Apple and anti competitive practices.

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

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Firstly, this thread spans mobiles, Apple software and GD, so for that reason I think I'll leave it here.

I was reading this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8155795.stm

I must admit, however much I like several Apple products, I think it's strange that Apple are allowed such anti competitive practices against Palm.

In June, Apple issued a note stressing that it "does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players" and warned that "newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality" with them.

Now, the latest version of iTunes, 8.2.1, has patched the hole through which devices could masquerade as Apple products.
Click to expand...

Now whilst I agree that Apple shouldn't be responsible for third parties compatibility with iTunes, it seems as though they are intentionally preventing this interconnectivity for no reason other than to keep a monopoly on devices that can sync with iTunes. After all they do dominate the 'MP3' player market and are using that control to continue to keep that dominance - which is by definition anti competitive.

Why oh why aren't the EU doing something about this, rather than annoying consumers by pulling IE from Windows 7?
 
Because apple are a cutsey wootsie little player and Microsoft ar an evil world dominating mega corp apparently. It's cool to hat Microsoft but conversly apple and everything they do/make is cool.
 
The EU have investigated Apple in the past wrt iTunes pricing, I think the outcome was that Apple changed their policies before it got to court.

I certainly think that this counts as anti-competitive behaviour given Apple's dominance in the download market, and I hope that Palm lodge a complaint to the EU so they can investigate and take action as appropriate. Unfortunately I expect Apple's lawyers will be able to drag it out for as long as possible like MS's did so it will be a few years before any decision is reached.
 
As Steve Jobs has pictures of every Attorney General on the planet in drag. It is the only logical explanation. I don't understand the EU haven't 'made' Apple stop bundling Safari - I don't give me any of that small market share ****.

I <3 Microsoft.
 
Because it's not anti-competitive, not working with iTunes is not an inhibition for another company entering the phone market.
 
bam0 said:
Because it's not anti-competitive, not working with iTunes is not an inhibition for another company entering the phone market.
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What's anti-competitive is they dominate the downloads market. It is akin to you only being allowed to use the M1 if you drive a Ford - there are other ways to complete your journey, but not seamlessly. It's bad practice.
 
its a tough one this. itunes is an apple app that was only ever designed to support apple music players. its a bit like forcing sony to expand sonic stage to support ipods....should they?

i dont know what to make of all the anti-competetive nonsence really, its not needed.

meghatronic said:
What's anti-competitive is they dominate the downloads market. It is akin to you only being allowed to use the M1 if you drive a Ford - there are other ways to complete your journey, but not seamlessly. It's bad practice.
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well, they jsut got there first really. It wouldnt take much if a decent competetive service was available.


the only way i can see aroudn this guff is to seperate the service from the music player, but that wont happen lol
 
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Does that loophole open the software up to exploitation from malicious code?
 
james.miller said:
its a tough one this. itunes is an apple app that was only ever designed to support apple music players. its a bit like forcing sony to expand sonic stage to support ipods....should they?

i dont know what to make of all the anti-competetive nonsence really, its not needed.
Click to expand...
Sony stage doesn't have 500 million users.
 
meghatronic said:
What's anti-competitive is they dominate the downloads market. It is akin to you only being allowed to use the M1 if you drive a Ford - there are other ways to complete your journey, but not seamlessly. It's bad practice.
Click to expand...
Being a monopoly is not illegal, and your analogy sucks. This is not to do with downloading music, this is to do with putting music on your Palm Pré phone, not being able to use iTunes directly to do this is not stopping any of that downloaded music working on your Palm Pré.
 
But it's not just the Palm Pre, their updates to iTunes often prevent certain elements of connectivity with 3rd party MP3 players. Given iTunes overwhelming dominance in this market along with iPods strong dominant position they are trying to manipulate the market for their own good in a monopolistic manner.
 
bam0 said:
Because it's not anti-competitive, not working with iTunes is not an inhibition for another company entering the phone market.
Click to expand...

Except it is, because (unless I've missed something here, which is more than likely), if like me, you've downloaded several albums and tracks from the iTunes store, then that music is locked to iTunes. If I want to get a new music player, my choices are an Apple product, in which case my iTunes tracks are ported to the new player, or buy those albums again and get a non-Apple product.

How you've purchased your digital media should not affect how you listen to it.
 
meghatronic said:
Sony stage doesn't have 500 million users.
Click to expand...

should that make a difference then?

scorza said:
Except it is, because (unless I've missed something here, which is more than likely), if like me, you've downloaded several albums and tracks from the iTunes store, then that music is locked to iTunes. If I want to get a new music player, my choices are an Apple product, in which case my iTunes tracks are ported to the new player, or buy those albums again and get a non-Apple product.

How you've purchased your digital media should not affect how you listen to it.
Click to expand...


i dont use itunes for a number of reason, but i guess you accept the terms every time you download music using itunes?
 
It's their software, they can do what they want with it.

There are plenty of alternatives if you don't want to abide by their practices.
 
scorza said:
Except it is, because (unless I've missed something here, which is more than likely), if like me, you've downloaded several albums and tracks from the iTunes store, then that music is locked to iTunes. If I want to get a new music player, my choices are an Apple product, in which case my iTunes tracks are ported to the new player, or buy those albums again and get a non-Apple product.

How you've purchased your digital media should not affect how you listen to it.
Click to expand...

DRM protected tracks never played on the Palm Pré either, they didn't license or reverse engineer the Fairplay DRM so they haven't stopped any music working that did before, you just can't use iTunes to transfer it. And any of the iTunes Plus music that you've bought is no longer DRM'd and you can happily play on any device that support AAC.
 
meghatronic said:
Internet Explorer... Microsoft... etc....
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that doesnt make it right! i dont think the EU should have lent on MS like they did, and i dont think IE should have bene removed from W7 either. Neither, apparently, does a good proportion of these forums.

meghatronic said:
In the eyes of the EU - yes. Hence their reason for the IE debacle.
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personally i dont care what the EU rules over this. the question i asked was should it make a difference how many users they have? why should they HAVE to support other hardware just because 500million people use it?

DRM is no longer an issue either, dont forgot. i dont see why you cant download music a with itunes and sync it to other players via other means? thats possible right? yes it sucks about old DRM'd tracks, but that issue has already been resolved for current and future downloads.

in fact i might actually consider using itunes and doing just that with my new sony nwz-x1050. i guess then id have the service AND the freedom of drag and drop in windows.....best of both worlds?
 
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