Greedy as the music label industry!

Greed has nothing to do with it.

If you open that port up to the world, free to use, then you open it up for everybody to make that port too. That means all the other MP3 players on the market could have the same connector!

That connector protects the iPod from being stripped of it's market share as everybody and their brother would come out with a CHEAP, Inexpensive and badly made player that would work with everything the iPod does (just like Mac clones did in the mid 90s).

This is just Apple protecting itself and they have every right to do so. If they didn't, really cool iPods would cease.

If you think this is greedy, then why don't you ask Microsoft to make their source code available so everybody could write software that easily integrates with all their layers?

I thought that a patent could keep other companies from ripping off the port.

Charging 10% royalties for making something that can use it is a cash cow.

Steve needs to be taken down a peg or two. HARD.

People can just reverse engineer the iPod port, that's a basic part of US law. But even if they did, that wouldn't make the results "iPods" - no more than Windows is a "Mac". the interface and software are what make an iPod different, and that's quite a lot more difficult to copy than the physical interface. Sticking a 10% tax on the product seems a bit of an overkill to me - more peripherals means more choice which sells more iPods - which is something Apple should recognise.

This smells of typical Apple shortsightedness, taxing or killing off your partners who are spending money helping you to promote your product.

Hey, why not read more carefully. This was a retailer not only using the port without permission or paying for it (sorry, isn't that wrong? Regardless of whether you need to pay for it, shouldn't they be prevented from using it if they don't get a license from Apple??? Burger, isn't that your point?), but they were also using the iPod name without permission. Gee, if MS came out with an MS store and called it the "Apple Store", you'd be all up in arms.

As for charging, its their perogative. You people make it sound like its everyone's right to give away their assets for free. Well, the iPod is an apple asset, one in which Apple has strived to make it synonomous with portable music players, let alone the current hip device out there. People who make money selling iPod peripherals are making money from the iPod, Apple's branding, Apple's marketing, etc. Apple gets NOTHING from this. No one buys an iPod because griffin makes a kick-a** car dock. They buy the car dock because its kick-a** and works with their ipod (OK, I have no idea its kick-a**, let's just assume it is for the time being). So, since griffin is sponging off of the iPod to rake in millions, why shouldn't Apple get a cut of that, for these products wouldn't exist without the iPod?

BTW, if apple uses this money to fund R&D and produce newer and better iPods, wouldn't that then help generate more iPod sales, which then lead to more sales of thrid-party products? Its the circle of life.

Also, note that nobody is forced to make an iPod product that works with the dock. They could just make something that simply connects to the headphone jack and not pay apple any money. But you don't get to say "Compatible with the iPod" without paying out some money.

no ipod, no third party stuff. Therefore pay up.

Testudo: the king of Apple apologists.

Testudo: the king of Apple apologists.

Oh, please, I've complained about their computer hardware for years (they're line-up is so weak in so many areas, its sad - although I bet Mike Dell thinks its really funny). But truth is truth. You have a product, you want to make sure you get as much out of it as possible. That's what business is about. Nothing forces any company to make iPod accessories. Tell 'em to make some kick-a** Creative accessories if they want.

Oh, and you do realize that Apple could just as easily kill this program, then just raise their prices, so they get their money one way or the other (I know, it wouldn't be like apple to overcharge for a product!).

>People who make money selling iPod peripherals are
>making money from the iPod, Apple's branding, Apple's
>marketing, etc. Apple gets NOTHING from this.

Wrong, Apple gains from all the marketing that these companies do. Every time they run an ad they feature an iPod (because that's the market they are selling to). That helps Apple become more visible and helps it sell more iPods. I've no idea why people by iPods, but I'm sure that at least some of them do so because it works... and you can get a neat third-party case too.

What you are suggesting is kind of like all the software companies paying a tax to Apple to have their apps be Mac compatible.

No Apple, no software. No software, no Apple.