A new patent has been recently filed by Apple that will enable it to sell it’s premium machines at cheaper prices under a condition that the buyer is willing to watch or listen to compulsory adverts. What makes this patent even worse is that the adverts will require a response to ensure that the user understood the advert, for example having to key in a special sequence of keys or perform a certain operation before the user is allowed to use the device.

Advertising is often annoying and time wasting, generally we often avoid or completely ignore it. If one has bought a device, then there should be no usage limits or advertising conditions imposed, it is reasonable to see adverts on free online services as this is the only source of revenue for these services and further more there are no subscription fees or payment terms, but the idea of forced adverts on a paid product will leave a bitter taste in many mouths. forced advertising is surely a way to develop a disgruntled user base. Given that many of Apple’s patents never get used commercially, it seems that this patent is backed by Steve Jobs himself, CEO of Apple, therefore the company is probably quite serious in bringing this kind of technology to life.

The hinderence of development and freedom of use created by proprietary software has possibly gone to far if the software developed under this patent actually finds it’s way to the stores. When that time comes perhaps we will see an explosion in the open source software domain, where Linux adoption will radically increase. It is a bleak concept, that one company is going to such extremes in controlling it’s users. What further measures will they decide to take in the future, perhaps develop a file format that will hold your data at ransom until you pay a regular license fee. Which is behavior currently seen in certain computer virus programs. The idea isn’t too far fetched as Microsoft has hinted at releasing a “pay as you go” office suite, which essentially means you can only use the suite to open, view and edit your documents if your fees are snuggly deposited into Microsoft coffers. The possibilities could easily cause mass hysteria as users could realize that they are in for some bad news.

Microsoft has received alot of negative marketing due to its proprietary nature and apparent lack of respect for the GPL license over recent years, however it remains fact that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft yet curiously their severely strict usage restrictions don’t seem to bother their users. Will their fanatic following blindly accept yet another massive restriction of usage? Will this move inspire people to perhaps see the danger of placing their data in a limit imposed environment? Has the propriety model gone to far should this technology become mainstream?

Perhaps Apple has been blinded by the fanatic praise it receives or perhaps this all is not what it seems, but the idea of forced advertising and further more blocking access to your data stored on your Apple device should you not pay attention to the forced advertising seems quite ludicrous anti anti democratic!

Tags: Apple, Branding, Desktop, GPL, Open Source, Software, Technology

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 12:34 and is filed under Software. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.