Apple a bit Needy?

by Zef Hemel

Last Saturday we went to Saturn, a huge electronics store in Rotterdam, to buy Justyna an iPod. Incidentally, this is the kind of shopping that I like, much better than acting as a clothes hanger for three hours in a row.

She got an iPod nano 4GB with a “cute” pink leather “jacket”. Great. When we got home we set it up. It’s always fun to see how people who are not that much involved in IT that much see things and what they notice. Of course the setup went smooth, you can leave that to Apple. What disturbed her, however, was Apple’s pushing of (1) registering her iPod which included giving her name, address, phone number and work industry and after that (2) pushing her to get a iTunes Music Store account, which means more information plus yet another user name and password. Even though she will most probably never buy any song there. Or, as she put it, “I don’t want a stupid Apple ID!”

We decided to break off the registration procedure. But now, every time you plugin the device, it will ask to register and then, every time you plug in the device, you have to click “Later”. We’ll see how long she will be able to resist.

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4 Commenti

  1. afaik is an apple id just an email adress, so not really a new user name. The problem I have with the iTunes Store is that it requires a credit card to get an account.

    #1 gmlk

  2. There must be some way to disable it, just check the apple support forums. I do use the iTunes store btw, it’s great. There is more to do than just buying stuff. I certainly hope that movie rental stuff will come to Europe soon.

    @gmlk, a credit card is not that expensive, and you can use it everywhere on the inet, really useful.

    #2 Jeffrey Gelens

  3. The point, however, is not the usefulness of the iTunes music store but more that they’re essentially forcing you into it. It’s like walking by a store, where a sales person is standing outside, stopping you and asking you to sign up for a customer loyalty card. And every time you walk by you have to say no.

    #3 Zef Hemel

  4. A CC is useful. However, I know a lot of people who can’t get one because of dutch financial laws.

    #4 gmlk

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