Apple to the Pre: Your Masquerade is Over
By Harry McCracken | Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 6:09 pm
File this one under Utterly Unsurprising News Stories: Apple’s new version of iTunes blocks the technique that the Palm Pre was using to provide seamless of music and video with the Apple application. That was, of course, by far the likeliest scenario all along. Pre owners can sidestep Apple’s move by keeping with the old version of iTunes for the moment, but long-term, the Pre’s iTunes syncing–which was accomplished by tricking iTunes into thinking the Pre was an iPod–is dead.
I know it would be better for consumers if Apple opened up iTunes enough to let the Pre and other non-Apple devices sync with the application. (It might even be better for Apple, since it would help it sell music to folks who don’t own its music players and phones.) But given that iTunes isn’t designed to sync with other companies’ devices, I can’t be bitterly angry at Apple for cutting off Pre owners. Or at least this ranks pretty low on my list of things to be irked at Apple about.
I remain a little mystified by Palm’s actions to date, since the company used iTunes syncing as a selling point, even though it’s run by smart people who knew that Apple probably wouldn’t stand for it. There’s a a pretty obvious step it can take now, if it so chooses: release a piece of software for Windows and Macs that handles the iTunes syncing that it’s been doing directly. It can license the technology if it needs to. It may not be morally obligated to do something like this–at the moment, the Palm site still touts iTunes sync and uses fine print (in light gray type) to say it may not work forever:
…but I still think it would be classy on Palm’s part. Maybe it’s been planning to do something like that all along.
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Apple Bars Wireless iTunes Syncing to Pre in Latest Update | Cult of Mac Says:
July 15th, 2009 at 7:05 pm[…] the news of iTunes’ Pre lockout is no surprise, and Palm could still easily craft a workaround allowing Pre users to sync with their desktop […]
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Apple Bars iTunes Syncing to Pre in Latest Update | Cult of Mac Says:
July 15th, 2009 at 7:16 pm[…] the news of iTunes’ Pre lockout is no surprise, and Palm could still easily craft workaround allowing Pre users to sync with newer versions of […]
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Apple Bars iTunes Syncing to Pre in Latest Update | Technology News Says:
July 15th, 2009 at 7:54 pm[…] the news of iTunes’ Pre lockout is no surprise, and Palm could still easily craft workaround allowing Pre users to sync with newer versions of […]
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Apple Bars iTunes Syncing to Pre in Latest Update | Mac Bargains Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 12:03 am[…] the news of iTunes’ Pre lockout is no surprise, and Palm could still easily craft workaround allowing Pre users to sync with newer versions of […]
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Palm to Apple: Block This! | Technologizer Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm[…] week, Apple blocked the technique that Palm was using to let the Pre sync seamlessly with Apple’s iTunes. I assumed that it was game over. Wrong! Palm released WebOS 1.1 today, and among its new features […]
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Palm Goes For the Throat in Apple Tiff | Technologizer Says:
August 4th, 2009 at 3:23 pm[…] all: News Apple locking you out of iTunes? Call on the USB Implementers Forum. That’s Palm’s tact as it looks to muscle […]
July 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
When you operate one of the largest music stores online, then go about making sure it doesnt easily work with your competitors hardware devices, I believe is the very definition of anti competitive behavior.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Like Google using a so called free OS in an anti-competitive move to generate ad revenue for another of it’s products, Apple uses iTunes to dominate the phone and mp3 markets. Can you imagine the uproar if Microsoft did this?
Apple monopolizes markets and uses illegal, anti-competitive tactics to maintain dominance. FTC – are you listening? Unless you have an iPod or an iPhone, guess not. Since I don’t want Apple suing me too…
iPod is a registered trademark of Apple Computer
iPhone is a registered trademark of Apple Computer
July 15th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
The real issue here is actually that iTunes and the music store actually bring in very little revenue for Apple. Some had even said that they lose money on it. Fundamentally, in every branch of Apple’s business, they make money on the hardware. THAT’s why they care so much about limiting iTunes to only using iPods. It’s their entire business.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I am an Apple fan, but this is pretty messed up. I have bemoaned Microsoft for this type of behavior for years, and I hate to see Apple following in their footsteps. When Apple forced iTunes incompatibility with other devices, it was clear that it was the record companies who insisted on the DRM. But now, no such excuse is possible. I suspect that this type of thing is only going to get worse in the future. I really wish Linux and the open source world would get their act together.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:01 am
@Carl in Silicon Valley:
On Google’s OS, I disagree. No one forces you to use Google or Google Docs. When you open up your browser, just point it somewhere else. It WOULD be anti-competitive if Google somehow locked your home page into Google.com. So far, there is no reason to suspect that Chrome OS will do anything anti-competitive.