Apple sauce

An old truism is that you never buy the first or latest version of any software or techie device.  The reason’s simple- the newest version is bound to have bugs and problems and you effectively are providing research and development for the company while also paying for the privilege to do so.  But ultimately, that’s the price of having the latest slick little device in our consumer culture.  How many iPhone users had buyers’ remorse when they first found out that the product was discounted $200 only two months after they bought theirs?  They were pretty pissed of course and eventually Apple had to offer discount vouchers though they’re for half the price and only good to trade in for more Apple merchandise.  As a ZNet article pointed out, the $100 that they “refund” the original iPhone customers ain’t gonna buy you much through Apple.  This literal/figurative miscalculation on the part of Apple may do their brand more damage than any of their perspective competitors: there’s surely going to be less people ready to buy the next slate of new Apple products when they come out, feeling burned by the iPhone (though rest assured, plenty still will).  If you’re still not convinced that Apple ain’t the most consumer-friendly corporation out there, ask yourself why they’re offering new iPod classic models with a whopping 160MB capacity but only offering Wifi capabilities in their new iPod Touch models with a measly 16GB capacity.  Clearly, they don’t want to cut into their own iPhone biz but they’re driving trying to carve up the market as best they can by not offering all the bells and whistle in one place (i.e. large capacity plus connectivity).  Still, they own the market for portable music and will probably for a while.  Unless of course, they keep screwing up these roll-outs…