[clebin]

What can I say?

Thanks a ****ing bunch Apple. I'm well pi'ssed off about this.

Chris

[CheesePuff]

Originally posted by clebin:
What can I say?

Thanks a ****ing bunch Apple. I'm well pi'ssed off about this.

Chris

How come? While I do not like the look of the new iPod too much, it will grow on me. (Getting a 10 GB model). I want to see what Parachute looks like.

I'm using iTunes 4.0 right now... seems great! Getting 30 second demos of each song in high quality is very nice too, and the store is designed very well. Not to mention AAC import now from CD's!

[hellmachine]

Originally posted by mism:
agreed, not happy at all with the US only policy, licensing I guess. The record (DVD, games etc) companies aren't happy unless they can control who buys what, when and where.

i only say sherlock. most features don�t work in europe and i paid the same as the us guys, so i want the same!

[clebin]

Originally posted by CheesePuff:
How come?

Becuase while you're in NY and able to take advantage of the music store, I'm in Britain and have a useless feature on my iTunes to go along with useless features in Sherlock and iPhoto and US spelling.

It gets to me that companies like Apple habitually blame poor European sales for any downturn, but don't make the effort. So we don't get AppleStores and we get obviously US-style TV adverts...

It maybe that the Music Store will come, which is why they didn't take it out, but how's about a Coming Soon at the least?

If a company like Apple wants our money, then I'd like to see them employing a few more people over here to localise everything and provide us with the same level of support. Otherwise, all the money just goes over to Cupertino and we get 2nd rate service.

Chris

[littlegreenspud]

And to think I came within one click of ordering a new iPod.

I'll wait now...

[clebin]

OK - I'm seeing a 'not available in your country yet' instead of the 504 error I was getting before. That's the Coming Soon I wanted, but still not really good enough.

Chris

[dfiler]

Some of you are a little too impatient, combative, and selfish.
(No, not the rest of you )

It�s reasonable for a company to initially bring a product to market only in the geo-polictical region in which it is based.

The alternative is to delay release in ALL regions until work on the last and least important localizations are complete. Staggered or partial releases are motivated by manufacturing capabilities, trade-laws, and economic factors not by alleged and evil patriotism.

[Logic]

OK, I'm very disappointed in Apple now! Why the F*ck can't they make this a worldwide deal or at least let Europe in on this from the start!?!??!

</rant>

OK, but I was wondering about 1 thing though. What is this AAC and in what way is it better than what was before(whatever that was)? And all the songs I imported before from my CD collection, should I trash them and import them again?

I'm a bit confused and would be glad if someone could take the time to answer these questions

Thanks!

[littlegreenspud]

dfiler - in the UK we are STILL waiting for the ability to order prints form iPhoto!

There are 'staggered' releases and 'might get around to it one day - maybe' releases.

Sigh

[dfiler]

Originally posted by littlegreenspud:
dfiler - in the UK we are STILL waiting for the ability to order prints form iPhoto!

There are 'staggered' releases and 'might get around to it one day - maybe' releases.

Sigh

Acknowledged.
And I think your repsonse of 'Sigh ' is quite appropriate.

Sorry for the rant... it seems that sometimes people don't realize that these are business decisions. If a product isn't brought to a particular market, it is because of legal-holdups, logistics, or because the anticpated return on investment isn't sufficient. A discussion of these factors would be far more interesting...

[donutogre]

i'm fairly certain that apple does not have the ability to license music out to other countries. i'm pretty sure that if they had the option, they would, but the record companies won't allow it yet. this is really just a test run...only mac users, only the us, to see how it works. if the riaa is happy with the way it is implimented, then it will spread. if not, it will be shut down.

[Appleman]

Rendezvous takes hours to read the other Mac library. Maybe only once, then the next time it works like Steve showed a year(?) ago with the iBook.

Music Store doesn't work outside USA. That really sucks. (Indeed similar to iPhoto ordering print thing: complete shame!).

Music Store doesn't have enough bandwith right now: sad.

Took me two times startup for iTunes to understand I really have QuickTime 6.2 installed in order to have the Preferences for importing as AAC.

The stream on Apple's QuickTime site makes my QuickTime beachballing

But in general of course I do like the change...

[leffo]

Yeah, and think about it like this: when it eventually will come to Europe, we will have a well-tested, well-optimized and overall great-working service already bugtested by the americans. Why not let someone else do the dirtywork?

[clebin]

Originally posted by dfiler:
Some of you are a little too impatient, combative, and selfish.

Yeah, but like I said before - what about the Sherlock channels, the lack of UK localisation, the US dictionary until 10.2, the AppleStores, the iPhoto prints, the US adverts, the higher prices on Macs and software....?

It isn't a case of being impatient, combative OR selfish. If you'd been a Mac-owner outside of the US for the last 7 years, you might understand. If someone from Europe wants to come along and say that, I would respect that opinion more than someone who has no personal experience of it.

Chris

[dfiler]

Americans also have to wait longer for imports than they do for local products. Likewise, they also pay higher prices on imported goods than on those produced locally. Some products never make it to the states at all. This includes asian consumer electronics, japanese video games, french wine, european cars, films... the list could go on and on.

It seems like you've just discovered the difference between imports and domestically produced merchandise.

[Appleman]

Originally posted by dfiler:
Americans also have to wait longer for imports than they do for local products. Likewise, they also pay higher prices on imported goods than on those produced locally. Some products never make it to the states at all. This includes asian consumer electronics, japanese video games, french wine, european cars, films... the list could go on and on.

It seems like you've just discovered the difference between imports and domestically produced merchandise.

That is absolute nonsense: since when can you download French wine? European cars? Asian consumer electronics?

We are talking about software here.

There are plenty of places here in The Netherlands where you can upload your digital photo's and get them mailed back to you when printed, it's a matter of business contracts.
We do have the Apple Store here in The Netherlands (and other European countries) where you for instance can buy QuickTime Pro as a software download, QuickTime MPEG-2. So why not implement the Music Store in Europe?

Before Philips (inverter of casette tapes & CD's) sold it's record devision, it was one of the bigger record companies in the world, located in The Netherlands. Napster was sold to the Germans, etc.

We know what internet business is, it's not something related to the States only.

Apple hardware is really much more expensive then in the States.
If you consider a USA dollar equal to the European euro, just check for yourself at any European Apple Store and find out for yourself.
Or do the math with a little help from Calculator's convert currency ability.

Worse example: I fly to the States, buy a PowerBook, pay importtaxes in Europe when coming back and even win some hundreds of dollars, price of airplane ticket included!
(Most) European Apple hardware is made in Ireland, which still is Europe.

Oh, and btw, I prefer Spanish wine, and Chilean wine above French...

[clebin]

Originally posted by dfiler:
Americans also have to wait longer for imports than they do for local products. Likewise, they also pay higher prices on imported goods than on those produced locally. Some products never make it to the states at all. This includes asian consumer electronics, japanese video games, french wine, european cars, films... the list could go on and on.

It seems like you've just discovered the difference between imports and domestically produced merchandise.

A global company who thinks of its products as 'imports' everywhere outside the US is not going to do very well.

Nobody thinks of Vauxhalls (part of General Motors) or Fords as imports. Same with shops like Woolworths - most people think it's a British company.

That's because the company gives its international offices power and autonomy - because of this, they've become part of the British psyche and are more successful for it. Microsoft tries its best at this too.

So if Nintendo takes longer than it should to release games in US format (and longer still in European PAL format) when Christmas comes around and there's no big releases, Sony and Microsoft steal market share from them...

Apple still thinks of itself as this little silicon valley company, and that's stupid in this day and age.

Chris

[dfiler]

Originally posted by clebin:
A global company who thinks of its products as 'imports' everywhere outside the US is not going to do very well.
...
Apple still thinks of itself as this little silicon valley company, and that's stupid in this day and age.

Chris

Ah, thank you... this is at the heart of the matter
(not a who-invented-what boasting match)

While Apple's domestic emphasis may turn out to be a poor business decision, I don't think it has been proven as such yet. Companies have failed with both domestically oriented and internationally oriented strategies.

Globalization is not necessarily to a company�s benefit. Strategies, exclusively aimed at improving market-share caused the US tech industry to hemorrhage billions of dollars in the late 1990s. While it may be possible to jump headfirst into other markets, it also may be better to enter those markets slowly, building a healthy corporate structure and a sustainable business model.

In this case, I�m sure media-conglomerates and copyright laws influenced Apple�s evaluation of potential international profits.

Could it be a dumb decision? Maybe. But I�ve yet to see any real analysis or evidence supporting this conclusion.

[Appleman]

Any way, with 2 to 3 % marketshare, who gives a damn?

All windoze users keep using Kazaa etc. Apple isn't going to change it that soon.