Apple 2009 rant (authentication chip for Shuffle headphone use)

[jemsite]

Apple has lost it's way... rough waters ahead. (shuffle cant use your headphones)

It's sad to see Jobs sick as you have to respect his leadership & restoration of what was a dead american company. Too bad instead of perhaps informing others of his disease, possibly helping others in need, Apple is defrauding it's shareholders & burying their head in the sand but that's for another thread. They don't seem to make good decisions without Jobs anyways.

Apple is the poster child for overpriced, underperforming stuff people used to purchase without THINKING because of hype & advertisements. It's only notable product today - the iPhone - breaks that mold as it's pretty cheap and makes AT&T a ton of revenue!

Heresy, but just look at the first product after Jobs stepped down. A frikin' 4GB $80 "shuffle" that can't use your own headphones. Apple knows ipod users only have a few dozen songs on the ipods anyways. But flash prices dropped so the $3 4GB chip replaces the $2.50 512MB chip keeping prices high! Plus now if you use a shuffle (ie. gym) you can't even use DECENT HEADPHONES (one that actually cancel background noise). IS THIS COMPANY THAT STUPID! Or does it just assume consumers still are?



Other notable reasons Apple peaked

* PC industry facing biggest annual slump since its inception.

* 100% product markup doesn't work anymore. it was a short term blip.

* Apple stores (ie. nothing but advertisements) in bankrupt malls are a total cash drain

* Netbooks - apple can't sell netbooks for $269 when their lame iPods cost more and do much less. But they're working on a "touchscreen" netbook to try the 100% markup thingy again. Netbooks are a huge growth and have sales of 18million units worldwide in 2008. These fit on student's desks (in class) and their budget. Writing on the screen would be pointless.

* Small Laptops - too many good ones at great prices with small sizes (Dell Mini-12 or Mini-10 for example full 1280x720p displays, Dell Inspiron-13, etc.)

* Smartphones. Stuck on one carrier worldwide, apple has little chance to build it's revenue here, while all other carriers & their phones offer as much general functionality by years end. Businesses cannot and will not deal with iPhone when there is that thing called "Blackberry" and many other winmobile smartphones.

* iPhone application sales are abysmal but who didn't expect that? The average iPhone user has trouble dialing it or getting headphones to work. the iPhone does too much for what people need to sell more useless apps & services to said consumer.

* iPods are a dead end product, the only one that really gave Apple actual revenue during the last few years. This was because they sold $45 in parts for $249.

Anyways, is anyone really surprised?

[Vim Fuego]

Oooo... this will be interesting.... (sits back and waits...)
Jim

[jemsite]

LOL.

I want one apple zealot to explain why it's a good idea that you can't press PLAY or adjust volume on the shuffle (instead forcing sales of garbage, overpriced, licensed accessories)

Then i want to know what alternate reality still exists where any dumb parent would hand their kid $$$ for anything Apple Computer when you can go online and order something better at 1/2 the price. Or what jacka$$ in school would run up student loans to do so .... glen

[Jem7RB MK]

i know plenty of tards that get Apple products because it's Apple, sad however it is, i only ever use my iPod 4gb 1st gen Nano for tattoo'ing now-a-days

Rob

[Robstar]

Ha, Ha, jim maybe you should apply for the CEO job since you seem to have many of their problems lined up so well.
Many companies are trying to be more diverse in order to compete in the market, some ideas work others don't. You are all over the place with your argument.I personally don't by any products other than their computers.Why? Because i use them to for my work(video,music,web and photo production).It just what i feel works for me and i can run both systems windows and Mac os X. If i have to pay more for the computers so be it but what is my alternative, Vista Anyone!

[The Euphor]

"Either you get it or you don't!"

[jemsite]

Robstar - i assume you were referring to my post but i'm not making an argument just posting cut and dry facts. Typical CEO makes large decisions based on info on hand. Jobs was an exception, more a cultural icon who could sell things to his disciples with the power of suggestion. Apple's bubble peaked with the housing market. Noone said Apple products don't work, it's that they do little to nothing to separate themselves and cost 2x more. Vista actually runs great on new/modern PCs - i like vista64 especially - but that is a different argument. 90+ % of new PCs come with Windows (Vista) for a reason. Apple would LOVE to have that revenue stream but that ship has sailed.

Euphor - how can you "get it" that the new shuffle can't be played without the WORST HEADPHONES ever made? ...glen

[AxeHappy]

Originally Posted by Robstar

what is my alternative, Vista Anyone!

Actually most people I know who used Vista have had no problem with it and prefer it to XP. It simply had the same problems on rollout that every OS ever (Including Mac OS) had. Plus companies hadn't made drivers for all their hardware to work with Vista(I don't if MS didn't give them advanced copies or what?). Since SP1 I've heard that Vista is pretty much the mest OS on the market. I'd say ever, then people would get all upset and whatnot. The only reason Vista has a bad name is all those really, really stupid, "I'm a Mac," commericals. So I'm going to list the top 3 reasons why those commericals are stupid:

1. Macs are for fun young people and PCs are only for boring old work!
- Except that no gamer ever in the history of ever uses a Mac. And all those programs that let you make fun photos and videos and whatnot. You can get them on a PC. And they costs the same. And just as good (I've heard a lot of people say they actually work better, but don't tell the Mac people. They'll lose their mystic). The free programs that Macs come with suck just as much as Windows free ones.

2. PCs are all business and Macs are yours to do whatever you want with:
- Except you can do whatever you want with your PC. And I'm actually talking about your choice to do with the computer. Any hardware you want in a PC and Monitor and gear whatsoever. With a Mac...what's that? You can only put Apple's ridiculously overpriced gear in your computer? That sounds like a brutal Monopoly.

3. Macs don't get those cryptic error messages!
- Except those cryptic error messages tell you(Or if you don't know what they mean and are too stupid to type it into a search engine it tells your computer tech.) what is wrong with your computer. From hardware to software failure. It's totally way better to just Freeze and hang there with a stupid ****ing beachball rotating around your face.


I think that the owners of Apple secretly think Apple users are retarded and what to punish them for trying to be all scene, because Apple is 110% a scene computer.

Now, I think both computers pretty much suck as much as the other (Linux too.) Neither are particularly reliable, crash too often. So just use whatever one works better for you. Familiarity with either system will make it seem better.

[Kenix700]

I dont know why everyone comes down on Vista. Iv been using for like 9 months now and i haven't had a single problem with it.

[jaxadam]

I don't mind Vista, or even Apple for that matter. I think the iPods are great, and I know a lot of people who have the iPhone and love it.

But I don't think this means that Apple has hit their peak or that they are going away anytime soon.

I think it will be interesting to see what happens with the new release of Windows 7. It seems to be pretty promising, but there are a lot of Macbook converts that I think will give Windows plenty of competition for years to come.

[markg5150]

I'm a Mac OSX convert and really enjoy and won't return to Windows at home. Unfortunately my work computer will always be a PC

However, things I don't like about Apple are
> Constant product evolution desparate for you to upgrade to the latest must have gismo
> Relative to PC's they are expensive
> Why restrict the operating system to their own hardware? If Microsoft is judged anti-competitive for bundling IE and media player, etc in Windows how can apple restrict access to their great OS to Apple hardware?
> iTunes is convenient but expensive compared to other (legal) online download sites

Anyway that's me done, I'm off to buy another iPod because the other 7 I have in the house are more than 3 months old

[jemsite]

Apple isn't going under, but they need to reinvent themselves shortly or they'll wither. For the reasons in post #1 they are very obvious.

Originally Posted by Kenix700

I dont know why everyone comes down on Vista. Iv been using for like 9 months now and i haven't had a single problem with it.

last vista post please, take that to a different thread.


vista gets a bad rap because when launched for holidays (late 2006) PCs lacked the horsepower to run it and microsoft softened "vista ready" requirements to placate intel, amd, compaq, dell, hp, etc. it ran like a dog on 512MB & 1GB laptops obviously (compared to XP).


PLENTY OF OTHER THREADS TO TALK VISTA ...glen

[wilch]

IMO, iPod's are ridiculous.

Noisy headphone amplifier, coloured sound, and no option to pop in a micro SD to up the available memory.

For about half the price you can get a Sandisk Sansa Fuze which is practically the same size as a Nano, but with one awesome built in headphone amplifier (it surprisingly can drive my HD600's well without an external amp!), and upgradable storage!

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...uze-review.php

even has a radio....

The other great positive is you don't have to install that malware that Apple call iTunes.


Back to their PC's. I fail to understand their cost model. What exactly are we paying for. Every way I look at it you have to pay more for an Apple than a PC, and you end up with inferior hardware that is not upgradeable.

The OS debate is a bit moot. Skip over Windows and install a Linux distro if you want a more Apple feeling OS. Or even just wait till final quarter this year and experience Windows 7 (which is everything Vista should've been...but that's for another thread).

[jb4674]

Originally Posted by jemsite

Apple isn't going under, but they need to reinvent themselves shortly or they'll wither. For the reasons in post #1 they are very obvious.

Why? Because they put out an expensive portable player that benefits from using their own branded accesories? Come on Glen, it's called Apple for a reason.

Aside from that, you should know better than complain about that. Ibanez does the exact same thing when they release these expensive limited edition models and no one really cares, so why should this new device be any different? Apple is in the business of making money and there will be at least a few thousand people (fanboys) that are going to buy that player and not complain about the price or the fact that you use the device to its full potential by using their accesories just so they can look cool.

For the record, I don't own any apple products because they're too expensive.

Jimmy

[Emericavox]

Tho i think this new ipod shuffle is going to suck (but who knows, maybe the sales will show otherwise) i am curious to see how 3rd parties are going to make new headphones with controls on them. Imagine, the all new Bose IN-ear headphones for the new Ipod Shuffle, for a low price of $199.99