PhotoDude.com

Fri. Jul 19, 2002

iDifferent

iDifferent – Back in January I said: "I’m confused. Didn’t Microsoft get sued for antitrust because they integrated a browser into their operating system? But an iMac that integrates mail, music, video editing, photoediting, etc. – that’s a Good Thing."

I’ve been told since by Mac afficionados that it’s not the same at all because Apple isn’t a monopoly like Microsoft. I hear the gist of that argument. But if you choose to buy a Mac, there’s only one company that can sell you the hardware (as opposed to dozens of choices of PC makers, down to build-your-own). Oh, and that same company, they’re they only one that can sell you the software to make it run.

But it’s not a monopoly.

OK, that’s fine, I’ll concede on that point on the assumption I’m just a PC Neanderthal and my small brain can Never Truly Understand the Difference. But now they’ve gone iBundling mad, with built in apps to do everything but scrub your toilet (and that may be in OS 11). Good for the box-opening customer? Sure. But the argument used against Microsoft, initiated by Netscape, was that a free app bundled with the operating system was unfair competition to developers who’d like to sell that type of application, e.g., the freely given Internet Explorer versus a paid version of Netscape.

I’ve had a hard time seeing how what Apple is doing now is different to any significant degree. And now, Mac developers are saying the same thing: "The fact that Apple has chosen to overlap Watson’s functionality and is bundling this as part of their operating system means that Watson—at least, the majority of its current tool set—is effectively shut out as a viable product on the Macintosh…"

Meanwhile, Apple also made friends with the changes in iTools, as they convert to .Mac services: "$100 per year is too much for many Mac users to hold on to their mac.com email addresses, and Apple sysadmins have been furiously busy deleting the complaints that flooded Apple’s own technical forums. Users are also unhappy that the upgrade to 10.2 costs a full $129, with no discount for existing Mac OS X users."

Hmmm. Has anyone seen any recent photos of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs together?