4 ms·

Wasn't it obvious when you bought the non-transferable music, books and apps that this was the sort of company you were dealing with? It strikes me that this i

Wasn't it obvious when you bought the non-transferable music, books and apps that this was the sort of company you were dealing with? It strikes me that this is a pretty unreasonable complaint. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I don't think it's fair to moan when it turns out it's a duck. I'm not knocking Apple, I like Apple but we as consumers need to be aware of what we're buying into and I don't think we can moan that it was in anyway unclear the way they behave, particularly to the sort of person who frequents Hacker News and really can't feign ignorance.

statictype 16y ago
I think you missed my point: I'm not feigning outrage at the fact that I can't transfer everything I bought for phone A onto phone B. I'm saying that shutting out apps because they don't cough up Apple's ransom only hurts the customer and that customers won't necessarily vote with their wallet and move somewhere else because they have already invested in their current platform/device.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  If they won't do anything about being hurt, then the question is surely how hurt are they?
  - statictype 16y ago
    So it's ok to hurt customers a little bit. Just as long as it's not enough to force them to move platforms. Ok, Got it. Just as long as you're honest with it.
  - duncanj 16y ago
    It depends on what you consider the injury to be. If they didn't have a smartphone before they purchased an iPhone, then having a phone that lacks the features of other smartphones doesn't really injure them, it just makes them jealous, which is possibly bad for business. But if they don't switch, then the lack of that feature isn't as important to them as the other apps they have purchased, etc. Are you injured? Well, you got a bad deal, and in a way Apple changed the terms of your contract without notifying you, but it's hard to say that you've really lost anything. More, you just made the wrong purchase due to asymmetric information. Still, in this case, I think Apple is engaging in a weird sort of brinkmanship with distributors, and I'm not sure they're in a position to dictate such terms.
isleyaardvark 16y ago
We can still be disappointed even if we're not surprised.

statictype 16y ago

I think you missed my point: I'm not feigning outrage at the fact that I can't transfer everything I bought for phone A onto phone B. I'm saying that shutting out apps because they don't cough up Apple's ransom only hurts the customer and that customers won't necessarily vote with their wallet and move somewhere else because they have already invested in their current platform/device.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
If they won't do anything about being hurt, then the question is surely how hurt are they?
- statictype 16y ago
  So it's ok to hurt customers a little bit. Just as long as it's not enough to force them to move platforms. Ok, Got it. Just as long as you're honest with it.
- duncanj 16y ago
  It depends on what you consider the injury to be. If they didn't have a smartphone before they purchased an iPhone, then having a phone that lacks the features of other smartphones doesn't really injure them, it just makes them jealous, which is possibly bad for business. But if they don't switch, then the lack of that feature isn't as important to them as the other apps they have purchased, etc. Are you injured? Well, you got a bad deal, and in a way Apple changed the terms of your contract without notifying you, but it's hard to say that you've really lost anything. More, you just made the wrong purchase due to asymmetric information. Still, in this case, I think Apple is engaging in a weird sort of brinkmanship with distributors, and I'm not sure they're in a position to dictate such terms.

isleyaardvark 16y ago

We can still be disappointed even if we're not surprised.