I know that this may well be quite a long story, but I will go through the ins and outs as to why I disagree with iPods, the iPod culture and disgusting advertising techniques by the Apple Corporation.
This is not my first message on here [anti-ipod.co.uk], I have left plenty over the times. But I really need to express my opinion here because I feel the iPod situation is getting out of hand in a very serious way.
Firstly, before I go into full details, I would like to say that all you current iPod owners, you have your own opinions and I respect that. I am not ranting on at the people who own iPods, just the products themselves.
It all started on October the 23rd, 2001. On the main release of the world's very first iPod creation, the population only started to draw little attention to the product. At this time the mobile media market was starting to rise, with companies providing brands before and after the creation. This was a big birth for the digital media player market, and this would set to revolutionise the music industry forever. But things didn't go as planned in the end.
Apple's iPod was meant to be the perfect combination between the Apple Mac and the portable device. This would pair nicely with the two, and promoted the Apple Macintosh machines themselves, because they were seeing a very steady decline within the computing market.
Now, everywhere you go, you can't seem to escape the product. On every train you travel on, in every city centre you walk through, and the people you know, you will always find these players being used. This is not a bad thing in general; modern technology growth is always good in a society of change.
But this can depend on tactics and how they are undertaken to bring this digital player to people.
There are plenty of things that need to be covered, including advertising, the price of the products, the specifications of the products and how they can benefit the customer for what they pay for.
Marketing is a very big thing where the Apple Corporation is concerned. They rely on 90% of sales to be generated through advertising, just like many other companies, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's. There are set procedures that need to be adhered to to be able to bring the message across, in a non-invasive way. Television advertising is a small output for iPod revenue, because most of iPod's products are advertised in press, on billboards and word-of-mouth by review magazines and the media in general.
If you are travelling throughout the major cities (In the United Kingdom mostly), you will pass buss shelters and billboards advertising the iPod brand. The iPod brand is like many other brands that offer a trend, (eg. Adidas or Nike).
The marketing is very well laid with iPod, but there are many factors that are bad on the company.
For example, they use subliminal messaging within television advertisements. Adverts for all sorts of products can offer images and clips of iPods, just to make the company look better than it is, because of an overflow of fashion and high-end company "street cred". One example was a car advertisement, I can't remember the make of the car, but there were a shot within the first 10 second sequence which gave a close-up of a person using an iPod. But the burning question is... What does this have to do with cars?
It's all advertising. This is why you never see much direct television advertising. It's because they reflect the advertising in other ways, by incorporating them into advertisements for things that are totally different.
You would be surprised that details this small can influence you to do something totally different.
Because of iPod's brand, they charge a lot of money for the advertising, incorporated within the other brands. This is a partnership with the company; however the company makes revenue, the happier they become overall.
But this isn't all of it. Just like the cinema factor, About 10 years ago cinemas would incorporate subliminal messaging on behalf of major companies within movies, to persuade you to buy their products. For example, an advertisement still for Pepsi could flash up, it's only 2 frames long, not enough to see but enough to pick up. The next thing you know, you are craving it.
I will lead on to the craving situation of the iPods in a moment.
There's no getting away that iPod's advertising is very clever, sneaky and pursuasive. But the incorporation and integration to other advertisements irrelevant to the product itself is not a good thing. They are just jumping on the bandwagon to use their company to promote Apple's products, while in turn taking money form the advertising departments of the Major companies just for showing the product in the first place.
The popularity of the iPod is constantly increasing, and the sales of these devices are increasing daily. They are becoming a household name within the music industry, a well recognised name which advertises it self.
It is a very bad thing that the iPod culture is blowing other devices out of the water, just for the brand and fashion reasons. It's not at all fair on the other companies that are ploughing millions, if not more, into research into their different brands. The other companies are supporting people by making everyone different and unique, as to keep your general personality different from everyone else. This is good because being unique is a good thing. But Apple are going against this, branding everyone the same, and forcing everyone to be the same and have the same products as well as buy their equipment and make themselves more money.
The Apple Company are targeting it's customers. I know for a fact, working for a major company as a customer care advisor, a company that sells iPods, that iPod's customer service is absolutely dreadful. I have to speak to them on a regular basis and I get nowhere. As I'm having trouble, it must be a lot worse for the customer, should they need help and have the only option to take it on their own back.
With iPod everyone is branded the same. Every single iPod product on the market that requires earphones always has white ones, and there's no variety for the customer. The earphones are the same make, colour and specification, although can be changed at their own will. Most manufacturers (Eg. Sony), offer a wide variety of earphones for bundling with portable players. Apple doesn't offer this, it's a way of saying "...If you change your earphones, YOU pay, because you're not using our ones".
This is why people just stick to the ones they have got. They use the issue I have just mentioned to you as a cover up for legal reasons, I shall explain in a minute. Everyone's earphones are the same because they see every customer as an advertising post which is very unfair on the customer. If you are wearing the white fashionable earphones then people will know its iPod straight away, and can persuade people to buy one. I know it seems a little far fetched, but you'll see what I mean when the rapid growth of these devices increase substantially.
Where the legal side is concerned, they were told to advise the customers to change the earphones to prevent fraud. They did as such, but in a way to keep the customer with the ones that they have already. This was just to cover their backs really. This is purely because if they get stolen they will have to buy another one, which means more business for them. The more addicted they can get their customers, the more they buy, the higher chance of having their iPods stolen and the more likely that they will buy a replacement which equals more money to them.
Battery life used to be a serious problem with the first generation units. They would die on a regular basis leaving people without entertainment. Replacing the battery would cost a lot of money, and in some cases, it would just be cheaper to buy a new one than have the battery repaired.
When looking at the functions of an iPod and what it holds, you really don't seem to get much for your money. The display is very basic, the standard iPods are just black and white, and the way menus are laid out, along with functions and connectivity are quite frankly, poor.
I feel very sorry for those who own iPods, because they've been roped into this underground world of deceit.
You must always remember, there are better players out there on the market. I am not telling you to just throw your iPod in the bin; you just need to think about what I said. Don't be a sheep, be a leader. You are your own person, there's plenty more out there, it's just a case of finding the right one.
Anyway I'm sorry it's been long, but just bear this in mind. It's never good to be too fashionable, being unique is fashion in itself.
http://www.anti-ipod.co.uk/articles.php?subaction=showfull&id=1173748929&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&
