[LINK] the Apple iPhone rort

[David Goldstein]

Eric,

>From what you write re "good design over economics", it sounds like Apple couldn't care less about accessibility for people with disabilities. A person who is blind, and often vision impaired, needs the cursor keys to navigate. A mouse is useless for a person who is blind. But back in the days of the first Macs, they wouldn't have been alone in not considering this issue.

And then it seems there's a similar attitude Apple seems to have the environment, although it has improved marginally. See http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/apple-greener-nokia-first-260607.

So if you're an able-bodied climate change/global warming denier, an Apple is for you?

As for your bottom line, whatever has been done by AT&T, the point is, if one buys an iPhone, they are locked to an exclusive contract with AT&T for some years. If you want to leave AT&T, you're left with a useless paperweight, which has been pointed out in other sources. But, things may change. Some US politicians are getting antsy about Apple's practices, with Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), chairman of a House subcommittee on telecommunications and
the Internet describing the phone as a "Hotel California service. You
can check out any time you like, but you can never leave _ you're
stuck with your iPhone and you can't take it anywhere."

And not specific to the iPhone, "Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia University and
commentator on technology issues, described the mobile phone
industry as 'spectrum-based oligopoly' where customers have given
up their property rights. 'Imagine buying a television that stopped working if you decided
to switch to satellite,' Wu said. 'Or a toaster that died if you
switched from Potomac Power to ConEd.'"

See:
iPhone Buzz Puts Focus on Carrier Practices
If a current iPhone customer terminates the service agreement with AT&T, the iPhone then becomes an expensive paperweight. That has Edward Markey (D-Mass.) chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet annoyed, according to the Associated Press on Wednesday.
http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/32169

us: Lawmaker criticizes iPhone termination fee
The Apple iPhone has enjoyed favorable reviews since its recent debut, but it came in for some rare criticism on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/12/1183833619858.html

David

----- Original Message ----
From: Eric Scheid <eric.scheid at ironclad.net.au>
To: LINK <link at anu.edu.au>
Sent: Thursday, 12 July, 2007 1:32:40 PM
Subject: Re: [LINK] the Apple iPhone rort

On 12/7/07 11:17 AM, "David Goldstein" <wavey_one at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Apple is the champion of freedom of access to music without DRM, but then go
> and tie a phone to one carrier.

Apple is also the champion of pushing good design over economics. The first
macs didn't have cursor keys because they wanted to push the concept of the
mouse. The iPhones are tied to AT&T because AT&T have done a whole bunch of
rewiring such that the functionality of the iPhone is much better (mostly to
do with integrated voicemail). Bottom line: if you could get the iPhone
hardware to work on someone else's network, it wouldn't *be* an iPhone
because it wouldn't/couldn't do as much software wise.

e.

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