We sold ourselves to the underdog. Then when the dog grew up, it bit us.
I was one of the early adopters who purchased the iPod Touch. I didn’t really need one - I already had an older iPod Video.
The iPod touch was the first time I felt shortchanged from the get-go. Apple always had this wonderful glow about them - their products would deliver the best technology had to offer in a sleek beautiful package. The iPod Touch could have been so much more, but Apple chose to cripple many features, delivering a merely passable product. I held on to the hope future software updates from Apple would fully realise the iPod Touch’s potential. I jailbroke my iPod Touch once and experienced the fullness of a real programmable device in my hand. I chose to update the firmware, disabling all the amazing 3rd party applications I had installed because I foolishly believed that Apple would eventually come through and outshine anything these 3rd party developers could produce.
I believed in the altruistic front Apple put up. I believed Steve Jobs when he said he was forced to incorporate DRM into all mp3s sold on iTunes because the record labels dictated so. I knew full well that the inclusion of DRM also locked us all into only using iPods for our music. But iPods would be the best players the technological world could possibly offer, right?
So forgive me if I was terribly upset last night when Steve Jobs announced some new enhancements for my iPod Touch. I’d get five new applications: email, stocks, google maps, notes and weather. They’re not mind-blowing by any standards. I’d have expected Microsoft to wow me more. The best part was that Apple expected iPod Touch owners to shell out $20 to have them installed, while anyone who bought a new iPod Touch would have them for free. Microsoft added functionality to their Zune product line for free. Hell has frozen over.
We were penalised for jumping in early. Exactly what Apple did when they made early adopters of the iPhone pay $200 more than customers who bought it 2 months after it was launched.
It doesn’t pay to be a Mac zealot. It doesn’t pay to believe in Apple, or any corporation. We all knew corporations exist solely to make money, but we hoped our Apple would be different.
Now we know better than to blindly believe. Apple will no longer enjoy the benefit of the doubt - it will have to earn our dollars the hard way.
It strange that you say (B…hing ) the touch is mistaken because i think you have no good reason to the ipod touch is 10 time beter than the ipod 5g i love the screen and web apps and 3rd party native apps are coming soon get real please it i s great product and will improve alot in the next year. Buy it is not a pda, stop thinking of it as one…PLEASE, it is the best ipod i have owned.
Very well said. Of course you can not get TOO upset at Apple for being just like any other major corporation in re: to a focus on rev’s. I hope that your words are seen by AAPL corporate so that they remember the core group of first adapter zealots that have kept this company alive.
So you bought a product that didn’t have the features you wanted and want to complain that it STILL doesn’t have them less than 5 months from the time the product was launched. Apple is being held to a very high standard by most people, and they should be, but it sounds like you are holding them to an impossible standard.
If you really don’t think those five apps are worth $20, then by all means, don’t buy them… If you use IMAP Gmail as I do, I can tell you the Mail app alone is worth more than $20. And Apple’s implementation of Google Maps is absolutely without peer.
Or, you could just bitch and moan that Apple has personally betrayed you and they’re more evil than Microsoft (that’s not hyberbole or anything). Your call.
FWIW, Apple doesn’t report revenue for iPods over a 24-month period like they do with iPhones and AppleTVs, so they cannot legally release new software features to iPods for free without having to go back and restate their prior earnings to the FCC every quarter, which you might correctly imagine is a phenomenal PITA. Perhaps you should aim your disdain with this policy at Messers Sarbanes and Oxley.
Sorry - but this is pure whining and I’m pro apple… have lots of apple products. Waaaah
Umm… waaaah… get over yourself.
if Apple didn’t operate to make a profit, they wouldn’t be able to make any of the cool products they do. They are not perfect, but people forget that they are creating products in markets they’ve never been in before, i.e. iPhone, and shaking up the industry with their first at bat. Give them a bit of credit… people just get so used to expecting perfection from Apple that they forget that the “near perfect” or “slightly flawed” products are still light years cooler and easier to use and maintain than the next best competitor’s product. Take things into a little perspective and stop whining about corporations making profits. Since when is profit bad? Get a clue… without corporations making profits, you’d be living in tent in the middle of the forest with a horse as your new mode of transportation.
Wow, you people are totally missing the point :( I agree 100% with this post. The fact of the matter is that Apple has in the past two years become a standard mass consumer marketing machine, and us hard core geeks who are OS X nuts are noticing a big big change in the level of quality provided. Don’t believe the hype!!!
God, we have turned into a nation of whiners. Is this the first time you’ve paid for a software upgrade? EyeTV came out with a 40 dollar upgrade yesterday and I didn’t immediately wail about being cheated. It’s TWENTY freaking dollars. I spend more than that for a hair cut. Christ. And I can’t believe you compared this to the first generation Zunes!
The Zune got an upgrade because the first version sucked. Now, if Microsoft is so benevolent, why don’t they lower the price of Windows or Office upgrades? According to your logic, we shouldn’t have to pay for ANY software upgrades. Why don’t you create something thought provoking for a change, instead of whining because Gasp Apple makes money!
So you’re unhappy because “the iPod Touch could have been so much more”. But you bought what it was. A touch-screen iPod with WiFi.
Did you think you were getting a bad deal? If so, why did you buy it? Because you thought it would become “more”? Show us where on the box it promised to become “more”.
You can’t criticize Apple just because it didn’t fulfill some dream which you imagined entirely in your own head.
“Now we know better than to blindly believe.”
This is pretty funny coming from someone who blindly believes in a sky god.
How many twenty dollar soul upgrades have you paid for on sundays?
Hey man, Just download the new iJailBreak and it installs those 5 apps for free.
I am not begrudging the fact that Apple needs to make money; I “had a dream”, like many of you correctly point out, that Apple would do so by pushing themselves to give us their absolute best, and we would willingly pay a premium on that. I am upset because the intentional crippling of the iPod Touch was, IMO, unnecessary.
Yes I did buy the Touch knowing its limitations full well, but we don’t only buy things that we are 100% satisfied with, and 100% satisfaction has been something I’ve enjoyed all these years as a Mac user.
Thanks for all your comments. I’ll confess that I’m whining, but it’s only because Apple has always lived up to the impossible standard we’ve set.
who ever said apple wasnt out to make money? if they werent out to make money, then why would their cheapest laptop cost $1099?
Wow, what a bunch of crock. You bought something as advertised, as demonstrated, then complain when they come out with the next thing or some great add on.
Just think of the software as furry dice for your car, pay the money and enjoy.
The iPod isn’t a potato peeler that’s good for only one thing. Apple could have given us more and chose not to. That is their prerogative. I do not think they’re wrong to do so. But they also need to understand that by giving the apps for free in the newer iPods (which are exactly the same product, same price), we’re made to pay for having jumped on board early.
It probably makes them more money, no doubt, but it’s a clear loss of goodwill.
Snivel, snivel, snivel. If you don’t want something, don’t buy it.
(Darth Vader’s theme plays in the background as you read this … DA DA DA DA-DA-DA, DA-DA-DA)
Those evil corporations are at it again, selling things to unsuspecting authors of Internet editorials! THEY MUST BE STOPPED AND THEIR STOCK MUST BE SHORTED! What a hero this author is and how timely is the release of this articile over the Internet. Microsoft and Apple are both in business to make money. The world is better off because of their efforts. Yours, dear author, are the complaints of a princess and not those of a pauper and for this, you should be thanking Gates AND Jobs, as well as others like them, that you live in a world filled with imagination, run-on sentences aside.
i bought a Iphone, after spending a lot of money buying a n95 which i thought was the bees knees. The n95 now looks like a donkey and works like a mule, Nokia can i have my money back please ! As for this guy who wasn’t happy with his ipod touch, do you want to exchange it for my Mule ?
wwwaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! you want more features? get an iphone and shut up.
ZOMG you have to spring for $20 for software you’ll use every day?
Cripes what is that, the price of 3 cups of coffee?
I bears repeating that, because of Sarbanes-Oxley, Apple cannot legally introduce new features in the Touch without charging for them. And it cannot be a token charge either, like $1 (though this is up for interpretation).
Also, you assert that Apple ‘intentionally crippled’ your Touch when they released the first version. Have you ever worked in actual Product Development or manufacturing? Why would Apple do this? They have much more to lose than to gain.
Much more likely is that Apple had to choose to hold back some features because they weren’t up to quality standards. The choice was likely between delaying shipment, shipping a buggy product, or holding some things back. These are the kind of tough choices that companies like Apple have to be making constantly. I know for a fact that Apple sweats these decisions carefully, and always tries to do best for their customers.
I can understand that you are not completely happy with the situation. But jumping to all kinds of negative conclusions without any real knowledge is, frankly, hysterical.
Considering the huge technological jump the iPod Touch makes, your post almost reads like an Onion article. Can you imagine Nokia or Microsoft or anyone else coming up with such a product? I agree that corporations should be held accountable. Charging for a software upgrade, however, is not some great example of perfidy.
iPhone users will be getting the new apps for free.
It’s amazing how a post like that can generate so much emotion! Check this out… it’s really a love hate relationship at times but more love than hate i hope :)
http://www.macheadsthemovie.com/
Whatever you guys say, I absolutely agree with what Lucian said. I believe my son-in-law is right.
Haha… that’s funny