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macs4nw

macrumors 601
.....The investigation was sparked by complaints from reseller eBizcuss, which had sued Apple in late 2011, charging that product shortages, credit line decreases, and required store upgrades were making it nearly impossible for independent retailers to survive. eBizcuss ceased operations last year.....

Article Link: Apple France Targeted by Regulators Over Treatment of Resellers, App Store Lock-In

One has to feel bad for those independent retailers, some of whom were around enthusiastically promoting APPLE products, long before the APPLE stores became commonplace. They probably, rightly so, feel betrayed by APPLE, now that it's no longer a level playing field.

"Apple still relied heavily on big box computer and electronics stores for most of their sales. There, customers continued to deal with poorly trained and ill-maintained Mac sections that did not foster customer loyalty to Apple and did not help differentiate the Mac user-experience from Windows".
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store

From APPLE's perspective, business is business. They probably had no idea in 2001, how these stores would fundamentally change the way their customers would interact with them. It's logical they would favor their own stores, but one would hope they would remember who was there for them, when they themselves were awash in a sea of big-box stores, who were heavily promoting the WINDOWS platform.

Btw, that is one gorgeous building, one of several in Europe, that makes me wish, we had some of those here.
 

Bug-Creator

macrumors 68000
May 30, 2011
1,747
4,671
Germany
Nobody complains when Dell does exactly the same thing. In Britain. In Germany. In Italy!

And please, AppleCare does indeed give you things that are not covered.

1. Cover when it isn't clear were the damage comes from, that is if the customer cannot prove that the damage is Apple's fault.

2. Cover when you are away from the store where you bought - AppleCare covers you anywhere in the world, not only where the store is where you bought.

3. Cover when the seller goes bankrupt, or tries whatever they can to avoid paying out.

4. Cover after two years.

And why oh why doesn't Apple just put that (in Italian) on the page they are selling AppleCare ?

You know, cuz thats what all the complaints in Italy are about !
 

toke lahti

macrumors 68040
Apr 23, 2007
3,270
502
Helsinki, Finland
Lock-in? Wait... what do they think Apple can do with the App Store that will make your iOS app purchases run on a non iOS device? Or one version of Android vs. another, for that matter?

Have they never heard of software? Is Apple going to get in trouble because Photoshop for Mac doesn't run on Windows?
I'm not really sure if you are really asking this and failing to see the difference.
Anyway, if you think about Photoshop, Adobe can crossgrade you from osX to windows for free.
But Adobe can't crossgare your Android app to iOS app for free.
This would need that you'd get the license for iOS app from Adobe, not from Apple, like it's done now.
Apple does not approve apps that you can download free and then get a free or paid license from developer. And that's the Lock-in.
 

dannyp1996

macrumors member
Apr 15, 2011
63
0
United Kingdom
oh and like most of Europe credit cards with smart chips embedded so signatures not required (chip and pin)

Do the US not use chip and pin?!? :eek:

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Because it is France, and the French government has a long history of this anti-business, nationalistic protectionism?

While tat may be the case, the French government can do what it wants in err, France. The French people dont run around saying how the US government should approach its policies for example, so why should anyone dictate to them?

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Nobody complains when Dell does exactly the same thing. In Britain. In Germany. In Italy!

I do! :D
 

kaldezar

macrumors regular
May 28, 2008
120
6
London, England
Do the US not use chip and pin?!? :eek:


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While tat may be the case, the French government can do what it wants in err, France. The French people dont run around saying how the US government should approach its policies for example, so why should anyone dictate to them?

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I do! :D
Yup in the good ol USA credit cards are still back in the days of written signatures for authorisation.http://cdn.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/smile.gif
 
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