Apple has a Monopoly on the digital media player market. I’ll give them that. But as I continue to watch the scene unfold, I’ve begun to believe more and more that Apple has gotten just a little “too big for their britches.” The attitude coming from the relatively small computer hardware and software manufacturer continues to show that Apple is more concerned with hanging on to it’s bottom-line, driving competitors out of the market, and keeping all the toys to themselves. And what company wouldn’t?
Recent articles by AppleInsider and cnet made note of a “warning” issued by Apple this past week in regard to its popular iTunes music software. Recently Palm Inc. released it’s new Pre smartphone as a direct competitor to other smartphones like Google Android-based phones and Apple’s iPhone lineup. Included in the Pre’s software is the ability to synchronize music directly with the iTunes software; however, Apple made a statement implying that it may update the iTunes software in such a way that it would prevent devices such as the Palm Pre from being recognized or syncing properly. Clearly this shows an unwillingness to play by any set of rules but its own.
Since the Microsoft vs. Apple debate always seems to rage across the web, I’ll continue the tradition by contrasting Apple’s market moves with Microsoft’s. The Redmond-based company almost always exposes APIs in its products that allow 3rd party developers to write new software that integrates closely with Windows and other Microsoft products. So if Palm had wanted to make the Pre device able to sync with Windows Media Player, they would have simply needed to tap into the proper programming APIs and things would work as expected, guaranteed. In recent years, Microsoft has, in fact, gone out of its way to ensure that portions of their systems work and play well with others. Definitely not so with Apple and yet another reason to refuse to bow to Apple’s demands.
Almost 10 years after the introduction of the first iPod and we start to see a role-reversal. Apple is the dark side, and someone needs to step in to stop them. Greed never gets you anywhere…
There’s a reason Apple has taken more than 7 years to barely reach even 10% of the U.S. computer market, much less the world. If Macs were really so great, do you think 89% of the world would still be using Microsoft products?