“The iPhone will be prevented from directly downloading music or video itself, even though it is a wireless broadband-capable device,” according to Fortune’s Brent Schlender.
This really puts a damper on iPhone’s irresistibility element. If you’re paying $500-$600 up-front for the iPhone plus a monthly cell phone service fee, you should be permitted to download whatever the hell you want, I think.
“To get songs or shows into the iPhone, you still have to tether it, via a docking cradle, to a Mac or a PC, even though it easily should be able to handle this task all by itself,” said Schlender.
Schlender thinks Steve Jobs’ pro-consumer, anti-DRM rant might have been just “a gambit to force Apple’s content suppliers to renegotiate their deals and make it possible to download music and video directly onto the iPhone.”
What You Can Do
- Not buy an iPhone
- Call Apple’s Public Relations office @ (408) 974-2042 and tell them how much this sucks
- Deal with it 🙁