Apple Says "No" To Releasing New Dock Connector Specs 393
sl4shd0rk writes "According to sources, Apple hasn't offered any specs to developers for the new '9-pin Connector' to be used on the next version of the iPhone. Apple has also said it may use 'licensing agreements and threats of lawsuits' to prevent third-party adapters from hitting the market through at least 2012. There have been suggestions that this tactic is to allow Apple time to leverage competition and reap in revenues of $100 million for every 10 million Dock Connector Adapters it sells for $10. It remains unclear whether Apple will allow third-party developers to release competing alternatives after 2012."
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean instead "leveraging their position to unfairly stifle competition," correct?
universal connector (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
a price to pay (Score:5, Insightful)
Its their own damn fault (Score:4, Insightful)
Accessory manufacturers (particularly case manufacturers) burnt all their bridges with Apple long ago. Since around when the iphone 3gs came out, nobody has gotten any advance notice of new hardware because of all the leaks.
Even now, many of the apple rumors come from case manufacturers who are attempting to bribe employees at the manufacturer for information.
Right now Apple has only even hinted that there may be an iphone 5, and if they are going to deprecate a decade of accessories with a new connector they want to do it on their own terms. There is no way Applw have confirmed or denied the dock connector except perhaps in controlled leaks to the media. Nobody making alarm clock docks is gonna know a damn thing until the rest of us do on the 12th.
Re:Will they attempt this in the EU as well? (Score:5, Insightful)
One big reason Apple doesn't use USB is that the dock connector does more than just USB.
Re:Putting words in Apples mouth (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will they attempt this in the EU as well? (Score:4, Insightful)
"One big reason Apple doesn't use USB is that the dock connector does more than just USB."
Does it, now? With airplay and whatnot, the need to transmit analog audio and video is rapidly disappearing, which is probably why the new plug has nine pins in stead of the previous billion. It's been months since I used my cable for anything besides charging, and I really can't see what I'd want from it that USB + wifi + bluetooth can't already offer.
Let's face it: it's a money-making ploy and nothing more.
It is of course entirely within their rights to use proprietary designs that way, but harassing people trying to adapt to it is not (or shouldn't be), and it is entirely within my rights to dispise and chastise them for it in any case.
Re:Will they attempt this in the EU as well? (Score:5, Insightful)
But nothing that you can't do with USB. Android phones have the ability to do audio and video through micro USB after all.
The only difference is they provide an analog pins for each audio channel, for svideo etc. Micro USB means you just send it as data and convert it in the adapter.
Re:universal connector (Score:0, Insightful)
Over-regulating? Thanks to them we finally have an universal connector!
On a non existent product??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Putting words in Apples mouth (Score:3, Insightful)
Given the fact that nobody has a fucking clue of what's in the video, whether it's authentic or not, who shot it, I'd say it hints at somebody wanting you to believe something, not much more.
It doesn't say anything about a future Apple product or connector though.
My bet, if it is worth anything, is that if they change the connector, they will include in every iPhone box a converter allowing old accessories to work with the new iPhone. They'll drop the free converter next year on the iPhone 6 or whatever they decide to call it, giving effectively a year to accessories makers to adapt to the new connector.
If they don't do they they deprive every single buyer of the shitload of accessories actually on the market and in the homes of so many potential buyers. And this is a definitive advantages of iPhones over competing products.
Re:universal connector (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
So when do you think apple will give it to 3rd parties? It's coming out next week, so they are seriously running out of time to get production up and running. Or do you just blindly defend apple any chance you get, truth staring you in the face or not?
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Take a purely speculative story and give it a headline stating something likely to excite your readership as a simple fact. result page hits.
Re:Will they attempt this in the EU as well? (Score:2, Insightful)
You're confusing the colloquial with the legal.
A vertical monopoly is one in which the retailer is also the wholesaler is also the producer is also... etc. Definitions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but just to give you an idea with two examples:
Norway had a liqour-monopoly some years ago. The EU forced them to split the institution into retail and an import, thereby making it legal for any other import company to sell alcohol to the liqour -retail- stores. This opened the market and it was, in all honesty, a long overdue process because the monopoly was there for moral and historical reasons.
HP tried to sue everything under the sun for copying the software on their ink cartridges. The EU found it fishy that one supplier should be able to sell its printers AND force any others to not be able to sell ink. They told HP in so many words to either drop the lawsuits or pick whether they would sell printers OR ink. This (oversimplification) opened the market and benefited consumers.
This also illustrates the differences between civil and common law systems, I think, though this is a bit specious. Americans would read those two examples and come up with 500 ways to "game" each verdict and poke holes in it. Europeans would accept what the intent was and act accordingly. This is really one of the major differences between corporate culture in our two continents even if there is a gigantic overlap.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Blah (Score:3, Insightful)
No. I'm tired of geeks Just not getting it, or getting it wrong every single time.
I remember the iPhone bashing in 2007, and how could anyone possibly buy an iPhone, it only has two buttons and a touch screen! But in 2012, that design is "obvious."
How can anyone take nerds seriously anymore?
Re:Apple is the new Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)