Allegation that Apple deliberately kills iPods over the line
I have just finished reading an opinion piece that, even by the lenient standards of opinion pieces, does a severe injustice to Apple, Inc.
The sensationalist attack starts with the article’s title: “The Pusher of Cupertino.” The author, James Daley (who apparently works for The Independent newspaper of the U.K., though the piece appears on the MacNewsWorld Web site), goes on to speculate that Apple sabotages its iPods with software updates with the intent of disabling them.
His sources for this very serious accusation are the unfortunate iPod experiences of his wife and the anecdotal stories of friends and people on unnamed Internet forums. No facts, figures or studies, despite his claim of a “growing body of evidence.”
Daley even admits in his first sentence that “there’s no solid evidence that Apple deliberately kills iPods through software updates,” but the entire piece is predicated on the assumed truth of that allegation.
He is upset because his two-year-old iPod has started to malfunction. His wife has had several iPods, including a 30 GB fifth-generation model that went south.
Meanwhile, her iPod Nano still works fine despite being over two years old because, Daley implies, it has never been synced with a computer. According to his theory, syncing iPods exposes them to the deadly software updates.
Oddly enough, Daley says that despite his suspicions about Apple, he will almost certainly buy another iPod because he “loves” it. But he again faults Apple. The allure of the iPod has seduced him beyond reason: “Even though I know I should take my business elsewhere, it’s an addiction.”
Another 30 GB iPod his wife bought “never-used” almost immediately began having issues. “Short of it being a defective unit, the only obvious explanation was that it was struggling to get to grips with the newer software,” Daley says. How could he be certain his wife simply didn’t receive a defective unit, a considerably more obvious explanation than his software sabotage theory?
I happen to have a 30 GB fifth-generation iPod that I bought in January 2006. I sync it with my Mac frequently. I install every software update. Yet it still works.
I’m not saying my experience proves anything, but neither does Daley’s. I can’t say with certainty Apple is not sabotaging iPods to get people to replace them with new ones. After all, the company did brick unlocked iPhones. But as a journalist I’d need solid proof before I’d accuse a company of this degree of wrongdoing.
Perhaps a significant percentage of iPods do fail after two years. But how many last three years? Or four?
For that matter, what’s the failure rate of competing MP3 players? Better than Apple’s? Worse? The same? Daley offers us no data, just unsubstantiated opinion.
I too have read complaints that iPods don’t last much longer than two years, but I haven’t seen any research that gives hard numbers on what customers can expect. And I certainly have never read any suggestions that Apple is deliberately killing iPods.
There’s usually nothing wrong with offering up some opinions based on anecdotal evidence. You want to complain about the shorter-than-expected life span of your iPods, fine.
But Daley is accusing Apple of a criminal act. I think that calls for stronger facts than his wife’s conspiracy theories, his friends’ problems and some rants he read in a few Internet forums.
in iPod
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Comments
Well, my 3 year old iPod is working fine...my wife's 2 year old nano is working fine.
So :-??
Posted by: John | April 7, 2008 8:23 AM
My four year old 3G 30Gb iPod is still going strong! Some people have bad luck with certain types of products. Mechanical wrist watches never work pass 6 months for me, even when they are expensive Swiss models like Omega. However, cheap electronic watches work fine, often for 5 years (depending on battery) then it's time to buy another cheapo.
Posted by: Pietro | April 7, 2008 10:32 AM
It's a sad truth, but Mr. Daley's article is often what passes for journalism these days. Even web sites that are fairly well respected are not immune from publishing articles that are not backed up by any actual facts.
It really gets bad when dozens of other web sites will link to articles such as Mr. Daley's. When that happens, the unsubstantiated allegations start to appear to be true to many people because they think they are hearing the same thing from multiple sources.
For the record, my iPod is 5 years old, has been synced many times, and is still performing well.
Posted by: Elias | April 7, 2008 11:12 AM
That accusation that Apple kills their iPod product line after two years is a ridiculous accusation and it does show what passes for "journalism" these days. I guess that's the plague of having these news sites on the Internet and everyone trying to grab eyeballs and saying anything sensational to do it.
If anything has "Apple" in their article and it's an accusation against them in some way, that seems to be the way a lot of writers get attention. That's what this article (that you reference) amounts to. It's nothing more than sensationalism.
With a product that Apple has used to capture about 75-80% of the marketshare and through which the Apple iTunes Music Store has become the number one retailer of music in the United States, it's ridiculous to think that they could have achieved those accomplishments by sabotaging their products.... LOL...
Posted by: Eliakim | April 7, 2008 12:02 PM
My original iPod works great still.
I replaced the battery once on my own.
Other than that, no hiccups.
The things people do in order to get noticed.
sad.
Posted by: Tyler | April 7, 2008 12:56 PM
From 2002 onward I occasionally see Mac Tower hardware failing with firmware upgrades from Apple. I think it is caused by older hardware being weak, and the changes from the firmware being the breaking point. I have seen a couple of G4 towers were the part of the motherboard for the fan control fails with a firmware update.
The point is that I have never felt it was an Apple plot to sell new hardware. It was just a hardware weakness that failed with the change the firmware produced.
Posted by: Roger | April 7, 2008 1:42 PM
Every ipod we purchased works just fine ,my first one the mini just needed a battery change I also did it myself, must be at least 4 years old now ,still works great. I use them when I go running ,no failures - the Walkman's that I used to jog with failed after just a few months of jogging with them.
Posted by: Dave Keranen | April 7, 2008 5:44 PM
In addition to stating that this household's quota of aging iPods are still going strong thank you, I just wanted to say that The Independent is a very fine newspaper- the only one I read regularly- even though one of its journalists would appear to be speaking out of his arse on this occasion.
Posted by: Steve Howe | April 7, 2008 7:13 PM
I have iPods all the way back to when they first came out in 2001. All are working fine, even the third generation, even with a little shorter battery life. His rants are so biased that it's transparent. What a wanker!!!
Posted by: Sal Horsfall | April 7, 2008 9:27 PM
I can't particularly speak to Apple intentionally killing iPods with updates, but I can speak to one obvious predatory practice related to iPods.
The newest iPods will not operate with the older versions of Mac OS, even 10.3. You must be running version 10.4 or newer. This means you can't actually connect it to your computer and do ANYTHING. It just gives an error saying you must upgrade your OS.
Now, an iPod will work with a PC which is running Windows, why can't it work with MacOS 10.3? No one at the Apple store could offer me a reasonable explanation for this, so the only one I can see is that they want to force you to spend another $100 on their new OS.
I have been an Apple fan for years, since I first started using them in school and I am appalled at such behavior.
For the record, I had to purchase a new iPod because my first had a faulty firewire connection (after almost 2 years), was replaced by a reconditioned one under AppleCare, and the headphone jack on that one failed (only plays from the left channel). I was told it would cost $250 to fix.
Posted by: Liz Murphy | April 8, 2008 10:44 AM
I have also had some real problems with my Ipods that I believe are tied to the Itunes or Ipod updates. I recently updated an Ipod and then songs would skip as I was playing them. When I took the Ipod(s) in question to the Apple store to be restored on a MAC, they worked just fine. I believe that Windows plays a large part in the problems for Ipod users on that operating system. I don't think that Apple does anything deliberately, but I do believe that they let some compatibility issues with windows slp by somehow.
Posted by: Martin Spieldock | April 10, 2008 2:23 PM
I've had two ipods the nano and the ipod touch i have had to replace both, luckly they were under warranty but both went south quickly, I agree fully with the article above.
Posted by: .... | April 20, 2008 5:05 PM