There is a Reason I don't Use Apple Products

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Apple's new iBookstore is a nightmare waiting to happen to the music industry

Holly Lisle recently blogged about the new Apple iBooks on her blog "Holly Lisle: Official Author Homepage." She removed her books from iBookstore because of a little clause: "if they reject your work you cannot sell it in the format the software created anywhere else."

Whoa! WTF? If you use their software to create your "book" then you have to sell it on their bookstore - and if they don't like it you can't sell it anywhere??? Ah, NO!

There are a lot of great things Apple has done for the computing industry. Put an iPhone next to an Android phone and the functionality, speed and operation is faster, slicker and all around smoother experience. Put a Mac next to a PC and generally what you attempt to do will be more intuitive (although, I find Mac OS frustrating as I'm used to the bass-akwards way Windows works). Music applications (my life's blood) interface better with the hardware than PC's do. So, you'd think, being a composer/musician I'd be all over getting a Mac into my house and syncing it with my iPad and iPhone (I own none of these).

But, Apple has for a very long time been proprietary. If their hardware breaks you have to take it to an authorized Apple dealer or you void your warranty. That Apple dealer will charge you an arm and three toes just to look at it. My friend had an iPhone and the screen stopped working. Apple wanted to charge $80 to investigate and if it was the "known" issue, repair would be another $100. A local tech fixed the same phone for $30 and he came to her. Now, her phone is out of warranty, so if anything else goes wrong she's screwed.

My understanding about the new Apple "free" software is that it is Amazing. Authors are going to LOVE it! However, it sets a dangerous precedent. According to an article in the Telegraph, Apple doesn't want to "own" your book -- no, they just want to control it. Will Apple then say, "If you created your music on our hardware you MUST give iTunes the right to sell it. And if we don't like it you can't sell it elsewhere..."???

With all the talk about SOPA and PIPA and the infringement of rights, piracy and free use, Apple is making yet another play at controlling the industry. I don't buy that, so I don't buy or use their products.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It's like Groucho Marx said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch". Well done to this lady for spotting the fine print. This would likely stop me from using the tool. On the other hand, it might be a reasonable trade off if there is no equivalent 'free' tool alternative with an equivalent suite of utilities.
Not using Apple as a general rule because of this seems akin to biting off one's nose to spite one's face. This is evident from the same poster waxing on about how great all other aspects of Apple products are in comparison to the alternatives. I'm not an Apple evangelist, I just like using their products and find them infinitely better than the alternatives. In my opinion, the world is better because of Apple. They've raised the bar in consumer technology in so many ways. Consider too that they believe strongly that competitors like Google and Samsung have blatantly stole what they created (and some legal cases seem to suggest that), then you might understand their paranoia about enabling those same perceived copiers from benefiting from an article created on free Apple SW. They're damned if they do and they are damned if they don't. At the end of the day, it's the consumer's faustian bargain. Blanket boycott however makes no sense to me. Why not blanket boycott those who plagiarize the Apple's ideas and innovation?
Anyways, that's my two minute brainstorm on the matter.... caveat emptor...
January 20, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Anonymous said…
I kinda agree, apple has this discreet way of manipulating the market little by little. For me though, I love their services,products, and not to mention the applications.Some sellers would sell apple products at ridiculously high rates. I was able to get an ipad 2 through here http://buyipad1.com - much cheaper than those that are sold in regular apple stores.I own a 13 inch mac and I can honestly say that it has worked wonders for me. So I guess, It really boils down to how and where one uses and buys apple products. Given your point, I do say that apple should pay attention more to their clients.
January 24, 2012 at 6:39 AM
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