Andrew Clem home
Andrew Clem banner

Blog post


Monthly archives
(all categories)


June 20, 2006 [LINK]

iPod wars: Europe vs. Apple

For more than a century, it seems, the Old World has repeatedly expressed jealousy and resentment toward the relentless progress and innovation on this side of the Atlantic. Now Apple Computer is the target, "guilty" of having created the the phenomenally successful iPod. Government regulators in France and other European countries are insisting that Apple make its iTunes software "open source" so that it could run on rival companies' MP3 players. What would be the result of that? Loss of control over the copyrighted music and video files sold by Apple's Music Store, and a rapid drop in iPod's market share. In other words, they want Apple to go back on its commitment to record and entertainment companies to uphold intellectual property rights, and commit business suicide to boot. Are they crazy?? An editorial in Monday's Staunton News Leader put it very aptly:

We suppose this idea makes sense to the bureaucrats who inhabit Europe's grim Old Socialist governmental systems, but to those of us who still care about quality, it just sounds like a formula designed to turn Maseratis into Yugos.

This reminds me of India's attempt to force Coca Cola into revealing its secret formula several years ago. Why on Earth should they relinquish the only thing that gives them a competitive advantage in the market? On a negative note, Apple is investigating accusations that the workers in the main iPod assembly plant in Shanghai, China are laboring in virtual slave conditions. See Washington Post.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 20 Jun 2006, 4: 17 PM

(unformatted URL)
      .



This post is over a week old, so comments are closed.


© Andrew G. Clem. All rights reserved. Your use of this material signifies your acceptance of the Terms of use.


Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

Category archives:
(all years)



This (or that) year's
blog highlights

Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.


Explanation

The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:

  1. Wild birds (LAST)
  2. War
  3. Science & Technology
  4. Politics
  5. Latin America
  6. Culture & Travel
  7. Canaries ("Home birds")
  8. Baseball (FIRST)