SheGeeks

According to a recent post by Mac Rumors, Apple has begun to approve 3rd party web browsing apps for the App Store. After a quick check of the list and the App Store, sure enough all four web browsers that were mentioned in the article are available in the App Store. Fantastic, but I still see a problem.

Where’s The REAL Competition?

None of these apps are from any companies that would give Safari Mobile some stiff competition like Opera or Firefox (or dare I say IE?). I’ve never even heard of the browsers that were approved before today. None of these apps offer anything over Safari either. Clearly Apple is still blocking the competition. Can we say “HATERRR!”? Come on Apple, stop being a punk and take on the competition head to head on your own turf!

What A Joke!

As an iPhone owner, I have to say I’m a little pissed that Apple will still continue to block competition. I highly doubt Firefox or Opera will make it to the iPhone, despite these new offerings. To me, they’re all jokes to Apple which is probably why they were approved. Could Safari see a drop in its percentage of market share if Apple were to approve competitor browsers? Probably so if the competition’s apps crash less than Safari does. Despite recent offerings, I wouldn’t get my hopes up on this issue. Apple is playing this game dirty the entire way through.

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Boing Boing has recently written up an article about a very serious concern for people who buy apps from the iTunes App Store. Apple does not refund the money on apps that they pull from the store. According to the post, one customer tried to receive a refund from Apple for pulling the NetShare Tethering app. Apple issued the following statement:

All iTunes purchases are final, and I am unable to refund you for the app.

You will need to contact NetShare directly, as this is there [sic] product and we can do nothing with it.

And you call Microsoft greedy….

Way to go Apple on great customer service and support. Take 30% of the lump-sum and leave the developer to cover your ass. This is one reason why I refuse to truly support Apple. Outside of the iPhone, I don’t own a single Apple product and never have. I’d hate to have to deal with their customer service and that is the sole reason why I don’t buy more of their stuff. I’ll take Microsoft over this crap any day.

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Apple has been a huge bully this week and to be quite frank, I think it’s because Apple’s jealous.

The Safari Fiasco

Apple has been making headlines, most notably on Techmeme, over the fact that they are now pushing their products onto Windows machine’s using their Apple Software Update program. Basically, if you don’t have any of their products installed, when you use their updater, the option to install these products is checked by default. This doesn’t stop at Safari either. Oh no, silly people! This has also happened for those that don’t have iTunes installed. Damn Apple! Is this how we do business now? Even John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, thinks Apple’s latest moves are wrong. However, that could be because they didn’t think of it first.

Nevertheless, people have been pretty pissed off about this move from Apple. It says a lot about the company’s emotions towards not only Microsoft, but also users of Microsoft’s products. Personally, I feel it has jealousy and envy written ever so subtly all over it. Obviously the market share that Windows has could make anyone envious. Even though iPods and iTunes are dominating the music scene, that’s still doesn’t beat the revenue that Microsoft generates off of Windows alone. As a result, Apple’s becoming more aggressive with it’s marketing tactics. It’s an unexpected move from Apple and one that most would expect to see from Microsoft instead. You have to admit, Apple is definitely dirty dancing.

The Ads

At the same time, I notice their ads are becoming more and more spiteful in tone. At first, everyone laughed. It was…snarky. One could almost consider it to be friendly rivalry. Then today I read that, "Apple again takes a swipe at Vista on Windows-friendly sites".

In the ad, the PC Guy notices that the banner above has a negative headline calling Vista "one of the biggest blunders in technology". He walks to a blank wall and opens a door to reveal an "Emergency Banner Refresh" panel. He pulls a lever and the ad refreshes, only to reveal another Vista-bashing headline that says the operating system needs "a do-over". His third attempt finally yields a positive quote, this time referencing Leopard, the latest version of the Mac OS, calling it "a perfect 10".

The PC Guy throws the switch one more time, and the top banner shows simply the Apple logo, while the right panel shows an iMac and the words "Upgrade to Mac."

Update: This ad apparently was running Friday on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. It doesn’t appear to be there today, though.

Apple is fighting really dirty and being very slick about it lol. I’ve never seen any response from Microsoft, but if you have, please share them in the comments section.

What Apple fails to be seeing is that it’s dirty to the consumers not just Microsoft. We stand the most to lose from such behavior, not Microsoft, and Apple stands to lose one of the hardest things you can ever get from consumers: Trust. Is it really worth it Apple? Quite frankly, I’m glad I’m not using any of your products. Whatever happened to Updates? You know, the keyword in the program that you’re using to carry out your Windows domination plans?

What do you think: Is there a crack an Apple’s armor? Are they really jealous? Is it simply ingenious marketing skills? Or is it something else all together?

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