As other companies deal with the economic down turn in their own ways, laying off staff, restructuring, lowering prices to deal with the reduced consumer demand, Apple does the complete opposite. If you ask me the biggest story from yesterday’s snore fest wasn’t the new iLife suite or the new 17″ MacBook Pro, but it was Apple’s new and innovative, dare I say, insanely great ways to get you to part with your money. Peppered throughout the keynote were numerous subtle hints at Apple’s new revenue streams.
First there was Garage band and the new Lesson store. Ka Ching.
Then there’s iWork.com. Try now pay later. There was no clue how much it will be when it ceases its beta period but expect it to cost at least as much as mobile me. Ka Ching.
Lovely new iPhone remote for Keynote. $0.99 please. Ka Ching.
Like your new 17″ MacBook Pro? Need to replace the battery? Ka Ching.
Great, now iTunes is finally DRM free. I can upgrade my Library for a fee – fair enough, I’m getting better quality. But wait – It’s all or nothing. So If you want to go plus, you have to pay again for that crap album you wish you’d never bought in the first place. Ka Ching.
Cost to upgrade my library: €79. Look on record executives faces for once again getting you to pay multiple times for stuff you’ve already bought: priceless.
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I must say, I agree completely with Thomas’s assessment of the Macworld Keynote speech…. For Apple’s last Keynote presentation at Macworld, it certainly was not impressive and quite notably a snore fest.
New revenue streams… new iTunes lessons…. new remotes that should be bundled with the software… new pricing structure in iTunes. Watch your wallets Apple fans…. iLife 09…. who cares that you can GeoTag your photos… is it going to make your photos any better… NO. Is it any more stable? Are you that stupid you don’t already categorize your photos with a keyword location tag? Who cares about face recognition? It still doesn’t make you photos look any better? BloatWare. I’d like to see them fix the bugs in iPhoto and Mobile me first and then ask me for more money for software functions I won’t need.
I can’t say how disappointed the Keynote address was…. One suite of software that isn’t available for another 3 weeks…. another service for iWork.com that is beta and a 17″ MBP that has a special battery that you can’t change out when it’s dead…. (sound of a single party favor being blown – Honk) Count on Apple for coming out with a product of an external battery supply that cost more than another battery…. just ridiculous!
I want the real world tests of the 17″ MBP using photoshop for 8 hours or watching a DVD for 8 hours…. or doing anything other than typing a word document…. my current MBP is lucky to get 2 to 3 hours on a single fully charged New Battery with wifi off and bluetooth off and running minimal apps….
It’s no wonder Apple is pulling out of the Macworld Keynote…. Nothing good to release and not wanting to work to a January product release schedule.
My 2 cents anyway.
The .30¢/song upgrade fee is the biggest problem for me converting to the DRM-free versions. It seems disingenuous by Apple to have it’s customers pay more for a song that today is DRM-free and better quality simply because they bought it yesterday (or whenever). .10¢, okay…but .30¢ per song?!! Personally, that’s over $350!!
It really is more of the ingredients that go into making music piracy taste so good!
It will also be interesting to see how credible Apple is towards maintaining their DRM servers in the near future. Or will it eventually “close shop” on those who own DRM songs much like Microsoft, WalMart and Yahoo did to its customers with scathing criticism, especially from the iTunes community.
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“It will also be interesting to see how credible Apple is towards maintaining their DRM servers in the near future. Or will it eventually “close shop” on those who own DRM songs much like Microsoft, WalMart and Yahoo did to its customers with scathing criticism, especially from the iTunes community. ”
That’s a very good point. I hadn’t thought of that? Will they shut them down a year or two from now and then focee everyone to upgrade? If it was MS then I could definitely see that happening, and lately, i wouldn’t put it past Apple either
It was a long wait, but now they are DRM free and at a decent bit rate, I will start to buy from the iTunes store.
Yeah, I agree. I hadn’t really stopped buying from iTunes. The DRM never really bothered me that much, but a couple of albums I re-bought on CD because the quality wasn’t great on iTunes.
And if I want to upgrade my Library I now have to buy them again too…. grr
A company creating new products and services and expecting people to pay for them. The nerve!
“A company creating new products and services and expecting people to pay for them. The nerve!”
I think you misread that a bit, I wasn’t complaining (mostly) I was just pointing it out. I applaud Apple for coming up with ways to make money in an economic melt down – but I take issue with the iTunes plus upgrade’s all or nothing approach.
It’s not paying for stuff people have a problem with. It’s paying for things multiple times. Or it’s when people perceive they aren’t getting value for money. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with voicing an opinion on such matter, or by expressing your opinion by not using your credit card.
Old schoolers have known for a long time that the best price/performance/portability formula in digital music has been CDs for YEARS.
Best quality, legally rippable to your iTunes library (at a quality setting of your choice DRM-free thank you very much), best price, and you always have a backup copy on the shelf should something go wrong.
I really don’t understand why more people don’t “get” this.
All this belly aching about DRM is a moot point to this old-timer.
I don’t think you have to worry about Apple turning off its DRM servers.
Apple is a very image-conscious company and destroying billions of dollars in value locked into currently purchased songs would be a public relations horror. Furthermore, the inevitable class action lawsuit would cost more to defend than the cost of running the DRM system for centuries.
And if you think about it, the DRM system is run by the iTunes store system, which will continue to be maintained for as long as online music purchases continue. I doubt that the DRM system has significant overhead beyond what the iTunes Store systems already have. From what I gather, all the DRM system does is authorizes and deauthorizes computers and those are fairly rare events. The rest of the security process is done on the local computers and doesn’t involve phoning home.
Of course if for some reason I am wrong, you always have the option of saving your songs to CD and re-importing them as MP3s/unlocked AACs.
There are a lot of things you can be critical of Apple for but I really don’t think this is going to be one of them.
D