Apple To Take Bite Out Of Add-Ons
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The logo may look pretty harmless, but once you find out that Apple is pushing this logo as their right to tax all iPod accessories then its much more than harmless. According to cNet news, Apple wants money "For the right to display the logo, Apple was at one point looking to get 10 percent of an add-on's retail selling price. More recently, the company has been seeking 10 percent of wholesale pricing, according to people familiar with the situation."
Its looking like the boom days all over again. Steve Jobs was at the helm of Apple, the original iMac debuted to great sales and Apple stock prices zoomed way up. Everyone believed that company was finally going to become a contender. Then the clones died off and market share shrank, never to be recovered as Windows PCs dominated the market and kept getting cheaper. Repeat in 2005? I think this might be the case. Why is Apple trying to tax innovation of 3rd parties who accessories make the iPod such a success? If Apple cannot even listen to its users and produce a 2 button mouse, why should they have the right to strong arm other companies into paying just because their products are designed to look and worked well with the iPods. Its like Dell saying that any black accessory made for PCs should have to be tax by them.
Ridiculous I say. Sad, very sad.
posted by olouie @ 1:46 PM
2 Comments:
Apple has every right to charge other companies for using their copyrighted, corporate logo. I agree it's a silly idea, but it's not outside Apple's rights to make that request. Third-party vendors have every right to say "No thank you, Steve" and choose not to display the logo.
Jobs has to make up for all the money he's losing in Mac owners buying their replacement mice from other companies somehow!
Apple is not just charging for optional use of their logo... they are strong arming all companies to FORCE them to use the logo if their accessories are to be used with the iPods.
If you read the cNet article it is clear that Jobs is not pushing "optional" use. Apple is going too far lately: first it was not admitting that the iPod batteries were designed to last only around a year or so and could not be replaced. Then it was ignoring the problems with powerbooks. Now this. Everytime it required mass user movements to get Apple's attention.
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