Rant: You said it, Steve…
You just said it (again) at D8, Mr. Jobs:
I think people are willing to pay for content. I believed it in music, I believe it in media and I believe it in news content.
So here’s my question: where is all the damn content that we’re so eager to pay for? It’s okay for Apple to make everything available in the US - it’s your home, after all. But hey, there’s a whole world out there, full of people who would love to rent films, or buy, you know, all those books you’ve been promising on the iPad.
Why is it that I can still only find ancient, public-domain books from Project Gutenberg in the iBookstore? After all, the iPad has been out for over a month now, and you’ve been preparing this for ages. Those books that are on sale in brick-and-mortar bookshops here, in English. Is it just that all those piss-and little Euro-trash countries aren’t interesting markets? Or what’s the issue?
If the problem is somehow with managing your international stores, well, then just let us create accounts in your US shop and buy our stuff there, or something!
And the same goes for software: what is so odd about someone in Switzerland wanting, for example, Dragon Dictate for iPhone or iPad? Think nobody here speaks English? Think again!
And don’t get me started on the Apple web site. Apple.ch gives me a choice of two languages (German and French), for a country that has four official languages. And then redirects me to some pages over on apple.com anyway. Why can’t I be in Switzerland and read your shop pages in English, given that it’s the same machines being sold? Argh.
Phew. Just had to get that off my chest. As much as I love the various Apple machines I own, as much can I get really upset over the brain-deadness of some of the underlying software ecosystem. “Pond” is a much better word, I think.
