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Plaupius on 08 April 2009
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Zkuq said:
averyblund said:

A few things I'm surprised you didn't realize. First DRM. Yes Apple has DRM, but can you backup games from any of your gaming systems with the consent of the maker? There are work arounds for iApps just like there are for Wii, 360, PS3 and just like them they are not supported by the manufacturers. So how is the iPhone different? Console games sadly have never been easy to back-up and Apple is hardly bucking the trend.

You seem to be making the same mistake when you talk about retail. Once again buying something in retail for consoles is just as hard (well actually significantly harder) to backup than iApps. Consoles require hardware mods, the iPhone can run unlicensed software with a simple jailbreak.

Finally in regards to price. If somebody owns a cell phone and an MP3 player with more than a few gigs of music it really isn't a bad value. I got my iPhone when somebody stole my Sony Ericsson phone and my Creative Zen. It would have cost me more to re-buy than to upgrade. And clearly the iPhone is targeted at people who use both a media player and a cell. So if you fall into the niche where you only want a phone or an mp3 player it might be pricey but for most people that is simply not true. And when you compare it to the price of the competition it is quite competitive- and the availability of a software ecosystem makes it far more valuable than for instance a Sprint Instinct which costs nearly as much and is almost totally inflexible. At a $100 my iPhone was a steal. At $200 it is worth it- but only if somebody wants a phone and an MP3 player- which the target demographic does.

My opinion about not being able to make a backup or anything else 'real', other than being on my storage device (HDD, memory card, etc.), is the problem with almost every online service. The only real exception I've seen so far is GOG.com, where I've actually bought one game. Yep, I don't blame Apple alone.

Retail? Backup? You missed my point (or I missed yours, or both)? I don't want  to make backup copies of the retail stuff I've bought; they never break anyway (at least when I use them). My whole point was that buying a retail copy ensures that I actually own the product while if I buy a digital copy, I usually have only the right to use that product instead of owning it.

iPhone price competitive? What a joke. The only real thing it has better than a 200€ cell phone is its ease of use; other than that, it actually lacks some (minor) features. Of course there's this touch screen... But I doubt it alone can make up the price. The price which you got your iPhone at was great, I can't argue about that. I'm just telling that its price new is terrible. Don't know what it costs there but here it costs (or at least cost, last I checked) 350€+. And that's low-end, just not to overestimate.

While I understand your point, I don't see things as clear cut as you do. For example, there have been (and still are some) EULAs that similarily only grant you the right to use the software, but not for example resell it. Luckily most EULAs today are more reasonable. Still, I see the difference as being more of a philosophical issue with only a minor impact on the actual use. That doesn't mean that I think the difference is not important, but I'm more of a pragmatist and if things work for the majority of users, I'm happy.

Regarding digital distribution, iPhone Apps and the iTunes store: I'm under the impression that stuff protected by the Fairplay DRM can be authorized to play on up to 5 devices. That would mean that Apps you buy can be transferred to your 4 next iPhones. It's not perfect, but I think that's pretty reasonable. Also, whenever you sync your iPhone a backup is made, and you can store those backups on a DVD if you like. It's not the same as owning a retail copy, though.