Apple makes a play
This week the tinterweb has been alight with news of the new Shuffle from Apple. You have to hand it to Apple, they certainly think outside of the box. The new shuffle is tiny, but its much more notable for its lack of controls. They have been moved onto the headphone cable, so they are always in easy reach.
But all is not as it appears, this is not about giving there customers a new way to interact with the player. This is about making a grab for the after sales headphone market. I think Apple are setting a dangerous precedent, and should not be allowed to muscle in on a market where there obvious intention is to drive up prices and exclude competitors they don’t happen to like.
How it works
The first part of the scam is to remove all the controls from the device. So now you have a player that you can’t do anything with unless you plug in the supplied headphones. On the cable is the controller to let you skip and play your songs. Now this is not a new idea, most music player have these, making it nice and easy for you to control your music. But most suppliers allow you to plug your headphones into the controller so you can choose if you want to use their supplied head phones, or your own (which are probably much more expensive).
This is where Apple have seen their market. They know most people buy a nice pair of headphones and they want a slice of that cake as well. But the only way they can do that is by making sure you have to use their headphones with the device. Creating a huge demand for new head phones that have this new controller piece attached.
But what is to stop who ever making that controller and sticking it onto their line of head phones? Apple have included a chip into the design of the controller that while at the moment does very little, it can be used to legally attack any company that tries to produce their over version of the controller. Reverse engineering the chip is a breach of the DMCA and means Apple can sue (at least in the US). So companies have to play nice and pay Apple a licence fee to be able to make their head phones compatible.
Because Apple are now in control of this relationship I think its unlikely you will see a generic controller appear. One that plugs in and allows you to plug in your own headphones. This would cut into the sales of the other headphones and reduce profitability so Apple will simply not let it be done.
I won’t be surprised if you now start to see this controller appear on the other apple products as they spread the base of devices that need it until they cover the who range.
Dangerous Precedent
This sets a dangerous precedent for Apple. They are in a monopoly situation with the iPod and they are now starting to leaver that position into other, mostly unrelated areas of manufacture.
It is something they have done many times, and always seem to aim for with their computers. Trying to lock you into to only using their equipment. But never quiet so blatant as selling you a product that just won’t work without their help.
I can only hope this is a fad that does not catch on.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:31 am
As you know I’m a self confessed apple zealot and love all things shiny but this really annoyed me.
When I first saw the player was like wow its tiny even smaller than my already small enough 1gb shuffle and how it speaks, wasn’t till later I found out about this new “feature” and went off the device instantly.
I know apple make some concessions for good looks but just how much harder would it have been to put the headphone socket on the end of the remote control like 90% of the other companies do. I suspect that the primary reason (other than money) is that they realised allot of people bought iPod’s and ditched the “annoying fall out of your ear” headphones and replaced with proper ones that are not WHITE and thus don’t say “look at me I have an iPod and I’m cool”.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Look at me Binny I’m bitter and twisted….I’m learning
March 18th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Its good to see.
But where as usually Apple just puts a nice look, and a massive price on something. This time they have gone to far. Maybe I would not mind if any third party could make their own controller, But to add this encoding chip in so they can claim reverse engineering is a bit much.
I just can’t believe people will go for it, and the fanboys will defend it. But even you think this is a step to far, So that’s something,
March 19th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Yeah, sucks. I actually never use Apple headphones, and always use either my cheap Sony in ear ones (still better than Apple, mind you) or these Bose ones I have.
Hopefully Apple won’t carry this over to their other iPod lines.
Saying that, supposedly you can use other headphones, but it will just be stuck in a looping shuffle where you have no control whatsoever (I’m assuming that includes volume), so you’ll still need to keep some Apple ones with you, which sucks.
Thanks,
Joel Nichols.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:53 am
The switch on the top has three positions. Off, Play in Order, and Shuffle. So you would actually be able to turn it on, and play everything in your collection in order, or at random. But you are right, no way to do anything else, not even change the volume.
I have a feeling they will take this idea into their other lines. Just as Microsoft and Sony are doing with their consoles. Lock out third parties unless they want to pay royalties. Or try and patent something that is required to play with your device, like the design of the power plug, or connectors (*Looks at Apple again*).
This only serves to hurt consumers and bolster Apple’s profits. They have basically rendered your Bose headphones useless, unless you buy a licence (in the form of new head phones that Apple get a cut of) to use their new device.