That's exactly what I was thinking.. <$$ looks of glee in the =
trial-lawyers' eyes $$> Anyway, as one person on Slashdot said, the =
online petitions usually don't do anything at all - he suggested they =
make things worse because people "think they've done something" when =
they really haven't - they should actually be outside of 1 Infinite Loop =
protesting..
Another issue that's come up on the Apple student developer list is =
"what about students". Since students usually don't have much money =
anyway (or so said that particular one), and student devs use iTools to =
promote their own apps a lot (which is to Apple's benefit after all), =
$100 seems a bit steep. I'd personally like a "lite" version that =
included ONLY pop email (5-7MB) and maybe some disk space (more like =
15MB, certainly not 100) for something like $20 per year. Or a lite =
version for paid ADC members that had POP email and 25MB iDisk space for =
$20 a year. I think this would work out very nicely for Apple, because =
since POP boxes are probably rarely full (of course, at Denison U. =
people left all sorts of stuff in their POP boxes.. but half the campus =
just telneted in.), the disk space requirements would be minimal, =
especially considering that ~80% of the $100/yr members aren't going to =
be using their full 100MB quota (aren't externalities great?). Then the =
$20/yr from the lite members is basically gravy for Apple (excluding =
bandwidth costs - I don't know if Apple pays a fixed rate, or a per =
100-GB rate, or what) Of course, this scenario only works if there are =
still enough $100 members around - it's quite possible that 80% would =
drop down to the lite membership, which would force the cost of the full =
service down too - to about $50 I'd say. But that's 1/2 the revenue =
projection that Apple has made (I assume)
Oh well, Apple's stock promptly dropped (though it'll never be clear =
if it was that, it always drops after the keynote, even if it dropped =
the day before because of earnings), and if Apple does introduce a =
change like that, you know they'll put a good spin on it - "Due to =
overwhelming positive customer feedback [whatever], we are today =
unvailing the next stage of the evolution of iTools [whatever]. Now you =
get basic features like [blah blah] for only $20 a year, but for only =
$30 more (new lower prices!), you'll get even more than before. And of =
course, for $100 a year, we will send an Apple VP to your house to clean =
your shoes every month [oops, did I say clean your shoes? I meant pay =
attention to the customers..]" Jobs is such a spin-master (or did the =
reality distorsion field get to me? through the streaming quicktime link =
to boot!)
Jim
> lawsuit, class action, against Apple by people who purchased Apple
> hardware with the understanding that iTools was "free for life" as =
Apple
> claimed it was.=
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