Loko’s Domain You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

It’s official: Apple and AT&T gave the middle finger to their loyal existing customers this week. There isn’t much to say in regards to the reason why it’s a big middle finger, but it’s more of a question as to why should everyone care so much. No one really expects AT&T and Apple to give loyal customers deep discounts over new customers, that’s the way of the business world.

So, the new iPhone hardware will be hundreds of dollars more for existing customers to upgrade their phone. That’s fine. There are dozens of examples where this kind of new-customer-first policy takes place. One that comes to mind is a video store. Everyone has seen the big bold letters advertising 50% off rentals for 30 days to all new customers, but what about the veteran who has rented over 2,000 titles at New Release wall 5-day rental prices?

I could give more examples, but I’m sure everyone will immediately relate this behavior to many other companies. It’s nothing new, it’s just business. Big Tabacco doesn’t care about the black lunged, existing smokers, they want the new and healthy. The difference between other companies and AT&T/Apple is that there is a fine contract between the consumer and a fancy new gadget that will be a quarter of the price after ten weeks.

The biggest insult is that AT&T could give their iPhone customers MMS, and should have before 3.0, but they refused all this time and will possibly push it out over the summer. They’ll charge for tethering, possibly adding it onto the unlimited data plan, causing the already pricey data plan to become quite a monthly monster.

The WWDC 2009 keynote announcements have stuffed my RSS feeds with enough rehashed news of rabid fanboyism and upset elitists in regards to the same three announcements for me to care. I noticed Apple fans are different. Apparently, no one can be a true Apple fan without appreciating the fact that they will get shat on often.

At least with Microsoft, there is no mystery. We knew Vista wasn’t great, but people bought it anyway. There went all our “ancient” 2005 software and printers that have been in the family for generations. We knew all of this before upgrading to Vista and many have regretted it ever since, but the fact remains that consumers did not have to buy into Vista and even the techie novice knew about many flaws beforehand.

While it may not be quality on release, what operating system is without a few updates to harden? Windows XP wasn’t quite ready until Service Pack 2, but Microsoft didn’t charge each end user to apply the update. Should Microsoft follow Apple in their footsteps and put a price on Windows 7 Service Pack 1? Chaos would erupt. Satan himself would rise from the depths of hell to congratulate Ballmer on a job well done.

Speaking of which, Apple loves to take cheap shots stating that Windows 7 is nothing but a polished Windows Vista, but how can a company that charges for service packs for the same exact operating system over a period of eight years have any room to talk about a rival company charging for a completely new operating system? What a double standard!

Windows 7 is not Vista 2.0. I’ve been using Windows 7 since January and I’ve been thoroughly impressed by it. Microsoft giving Windows 7 Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 for Vista owners is also a great incentive. While Snow Leopard upgrades are to be sold for only $29.99, I still cannot justify a service pack update going retail for just a few system enhancements.

Should we really have to pay any money to be able to give our desktop more of a brushed metal theme or to take it away in a future update with something more unified? What about a smaller footprint for the operating system? Ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to blast Mac OS X. Sure, OS X has come a long way, but I’d rather use another open source Unix-like environment that allows Wine, which is fantastic software. Wine is rather experimental with OS X currently, but Apple could really help out the community, and possibly themselves, by embracing the Windows emulation software.

Why buy a completely different Office version specifically for the Mac when everyone already has pirated Office 2003 for Windows? Imagine the Switch commercials!

Speaking of switching, Apple is beginning to look like a pack of goons without some puppet CEO to hold up shiny new products. How will Apple be without Jobs? That’s easy, look at what they were before Jobs. A history of messy hardware choices and poor customer support. Without Jobs on the job, they have already made some potential costly mistakes at WWDC 2009.

The new MacBook line will be cheaper, powerful, but without a removable battery. That’s pretty bad, so much for executive professionals. Just keep it charging the entire time the MacBook Pro is in use! It’s healthy for the battery.* Also, the little bit about ExpressCard being removed seems a mystery to some, but not to me. Apple has always tried to adopt different technologies, switch it up, and, at times, tackle completely new connections that become unique to their systems.

While it is nice to attempt to be revolutionary and take a different road at certain forks in difficult technological decisions, I think Apple, right now, said silently, “I’ve made a huge mistake.”

Another slap in the face is, of course, the “new” iPhones looking exactly like the “classic” 3G model. I can see the fanboys getting frustrated now! “It’s not iPhone3G! It’s iPhone3GS! Gawd!” Everyone else can imagine that, I’m sure. Though, the only real difference is video recording and that’s too little, too late for the cost of the 3GS.

As for the mud slinging, it won’t end. Without Microsoft and Apple feuding over marketshare, I shudder to think about an alternate universe where we would be right now in terms of home computers. Would they would even be as affordable or easily obtainable as they are now? To think that only certain organizations could afford, or donated, computers, such as libraries and schools. This is a terrible thought, but enough of future-speak and what-if scenarios.

Gadgetry like the iPhone3GS is not special, nothing to clamor over or freak out globally on every tech blog on the internet. There are few apps to truly want and the hardware upgrades just don’t seem worth the cash to upgrade. Too expensive, but still want it? Wait a few weeks and buy three for the price it cost for one during the release weekend.

* – It’s not.