Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] You had to know it was coming

[Vern Green <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Interesting, the same arguments about Apple not having a monopoly are
the same arguments made by many others that Microsoft does not have a
monopoly. Apparently being a monopoly has more to do with how much
money you have and your perceived power in the market place than it
does how you market and sell your product.

Case in point, every lawsuit levied against microsoft has been because
they include a product for free that someone else wanted the consumer
to pay for. Arguments about them forcing computer builders to include
their OS on every sale have never made it to the courts.

The fact is Microsoft never created their OS where you could no
install anything else on it. You could always download netscape or
mozilla and run it on your windows PC. You could also always download
WinAmp, RealPlayer, or a number of other audio players and run them on
your PC. Yet these are the court cases that have been brought forth
and ruled upon.

Microsoft only got to the power to enforce their monopoly due to their
ability to bring a product to market that people wanted to buy and
use.

Now enter Apple and the iPod, Apple has by far the most popular player
on the market, they also have one of the only ones with the higher
storage capacities. But in order to use your iPod with music you
purchase online, you have to use it with their service. To the point
that other companies who modify  their product to make it work with an
iPod are being excluded as Apple changes the code to prevent such
usage.

That is anti-consumerism at its best. If this is not a monopolistic
approach, then it is certainly the beginnings of such an approach.
Sure you can purchase another player if you want to, just like you can
purchase another OS if you want to. There are options out there, but
Apple to me is crossing the line by not allowing other companies to
modify their own product to work on the iPod. RealPlayer for instance
is not asking iTunes music to work on their players, only that their
content can work on the iPod. This is where Apple is in the wrong.

This guy really will not have his case go far I would think, but who
knows. Tell me how Apple, being forced to support other msic formats
other than AAC and MP3 is going to hurt the consumer?


On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 11:04:03 -0600 (CST), Mike Miller
<EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Sat, 8 Jan 2005, Venkat Chandra wrote:
> 
> >> Anyway, his case sounds pretty weak to this reader.  If I bought an HP
> >> printer cartidge, could I then sue HP for forcing me to buy their
> >> printer in order to use the cartridge?  This case is a little
> >> different, of course, but there is a similar logic.  He did not have to
> >> buy iTunes files.  He is not being forced to listen to the music
> >> either.  Thus, he is not forced to buy an iPod.
> >>
> >> Interesting story.
> >>
> >
> > But don't the rules change considerably if you are considered a
> > monopoly?
> 
> 
> Yes, but what would Apple have a monopoly on?  People like the iPod but it
> is nowhere close to being a monopoly.  There is nothing stopping
> competitors from making similar products and such products do exist.
> 
> Mike
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-- 
Thanks
F Vernon Green
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