Will Apple disable the Pre on iTunes?

[stainlessliquid]

Pros:
- People may want to get an iPhone just so they can use iTunes
- Palm releases a bad substitute to iTunes, making the Pre a pain to use for music and giving it bad reviews

Cons:
- Pre gets good reviews for ease of transferring music
- Pre users will stop updating iTunes, cutting off revenue from iTunes Store
- Will not gain any fans from the bad press
- Palm releases a good substitute to iTunes which just ends up making Apple look bad for being greedy, they lose revenue from iTunes Store, and lose any chance they had at driving people to the iPhone through iTunes comaptibility.

The knee jerk reaction would be to release an iTunes version that blocks the Pre's hack. But I think there are some pretty heavy cons they should consider since the Pre (or any device) can actually help Apple if they just open up iTunes.

Releasing the iPod for Windows was the best move they ever made as a company, sometimes being closed off to the rest of the world isnt the smartest choice.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

- Pre gets good reviews for ease of transferring music

Why does Apple care about this?

 

[bradenwh]

Why is the Pre getting bad reviews a good thing? Are you that much of an iPhone elitist? The Pre is a great phone. Plus, competition is good. It forces innovation and change, two things Apple are very good at doing.

 

[statik13]

Why bother? Now that songs are DRM free this just adds up to more song sales for Apple. People will buy them on iTunes to play on the Pre. It will also expose people to iTunes that perhaps would never have used it before.

Win win situation I think.

 

[stainlessliquid]

Why does Apple care about this?

Why wouldnt they? Do you think Microsoft likes it when reviews say the iPod is better than the Zune? Its a competing product, you want your product to have better reviews than other products, people listen to reviews and buy accordingly. Apple isnt going to like being responsible for a major selling point of the Pre.

Why is the Pre getting bad reviews a good thing? Are you that much of an iPhone elitist? The Pre is a great phone. Plus, competition is good. It forces innovation and change, two things Apple are very good at doing.

Uh the pros and cons are based on Apple's perspective on if it would be good or bad for them to block the Pre on iTunes. The question is WILL Apple block the pre, not should they block it.

 

[The General]

I think it would be hilarious if they did.

 

[aznkid25]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/06/palm-pre-itunes-compatibility-confirmed-as-a-hack.ars

 

[JCastro]

I think it may happen but I don't know if Apple will go way out of their way to make it happen.

My opinion is that the Pre is not going to have a huge effect on iPhone sales. As close as the similarities might be I just don't see it being that strong of a competitor like many of the prior iPhone killers were. They may sell well and be an excellent product but everyone knows what the iPhone is and that is what they have to compete with.

Just like with the iPod line. Many have tried but no one has taken the top spot away from the iPod. Until Apple runs out of ideas for updates and the product lineup get stale they will continue to be on top.