Why Does Apple Hate Me?

    These last few weeks I’ve begun to suspect Apple actually does not want me as a customer.  For some inexplicable reason, I have fallen out of their favor and they are doing everything they can to lose me as a customer.  There was the time I invested several thousand dollars in a desktop G5 only to have them switch to Intel a half year later; but I don’t have to go back that far.
    Just a few weeks ago, Apple updated their iLife suite which included a wholly revamped iMovie app.  The changes were so drastic a lot of users were upset.  But what bothered me was the fact that merely starting the program would completely crash my OS.  I would get a kernel panic (our version of the Blue Screen of Death which Mac users don’t like to admit to) that would complete freeze my system and would force me to do a hard reboot.  Through the Apple Discussion forum I learned others were having a similar problem, and suspiciously we all seemed to be users of PowerPC Macs.  As it happened, this turned out to be a caused by a conflict with another app, so I’m not sure it was Apple’s fault; but it set the stage for my unease.
    Around the same time, I got the new Apple keyboard.  It came in a large unmarked box, but the keyboard was taped in place so it was actually sticking out the top, between the flaps, like a mast or a swizzle stick.  That’s their idea of shipping a new product?  I’m not only amazed it showed up in working condition, I can’t believe it even got delivered successfully.  Amazingly, it works fine and I like the new layout; but some of the function keys do not work, especially the keys which are supposed to be designed for specific functions (like starting the Exposé and Dashboard apps).  A software update for the keyboard changed nothing.  Once again, it seems the victims are us forgotten PowerPC users.  And somewhere in there was the release of iTunes 7.3.1, a release so poorly prepped that it hosed the music libraries of anyone who had video files in their Podcasts folder; and which was so bad, Apple had to release a 7.3.2 patch a week later (after the damage had been done).*
    And now, a couple weeks later, the most recent twist of the knife.  Earlier today, Steve Jobs unveiled the latest iPods, and he also announced a price reduction for the iPhone.  Exactly two months to the day of my buying one, the price has been reduced two hundred dollars.  After only two months.  According to the live-blog at Engadget, Steve Jobs announced the price change by saying “You know, the surveys are in: the customer satisfaction numbers on the iPhone are off the charts.  They’re higher from iPhone owners than any Apple product.  Ever.  They LOVE them.”  And guess how he showed his appreciation to those early adopters?  He does it by letting everyone else save $200.
    Sure, some might also remember how Motorola drastically reduced the price of their low-selling ROKR a couple months after it came out.  But there the price of the phone was subsidized by the carrier; no one actually paid full price for it, like we did with the iPhone.  And a savvy gadget buyer would know going in that prices will drop over time and that new models would come out, superseding one’s own.  But this usually happens after a year or so, or maybe after six months.  But we’re talking only two months here.  From the very end of June to the beginning of September.  We haven’t even changed seasons.  And that is what galls me the most.  A two hundred dollar drop after only two months.  Two months!  A measly two months.
    So beware anyone interested in the new “iPod Touch” that got released today.  With this new accelerated schedule, who knows how quickly and how badly you’ll get screwed.
    Oh, and by the way?  The multi-touch feature sucks for iPod use.  It’s impossible to accurately scrub through an audio file and the accelerometer initiates Cover Flow every time you don’t want it to.
    Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
    *And that was an early adopter lesson I did learn from!