When will Apple stop self-immolating?

I thought that Apple was just stopping a company from trademarking the word pod. Protecting one of their trademarks.

This is a sad story but it is, unfortunately only half a story. Even less than half a story. What’s missing? Okay, the local Apple store, and by extension Apple, is shooting itself in the foot by not having a better policy for data retrieval. But the story could have been very different had the poor schmuck visited an independent dealer. That’s what I did and I got my computer repaired while my drive was sent to a data retrieval site.

Second, is Sony going to give this guy better service if his Viao develops similar problems? Based on the experience of several colleagues I woudn’t bet on it…unless he goes to a local repair site…the same solution he could have gotten for his Mac.

“Self-immolating”
Bet that headline got you lots of hits! But when readers discover that it is essentially hype for a teensy hard-drive failure and an argument against Apple protecting its trademark on “pod” as related to the iPod, then I hope many others will join me in calling you out as a silly hysterical [word deleted by Lee - this is a family/work-friendly blog].

…from Webster’s Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1937 -
pod, a combining form from the Greek podos, signifying a foot.

While a Podcast is not a foot-cast, neither does an iPod have foot-buds. iPod is a product name, like Kleenex or Google. Pod is a word going back several millenia. If Apple does sucessfully trademark pod & podcast (& eventually someone will take it to court & get a decision), then I guess that Microsoft can trademark software (their name is trademarked, isn’t it?) & Amazon demands licensing fees from DC Comics for Wonder Woman.
D’oh!
Love & Peac, Clarence

Thanks, everyone, for your input.

The reason I and several others have chimed in on this whole episode is not JUST because of the recent kerfuffle over the word ‘pod’, but because in the last 18 months many of us PR and Business Communication professionals have noticed an ever-increasing number of instances where Apple have either failed to listen to the marketplace until the clamour is intense (and steadfastly refused to enter into the conversation), or else deliberately hidden behind overly-protective legal barriers.

As advisors and consultants to businesses, the vast majority of those in our PR part of the blogosphere are stunned by Apple’s decisions in how it treats either complaints, criticisms or enquiries about policy from those outside of the mainstream Press.

I am sure I am not alone in using Apple as an example of how NOT to do it.

I have no problem with their designs and advertising, which are exemplary. But my colleagues and I *DO* have concerns about Apple’s PR exposure, and it is to THIS end that we comment about how Apple is seen in the eyes of some of its consumers.

Does it mean, then Clarence, that the inhabitants of the Amazon jungle in South America, being as they are bereft of good legal representation, will soon have to be known as inhabitants of “The Amazon (TM)(R) Book, DVD and Electronic Accessory Jungle”?

David, poor schmuck here. I didn’t go with an independent service center because I’d paid extra for what is laughingly called “AppleCare.” It extends the warranty. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a replacement hard drive when I’ve already paid to have that covered! As for Sony, this is my FOURTH Vaio and I’ve had nothing but outstanding service from Sony ever since I started buying them.

It’s worth noting that all the hoopla over Apple’s cease-and-desist letter has been misinterpreted. The letter went to Podcast Ready, but not to get them to stop using the word podcast,as it turns out. Instead,evidently it’s Podcast Ready’s product, myPodder, that is too close to “iPod,” especially now that myPodder works on the iPod. We do tend to get excited before all the facts are in.