Some mad iPhone users are 'seeking respondents for possible class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. relating to refusal to service iPhones and related accessories under warranty.' Alexander Wolfen in his post analyzes reaction of users on Apple's claims to void any warranty services for unlocked or with third-party software or used as data-storage by some other software.
Apple once again repeats the same mistake (as it was with iPod). It was obvious from the very beginning, that a product with such an aggressive marketing and tremendous popularity will be eventually reverse engineered and unlocked. And now when it finally happened Apple is threating iPhone owners. We also remember that all these people are (or may be better to say 'were') Apple's clients and so threating is not good for business. Especially if scandal grows into suite case.
Initially, position of Apple about custom third-party software was not clear (pro, con). Now it is clear to everyone.
2 comments:
You might enjoy this commentary on Apple's iPhone strategy ... but with regard to the article, the software upgrade is a part of an ongoing battle between Apple and the "modifiers" (hackers??). While you could view Apple's strategy as purely profit motivated (eg. in defense of their "walled garden"), there are some reasons why you might imagine alternate explanations for this behavior. One such explanation is that people rely on telephones for communications of many kinds, including emergency communications. If a hack impaired the phone's ability to operate correctly, then a user might not be able to make an emergency call, which would leave both Apple and AT&T open to liability (though, I wonder why Palm never had this concern with their Treo phones).
I have certainly heard about idiotic cases in the USA like when woman were suing home appliances manufacturer for not notifying that attempt to dry a cat in a micro oven will kill poor animal. Still, I hope, that any reasonable court will discard a case of modified phone.
I also want to point out, that Apple is blacklisting cell phones which modifications do not interfere with firmware and hardware (in article they are called as 3rd type modifications).
Speaking about Palm, I think, they wanted to create a community around their products and they are certainly less greedy. That is why they encourage people to develop applications. The creator of Palm (Jeff Hawkins) likes communities. You can check out his new project.
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