Why is it that no one on the entire planet seems to see this? Is it because apple has this cute, user friendly, underdog persona that everyone is content to overlook their general business model and just look on them as the cute little puppy dog in the corner?  I just don’t get it..  Lets take a bit of a closer look shall we?

iPod / itunes:

So this is the single only reason Apple even exists today, well that and being bailed out my Microsoft some time ago, so it’s is one of the most important aspects of their evilness as it is the only real power they have in this world(no body cares about the 2% market penetration of Mac, just like no one bothers to keep opera or Safari in mind when they design websites).  The iPod represents nearly 75% of the mp3 player market, and while that is a far cry from the 90% market share that windows represents it is still large enough to approach a monopoly.. So when someone with this much power and this much marketshare demands that if you want to interact and put files on their hardware you are forced, no choice whatsoever, to use their software.. but not only that, you are forced to use their DRM.  The even scarier aspect is that in the end they can even control which artists, which music can be put on an ipod.  What happens when they don’t feel the lyrics and tones of Tupac, Big-E, Marylin Mason, or Tool aren’t appropriate for mass consumption?  How is it that we blindly allow one company to control the music that 75% of the world is allowed to listen to, as well as dictate the DRM’s that artists have to use?

Another aspect is the iTunes Store.  I run podcasts and in order for me to even be listed on iTunes I need to have all of my personal information as well as credit card on file with them just to submit it for free.  Why?  Well because they say so that’s why.

Mac OS:

Don’t even get me started on how pathetic of an operating system this is, that is a topic for another conversation, or how incredibly insecure it is(http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Mac-OS-X-hacked-under-30-minutes/0,130061744,139241748,00.htm) because of the complacecy excercised by a company that has never had to really even consider security due to their incredibly low market share yet flaunts just how safe their OS is at every turn.  But the biggest piss off about this OS is that they have taken a beautifully open linux kernel and then closed it off.  They reap the rewards and benefits from an open sourced project and then turn around and tell the world that while they may make minor improvements to some aspects no one is allowed to do the same with their changes..  It’s all kept behind closed doors and we’re going to just keep our secrets to ourselves.

In the end it is mainly the iTunes / iPod aspect of this company that pisses me off to no end, and while I’ll admit that they did stand up to the record labels and tell them to shove their new greedy pricing structure up their asses a few years back, the potential of what could be done with this power if this company ever went down a slightly different path or had different leadership is scary.  We’ve all seen Microsoft get slapped with anti-trust suit after anti-trust suit for far far less than what Apple is doing with iTunes and yet because this company is that cute little puppy dog we just kind of pat them on the head and tell them how good they are..

Not I said the wolf

Tags: 1984, apple, drm, evil, ipod, itunes