Marketing types are usually quick to point out how Apple, alone in the I.T. world “get” their customers, and how other companies (usually Microsoft) fall short of Apple’s shining example. It seems that this time Apple have out microsofted Microsoft with their lamentable iPhone, perhaps the most over-hyped and disappointing device in the history of technology.
I cannot think of a more effective way to annoy customers off than to perpetrate a monumental bait and switch campaign: Simply tease your most loyal, avid customers with the prospect of owning the most powerful and capable phone and then deliver it with ties to unfair contracts and surreal restrictions, and a promise that attempting to take-back your iPhone will result in exclusion from Apple’s fun-club. All you have to do is sufficiently annoy these customers and they will start telling all their friends how much they hate your products… and that is exactly what Apple just did.
Apple’s biggest crime is to threaten anybody who has unlocked their phones with the possibility that their iPhone might be rendered incompatible with future updates, or at worst completely “bricked“. Concerned by the popularity of the iPhone unlocks, Apple are clearly trying to frighten people into not unlocking their phones. And why are people so obsessed with ‘unlocking’ – it’s simply a means to restore the level of functionality we expect from any smartphone to Apple’s artificially restricted device.
We should also mention the fact that Apple also made their new devices artificially incompatible with play-list managers other than iTunes and don’t even try to use your previous generation of iPod accessories.
All the features that customers have been trying to hack back into the iPhone have been standard on mid-range Nokia phones for almost a year. Unlike Apple, Nokia provide multiple SDKs in and support for a wide range of open-source languages. While the Nokia apps may sometimes lack Apple’s bling, Nokia benefits from a wider range of applications that mostly do what you’d expect. My personal favorite is Nokia Podcasting which downloads all the audio I need without ever needing to sync to a PC. Somehow I doubt apple will ever want to do that, as it would mean revealing just how redundant iTunes has become.
I suggest Nokia should take advantage of this situation – they should let the world know what a disaster the iPhone is becoming long ahead of it’s launch in the UK. And at the same time they should remind potential customers that the they already give away for free the exact features that Apple do not want their customers to enjoy.
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