Apple HomePod Review (Smart Speaker)

[amirm]

perhaps, but they created both the devices (iPhones, iPods, iPads, Home pods .etc) and the host (Macbooks) so they can pretty much decide however they want on to connect them to each other and how they should communicate with 3rd Party products. it's their privilege.

It is and it is mine to explain to you how horrible that is, how it has limited your choice of devices for your platform if you are using iOS devices.

 

[amirm]

It's called barrier to entry. They were the first, they invented the devices, they created the infrastructure, they created a standard to interconnect their devices, they invested a huge amount of money and effort in doing that and now they have an advantage and if you want to benefit of what they have done or connect to their ecosystem you have to pay for that. They are protecting their business and I would do exactly the same.

And I spent a career advocating for consumers (even though I worked for a corporation in same business) against people who think like you do. There is a test of reasonableness here and Apple has hugely violated that.

This blind love of Apple has never ceased to amaze me. Folks bite their noise despite their face because of it.....

 

[abdo123]

How people can sit here and defend such dictatorship over their ecosystem is just remarkable to me.

it feels like you're expecting them to be more open just because they're a trillion dollar company with a huge chunk of the market.

like ofcourse Apple would make decisions that are in their best interest, if that means stopping your product from entering the market then that's just the way it is.

whether corporations should be allowed to be this powerful is a whole discussion all together. I mean Apple or Google are pretty much capable of world domination at this point.

 

[carlob]

This is not blind love of Apple, nobody would invest time and money in any industry (pharma and vaccines come to my mind) to give away the product of their efforts for free or to make things easy for their competitors. Nobody would innovate, nobody would start an economic activity without a remuneration of their effort.

 

[abdo123]

(pharma and vaccines come to my mind)

Terrible example since a lot of drugs have been researched with US tax dollars (PrEP for HIV for example) yet the company still patented the drug and profited from it. the pharma world is inhumane, i don't need an Apple Camera dongle to survive.

 

[carlob]

Terrible example since a lot of drugs have been researched with US tax dollars (PrEP for HIV for example) yet the company still patented the drug and profited from it. the pharma world is inhumane, i don't need an Apple Camera dongle to survive.

Was only an example, when there are tax dollars involved the matter is different.

 

[Frank Dernie]

It is not an uncommon business model.
I know somebody who owned some sporting rights and any TV company wanting to show the sport had to pay and he owned all the video rights so spectators could get sued if they took a video (probably hard to do nowadays when phones can be used).
Anybody coming up with a business proposal which needed his approval was offered 20% of their profit so he made 4x as much as they did from their idea without doing any work and they made all the investment and did all the work, take it or leave it.
Ruthless and greedy but he got very rich.
I have read plenty of contracts from business people trying to screw me, "oh is that clause in there? My secretary must have cut and pasted it from another document by mistake".

 

[carlob]

I know somebody who owned some sporting rights and any TV company wanting to show the sport had to pay and he owned all the video rights so spectators could get sued if they took a video (probably hard to do nowadays when phones can be used).
Anybody coming up with a business proposal which needed his approval was offered 20% of their profit so he made 4x as much as they did from their idea without doing any work and they made all the investment and did all the work, take it or leave it.
Ruthless and greedy but he got very rich.

And perhaps he's got a fancy hairstyle

 

[Robbo99999]

And perhaps he's got a fancy hairstyle

Like Donald Trump??? you lost me....

 

[carlob]

Like Donald Trump??? you lost me....

Because you don't follow motorsports...

 

[Robbo99999]

Because you don't follow motorsports...

Noice, I like the niche references... :-/

 

[carlob]

Noice, I like the niche references... :-/

google very very very rich man who owned the sporting rights of a certain motorsport since the 70s until sold them a couple of years ago and is suspect to wear a wig.

 

[Robbo99999]

google very very very rich man who owned the sporting rights of a certain motorsport since the 70s until sold them a couple of years ago and is suspect to wear a wig.

Bernie???? I got a more special hairstyle than that, but Trump trumps both....you're too niche man!

 

[preload]

It's called barrier to entry. They were the first, they invented the devices, they created the infrastructure, they created a standard to interconnect their devices, they invested a huge amount of money and effort in doing that and now they have an advantage and if you want to benefit of what they have done or connect to their ecosystem you have to pay for that. They are protecting their business and I would do exactly the same.

That sounds like a very Apple-centric perspective as opposed to a consumer-centric perspective. It's clear who's side you're on.

 

[matt3421]

what makes you think most consumers aren't perfectly fine with the walled garden? im an apple consumer and i love it the way it is. and most other people probably do too, considering apple's recent sales figures. dont pretend you know what other people want. if you don't like it, vote with your wallet

 

[dfuller]

Some people like the walled garden approach. I am not one of them, I find it constricting and an easy way to price gouge your customers.

 

[preload]

This is not blind love of Apple, nobody would invest time and money in any industry (pharma and vaccines come to my mind) to give away the product of their efforts for free or to make things easy for their competitors. Nobody would innovate, nobody would start an economic activity without a remuneration of their effort.

I see, so you must also support Shkreli's decision to increase the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill, which effectively deprived a vulnerable patient group from the treatment for life-threatening toxoplasmosis? To quote Shrkreli, "This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business."

 

[Blaspheme]

dictatorship over their ecosystem

I had to laugh.

 

[Robbo99999]

I had to laugh.

Quoting a small section of a post is easy to laugh at & bend to your point. People don't have to like or agree with companies business decisions, some companies have better ethos than others in the way they operate.

 

[preload]

Quoting a small section of a post is easy to laugh at & bend to your point. People don't have to like or agree with companies business decisions, some companies have better ethos than others in the way they operate.

This is true. For instance let's not forget that the iPhone, iPad, or i-whatever you're holding in your hand was assembled in human exploitative conditions in East Asia factories. There are a ton of investigative reports that reveal your fellow human beings are forced to work 6 days a week for 12 hours a day, while living in dormitories with 20 people sharing a single room. Workers are forbidden from speaking to one another, and mistakes are subject to public humiliation or physical beating. Workers regularly kill themselves.