Apple Plays Dirty With iTunes on Vista
3Feb2007 Filed under: General Author: Derek HatchardThe news is all over town (CNET, Yahoo) that Apple is advising iPod owners not to upgrade to Vista until they release an update to iTunes:
iTunes 7.0.2 may work with Windows Vista on many typical PCs. Apple recommends, however, that customers wait to upgrade Windows until after the next release of iTunes which will be available in the next few weeks.
(Source: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305042)
The only good reason Apple has for not having an iTunes update available already is so it can leverage “potential incompatibilities” to discourage consumers from moving to Vista. Apple is blatantly using its dominance in the portable media market to attack its new OS X rival.
With OS X 10.5 (codenamed “Leopard”) scheduled for release by spring 2007, it is in Apple’s best interest to dissuade consumers from adopting Vista for as long as possible in the hope that some of them will consider a Mac instead of a Windows upgrade. But I think this tactic is backfiring as the negative backlash grows in the blogosphere.
9 Responses to “Apple Plays Dirty With iTunes on Vista”
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- Nir: Look Philip, all i am saying is that unless you're a designer, a musician or an artist,
- Christine: I'm going to start a collection in my dorm buildings at school and I hope other students
- Philip Palmer: Hey guys. I just ordered a 2.5 Ghz Dell 1530. My friend has one and I love
- Donald Belcham: I can't believe it's so much lower than your metrosexual quotient.
- Derek Hatchard: Personally I have little use for OS X. I definitely prefer Windows and I really like
- Nir: thats a waste of money. you're actually buying a macbook pro and running vista on in? macbooks
- bob: Running Leopard Macbook Pro 4gb ram Using MS IntelliPoint 6.22 & MS Presenter Mouse 8000 I found that the
- Derek Hatchard: 1920x1200 is a bit much for a 15.4" screen in my opinion. 1680x1050 is the highest
- Sanj: Hi Derek I am really agonizing about my next laptop purchase. I like
- Jason Row: Well let's see how many people will follow an account that has zero updates. You're up to
xtd
February 3rd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
This is a non-issue in a few weeks. Boo Hoo, some early adopters couldn’t use iTunes on their crappy hardware.
“Boo hoo,” cried the little girl after she fell off her bike.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boo+hoo
Derek Hatchard
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
xtd,
A few weeks is a long time for an early adopter. And during that time the desire to get the latest thing can shift focus. And then OS X “Leopard” starts getting media attention and those early adopters start thinking about the new “new thing.”
Slowing down early adopters slows down the early majority and Apple wants those consumers to buy Leopard-powered Macs instead of upgrading to Vista. IDC is projecting 80 million home/consumer deployments of Vista in 2007. Apple shipped 21 million iPods last quarter and has sold 90 million over the past 5 years. That’s a lot of people who will hear about their iPods not working with Vista. That perception will linger beyond the next iTunes update.
It’s a dirty tactic because it’s timed to make it seem like last week’s Vista release is the problem when in fact Apple has had months to produce an update.
xtd
February 4th, 2007 at 1:24 am
“It’s a dirty tactic because it’s timed to make it seem like last week’s Vista release is the problem when in fact Apple has had months to produce an update.”
Boo Hoo. When should Apple have announced that Vista is “the iPod Killer” on certain machines? Did you want Apple to wait until Vista hosed 5 million ipods?
Apple is not the only company having problems with Vista hosing its software. MSN Games, Quickbooks, and World of Warcraft just to name a few. Do a quick search using the term vista problems and you see Vista is causing problems for some.
No need to cry me a river.
Derek Hatchard
February 4th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Apple should have made noise about this two months ago when Vista was released to business and MSDN users. Plenty of iPod owners in that mix. But then we would have expected the iTunes update to be ready for last week’s consumer release and Apple wouldn’t have the chance to spread FUD about Vista.
Jason Row
February 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
PureTracks to sell non-DRM music to Canadian subscribers
Last week, DownloadSquad.com has a post on how PureTracks is saying no to DRM . This is the Canadian
SnakeEyes
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
So does the issue lie with iTunes or Vista…that’s not rocket science…Vista is clearly the issue…no need to single out one software vendor…infact i think Apple has definitely gone out of it’s way to accomodate Windows users over the years dispite the dirty tactics employed by Microsoft to thwart them and cause us all to be stuck using Windows Media player and the wma format…God help us all if that were the case.
I didn’t want to get into a Mac OS X vs Vista argument but since you drew the conclusions above you leave me know choice.
This is hardly an issue…Vista could hardly be considered competition for Mac OS X (Tiger) let alone Leopard…if you were actually naive enough to try to pit the do against each other Mac OS X would win hands down…EVERYTIME.
Vista will not be widely adopted … nor at anywhere near the rate the IDC is predicting…only those poor saps who don’t know any better or who unfortunately are stuck with it on a new PC purchase or actually by into the hype…and that won’t be many of them…
The flop of Vista is obvious and imminent. Where is the new file system? Oh yeah they ran out of time 6 years since Windows XP and 2+ years late. Not to mention the licensing fees…approx $279-$400 CAD, and what do we get for that? You can pick up a new license for Leopard for $149 or upgrade for $99 (and by the way no activation crap sabotaging legitimate customers) and you actually can see what is new and different that you are paying for. Unlike Vista where you pay for security that should have been there since Windows XP in 2001 before they rushed out SP1 to fill the obvious gaps and poorly.
And people are running Mac OS X on factory Dell machines, and other less standard Intel configs with mixed and matched parts built by the home enthusiast…time to switch already.
There is an unbiased opinion for you…i have used Macs for 9 years exclusively then Windows for 7 years exclusively and now i’m back to the Mac and OS X.
If i wasn’t Software Developer for a Microsoft Partner Company who’s solution only runs on Windows i wouldn’t use Windows ever again…i now only use it for work at work because i have to…and usually only in the safety of a virtual machine running on a Mac Core Duo laptop i have.
Time to switch Derek…and tell your father that his old friend from the CDR Development days says hello. I finally got myself another Mac and couldn’t be happier…
Derek Hatchard
March 16th, 2007 at 1:14 am
While cleaning out my inbox I remembered about following up on SnakeEyes’ comments (probably too late for anyone to read this though).
SnakeEyes, I was not putting forward an OS X vs. Vista argument so I think you _did_ want to get into that.
Frankly I find such discussions tedious. I’ve been a Mac user on and off for about 10 years. I currently own a Mac Mini and a new MacBook in addition to two desktop Vista machines (one also boots into Ubuntu) and a Windows tablet PC. All have their high and low points. There are interesting discussions that can be had about the benefits of each in a given context but most of the time people argue from a position of zealotry and/or ignorance.
Is it just me or does it seem that when you criticize Microsoft you’re just normal but when you criticize Apple you’re unenlightened…
Oh, and by the way, take a walk through Staples, Costco, Futureshop, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. and tell me how the obvious and imminent flop of Vista is going.
Marcel
July 16th, 2007 at 6:24 am
well i am totally screwed, i have bought a new vista PC, clean install, downloaded Itunes 7.3.1 and then got everything going ok, now when i launch itunes, and connect the ipod, the windows pop-up advises me that Itunes has stopped working and it closes the itunes program. I have no idea what to do next. i have unistalled and completed a fresh install…any ideas?
Derek Hatchard
July 16th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Sorry, Marcel. I don’t have a clue. I’ve never had trouble running iTunes on Vista but I only use it to download podcasts (I don’t have an iPod - I use a Sansa M240 and a Zune).