp and i have an ipod, and when i plug in my ipod winamp recognises instantly and works perfectly at transering songs.
winamp is definately the best music software anywhere.
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there's a plugin for winamp that allows you to sync and transfer tunes to your pods, just search ipod on the winamp site!!
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Itunes is awesome! what stone-age computers are you running?
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"Can I reformat my iPod and install something else?"
Yes, you can.
www.rockbox.org
www.ipodlinux.org
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"Itunes is awesome! what stone-age computers are you running?"
GA-965P-DS3
Win Vista home premium X64
E6600 @ 3.6GHz
4GB OCZ DDR2 800 @ 4-4-4-12
BFG 8800GTX OC2 stock OC
SB X-Fi
Raptor X 150GB X2 10K RPM RAID 0
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unlike microsoft apple dont have a monopoly with any of their products
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TBH I think your views of Apple are, well...crap TBH.
Apple are 10x the company M$ are. You forget, they have brains...M$ dont!
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If you are simply uploading songs to the little white device... instead of using iTunes, you could try to use ephpod... worked on a couple of mates of mine perfectly and a lot quicker at uploading. This was a couple of years ago but may still be worth a look. Easy to use program from what I remember.
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Apple has probably what Microsoft lacked at the beginning: creativeness and imagination.
Also, they do a fine practice of "Creative Destruction": They renew themselves constaltly.
The only thing that I can find is a burdain si... well... the price -_-
I can build my own PC the way I want it, and I can work prices with suppliers and compare...
With Apple, you cannot... shame.. I would really dig one of those MacPros
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I don't get whats so good about ipods.
Half the time Ipod technology is behind all the other portable music players and they charge you premium price because all you suckers think ipods are cool.
Then they release another ipod thats tweaked just a bit more and added maybe one more function. And then charge you premium price again. "Oh shit! The new ipod can store photos! I'm going to cream myself and then get it." btw ipods don't even have FM radios till today.
And if you want any accessories they bring another ridiculously overpriced cost.
If you looked around you can find a better music player, with more functions and more space for cheaper the price, with the exception of sony.
My iRiver has more functions then the new ipods and I bought it ages ago.
I'd never buy an ipod based on the principle that apple is trying to market its customers technology that isn't the best it can do and still charging premium price for it.
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Buy a Mac and stop whinning. L
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i hate itunes...personally i use winamp with its automated plug in to deal with music and ipod.
ephpod helps wherever winamp lacks +whereever itunes lacks.
anywayz itunes is one of the worst software out there, and unless u actually like the software and u use it, i pity u for being too retarded to find some other software.
there are better alternate ways to obtain music.
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Why would you buy an ipod in the first place?
there are tons of other mp3 players that are better.
no trying to spam but i love my Creative Zen vision m.
it doesnt delete everything when you put into another computer and players just about every format of video.
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"Apple has probably what Microsoft lacked at the beginning: creativeness and imagination."
Longhorn Alpha Build 4008, completed in 2001 (which screenshots publically available, mind you) featured:
-The Aero effect years before Apple's "Aqua" effect.
-The sidebar with gadgets, NOT ONLY before Apple's Dashboard, but also before Yahoo's Konfobulator (which Apple bought from Yahoo, and called it "Dashboard")
The Finder tool in the Start Menu was available from Microsoft.com as a free download add-on to XP a year and a half (18 months) before it shipped with OSX.
Microsoft Live Labs began working on its new SeaDragon technology 2 years before Apple began work on their "Resolution Independence".
The list can continue, but I'm tired of typing. The point is: Do some research before claiming that Windows is behind, copies Mac or lacks creativeness and imagination. The only way Apple survives is by copying Microsoft's Tech Previews and Alpha Builds, and getting their own version out on the market beforehand. I'm not anti-Apple. I'm on my MacBook right now. I'm not a fanatic or blind to what actually happens.
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Itunes is awesome software! Ive been using it since before it because itunes version 1.0.
I've tried other mp3 players winamp included, and multiple others! Non of them are as flawless as itunes.
each and every piece of software has their flaws, personally i think itunes is the simplest to use, but i sumpliment itunes with many other audio programs, becasue unless your retarded you can't claim one program can do it all.
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I have always rather disliked Microsoft and the majority of their products. I kept using Windows and MS Office only because it was forced upon me, and I have tried to avoid other MS software (such as IE and WMP) to whatever extent possible.
Until very recently, that is. I don't know when was it that the guys at Microsoft decided to start doing something user-friendly for a change, but they sure succeeded.
- I've been using Vista Ultimate since spring and that's the best OS I've ever used. (And yes, I know my way around Linux and I have used Macs.)
- Office 2007 is simply the greatest thing to happen to office software ever.
- And I even like the newest Windows Media Player. No other media player features such a simple and powerful media library management. iTunes sure can't handle the ~100GB of songs in a way that wouldn't induce an immediate headache.
Only IE is still as crap as ever.
I use iTunes for my iPod (which I love) and I beg every time that I wouldn't have to.
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You all who say iTune sucks, must really have bad computers. It worked nicely on my Windows XP computer and now even better on Windows Vista. I can understand if you all have windows 98. But it's probably because you have too much porn on the computer to star with.
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All you comments are useless to begin with. Macs are really bad though and that is top of the line macs my school carries which I still manage to put them out of their misery pretty fast, faster then windows. Windows owns majority stock of apple so it is pretty much a legal monopoly, Apples are not better then oranges and should be thrown out of windows.
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Apple has turned into the very entity they once ridiculed. Apple's been attempting to market their users as unique free thinking individuals, but has actually created white earplug clones, faceless entities bound by the software and hardware Apple deems fit for them to buy.
The iPod itself was a ripoff from Creative. Back in 2006, Apple settled in a lawsuit brought by Creative regarding the iPod user interface for $100 million.
The funny thing is iPods were around for quite a while but not popular because you needed a Mac (at the time roughly 3% of computers were Mac). It was not until iTunes was released on Windows that they became mainstream.
APPLE OWES THEIR SUCCESS TO MICROSOFT.
Do a bit of research and you'll find that even the precious iPhone is a remake of mobile phones that have been around for years (see LG-KE850 and more)... just not in North America (we're about 3-5 years behind here).
... and yes, iTunes is a terrible pig of a software bundle. Used it for a year like a fool before I came to my senses.
I hear next year Apple is coming out with a strange communication network to link people via a digital mail system and allow computers to share information with other computers... they call it the "iNternet".
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itunes is truly a bad piece of software, and like several people mentioned, it isn't intuitive. when i used my buddy's MAC it took me forever just to find basic functions. it all reminds me of the ridiculousness of those MAC commercials that talk about how MAC comes with "everything you need" and on PC you have to get the software. well I like finding, carefully selecting, and installing my own free software from the internet and setting the setting how i like and knowing exactly which program on my computer is doing everything. on a MAC you dont know half the time what the hell is going on. the OS just does everything and most PC users hate this. i have hated for years how windows media player comes with windows and tries to take everything over. what these companies dont realize is that real computer users want to be able to choose everything and set up everything exactly how they want. i dont want a single little file or application on my computer that i didnt put there, besides the ones essential to run the OS, and they should be stripping down the OS, not fluffing it up. everyone knows that the best software is written by users and distributed free over the internet. windows and MAC both have it all wrong, but at least you seem to have more options easily available on PC.
and what is with this crazy cal to aesthetic appeal these days? electronics and computing and about functionality. i dont give a crap what it looks like, i just want it to do what it is supposed to. ipods are the biggest piece of crap there is. they were never revolutionary, companies like creative were making far superior jukebox mp3 players years before ipod. they are also cheaply made, Steve Jobs himself has been quoted saying that he wants everybody to buy a new ipod every year, they arent meant to last. it is becoming so bad that they are rivaling mobile phones for polution. i don't know why people like ipods so much, i much prefer creative devices. they are made much better, last forever, have much better compatibility and funtionality, and are the same price or cheaper. AND although the newer generation of them are designed to work with windows media player, you can completely ignore that and just use the simple file transfer library program that they come with which is very stripped down and simple. and you rarely have to convert video for the zen vision series, they play divx and xvid and other formats straight up. creative devices also come ready to hook up to things and dont require you to buy a bunch of adapters that all fit some one special input/output slot like ipod or many mobile phones have. better yet, you can even use the newer creative devices with plug and play usb and transfer files with no software at all. talk about easy. i know this sounds like a big plug for creative but i am just using them as an example, i assure you i dont work for them. but check this out: my super old creative jukebox 3, although physically clunky, could not only play mp3s flawlessly, but it had an analog/optical line in through which you could record live sound into mp3 up to 320kbps. it supported mic input as well. it had a headphone port in addition to 2, yes 2 stereo outputs and supported both usb and firewire. and it had an ifrared thing to pick up remote control if you bought one. and creating playlists on the fly with this thing was so easy and flawless, it was amazing. infact since this device creative has never made a better or easier to use firmware. and for user control it had this sweet little scroll wheel that was just brilliant. it totally destroyed the standard button or ipod touch wheel controls. i didnt care that this thing was big and clunky, it was so much better than an ipod in every way it wasnt even funny. i wish that more companies would go this way rather than the way they are going. put more power and funtionality in my hands, not in the hands of the company that sold it to me. i want it to be my device and i want it to run how i want and run well and last long, i dont want some piece of crap on lease from MAC that requires their constant support and upgrading.
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Steve Jobs has learnt many tricks from MS, a shame most are dirty.
Of course itunes is a pig of a thing, because it is optimised for mac hardware, many of you gave in and bought a mac just to ease this cross compatability issue. Sure itunes works with MS but most things do [how many programs dont work with apple OS's]. What really jacks me is the endless new versions/updates required, this shows a poorly written, buggy code.
The big picture shows me that mac/itunes lovers on this page cant spell or express themselves properly, so they lash out at anyone that badmouths their investment in white trash. Hooray for alternate software/hardware, anything IS better
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Personally I ditched Winamp for iTunes because when version 3 came out it kept crashing with all the bugs again and again. Skins would misapply, and it was just pesky. I used to love Winamp but it lost my interest when I became more and more familiar with iTunes.
I was tired of having to use separate programs to rip, burn, organize and catalog, and iTunes does them all. Sure, it could use a few more visualisers, and the music store is there, but only as an option. Tell me Windows media player is any different!
You compare Apple to Microsoft but not with representative apps. iTunes is Apple's and Media Player is Microsoft's. How does WinAmp represent either? Windows Media player won't rip mp3s - only WMAs, and it has the same naggy crap that anything else does.
If you want third party apps, then use them. There are plenty that work with the iPod, including those for iTunes. Sure, it comes bundled with the iPod, it's the manufacturer's program. How many of you bought an MP3 player that came with some special app? It's a requirement to supply SOMETHING. Apple just happens to have a really decent app, so it would be dumb to license out a third party app when your own is really decent.
The only thing Apple has a monopoly on is grace, elegance and their signature foothold on an excellent user interface.
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I agree, I-tunes sucks but it does have some good features.
Personally, as I dont need the itunes shop when you can buy the songs from other sources for fairer prices, I use anapod, drag and drop all the way baby, even Winamp now has built in support and faster transfers.
Itunes is more of an anti-piracy measure for the ipod letting you only use the one ipod on the machine! it sux when you have a laptop AND a desktop.