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Originally Posted by Penforhire
Phogg, that's all very nice until it becomes the norm and you can't read non-redacted texts. Call me sensitive. On this topic I am. Or put it this way, the iPhone is the hottest mobile device in history. Something like this has the potential to influence other outlets.
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Phogg: Apples closed system cost them the majority PC business market twenty five years ago when they wouldn't open up development to third parties overmuch. They will always relegate themselves to being merely a niche market (and an overpriced one). They not only are not the only option, usually they aren't even the highest tech one.
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Such policies do concern me, and I do worry about them becoming a trend. Still, I think it is worth noting that books of similar and far more mature content are readily available, and directly marketed to iPhone users who have Stanza and/or eReader. That Apple does not want to promote such content does not bother me at all, so long as they do not restrict my access to it.
I would be more concerned if they were monitoring the content of my iPod, which I believe was in the terms of service for some other reader at some point -- Kindle, was it? Not sure.
On to the point of a niche market... iPhones are one of the best selling phones around, and iPods pretty much own the MP3 player market. As a music retailer they are anything but niche. Macs can certainly be called a niche at less than 10% of the PC market, but I would say calling Apple a niche player overall is pretty silly.
The Bandit