- Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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A man is known by his friends, the devil is known by his fiends
Newsweek sticks the knife into Apple
NEWSWEEK has decided that Steve Jobs is not its chum any more and has dared to point out the obvious to its readers – Apple has become Microsoft.
The article on Apple's incredible shrinking Messiah, which comes without a comment from the Cupertino-based outfit, quotes a former lieutenant of Steve Jobs as saying "Steve is a monopolist at heart… He's just like Bill Gates, only he has not been as successful."
Newsweek said that now Jobs is getting successful he is reverting to type and is attempting to sew up the market in a way that Gates never did.
Apple is looking like Vole was a decade ago controlling a market where smaller competitors can survive only by living on its scraps or staying out of its way.
Newsweek claims that the pastel princes at Apple showed their Machiavellian skills at playing monopoly a year ago when they gutted a small company called Vudu. Vudu was winning rave reviews for its box that attaches to the TV and downloads movies from the Internet.
Vudu competed with the Apple TV and was a much better product. Apple's response was to copy the model and use its size to knock out the rival. There is nothing illegal in this but it mirrors Vole's strategy in almost every way.
But Newsweek said that Jobs' autocratic nature means that he controls things in a way that Microsoft wouldn't. Apple doesn't just make products, it controls the entire ecosystem that supports that product, the rag says. While Vole controls both the operating system and the applications that run on top of it, Apple owns popular hardware platforms and operates the only store that can sell music, movies and software programs for those platforms.
In other words what we are seeing are two evil monopolistic empires, both as bad as each other. The only difference is that while Microsoft users know their software is built by someone who would sell them down the river, most of Jobs' mob really do believe that they are the good guys.
Of course Newsweek could just be bitter that it is off the list of mags which get free kit to play with. There is a new Ipod launch coming later today and Jobs grooms his tame hacks with free gear in the same way a paedophile might use sweets.
The only difference is that a child does not often fall for it or get petulant when the sweeties are not forthcoming. µ
L'Inq
Newsweek
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Where exactly does Apple have a monopoly again? PC's? Phones? OS's? MP3 players? They are the evil monopolist controlling the 6% of the PC share they control? Or let me guess the <10% of the phone market?

Nick - this was a halfway decent article until you degenerate into the 'why let details get in the way of my hatred of Apple' mentality.

Apple is not a monopoly... there is plenty of competition in everything they sell. Control over the product is a valid point, how they treat subsupplier is a valid point, but If people don't want to buy an Apple product there are plenty of other options. Do you actually know what a monopoly is? Or are you just ranting?
This article is so full of crap it's not even funny.

1. The AppleTV was already out before VUDOO came on the scene. 
2. Apple improved it's product, VuDoo mismanaged it's product. 
3. Apple had wifi out of the box, with VuDoo, it's extra!
4. AppleTV has also always delivered photos, music and home movies seamlessly to your TV. VuDOO, not so much.
5. Apple has zero monopoly on video downloads, so how exactly did they use their "monopoly power" to crush VuDoo? Are you sure it wasn't the Netflicks, the X-box 360 live or Amazon's video service or NBC's free video webservice?

What's even more amazing is that most of the pundits have tried to paint the AppleTV as an abject failure and now it's suddenly crushing everything in its path. Which is it?

BTW, Dan Lyons was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the SCO lawsuit against Linux. 




...but a dictator nonetheless. As a longtime Apple developer, they were difficult to deal with when they were on the rocks. Now that they're on a roll, they're impossible. 

What hubris to create a closed market for iPhone apps, with full power to eliminate products at their whim. We can only hope that Google puts a big enough dent in Apple that Apple releases its strangle hold on that market.

I love Apple products, but I don't like Apple-the-company. Their products are heavenly. Their policies are pure evil.
The article is certainly incorrect in at least one respect: we haven't been crushed by Apple in any way, shape or form. In fact, we're finding that we're winning customers from Apple after they realize that they want the highest quality and most convenient experience possible in the space today. 

@ "Synthmeister", clever misspelling aside, I'm curious how you think we've mismanaged our product? Sales are going well, both in the mass market and the custom installation market. We have one of the largest (if not the largest) video libraries out there with the highest quality HD content available of any similar service. The library is growing very quickly; we offer features that no one else does including discounted extended rentals, powerful searching and filtering to find what you want to watch and at no point have we ever required a PC to be involved in the process of finding, renting and watching a movie. 


Patrick Ellis
Sr Product Manager, VUDU
Apple would never be that evil. It's not like their OS is restricted to certain pieces of hardware. They let anyone use any hardware they want to install and run their OS.

Oh wait. You have to use hardware blessed by Apple and if you buy it through them you'll pay 25% to 50% above retail for the hardware.
vain
sheep
hype-believers
crowd-followers
non-independant-thinkers
brand-name-junkies

;-)

It's just an expensive mp3 and movie player, you can buy the same thing for less money made by any number of less stylish brands.

At least Bill Gates gives his loose changes to charidee.
Apple has been Microsoft for a while now. About time someone noticed. You add Sony in there and you have the holy trinity.

They made some mistakes in the past that cost them the PC market dominance but they learned a lot and didn't make them again. That being said we have to remember that what is great for the shareholders is usually not good for the clients.

Ever wondered why iTunes are free and not just a part of the package.

If I'm really bored I might read the article but Newsweek is even a worse read than Times, so I doubt it.
Indeed this article tell you an opinion but indeed Steve found other way to get our attention by use Ipod and Iphone so lure you to see their computer, Well, In fact the Apple computer kind of expensive than PC also my lady was in college and we decided apply credit and they deny from Mac store however my lady's credit are in very good condition. There is another reason do you see any computer less than 1,000 USD yet? I do love Mac cause very simple and less problem. They need work on freedom on hardware then they will smash Microsoft someday if company do well on strategy.
Apples are easier to eat when sliced.
Jobs himself has in past years made several remarks about how Apple will create monopolies as MS had done.