It’s beginning to look like Apple is an autocratic regime run by a power-mad dictator. First Apple goes lawsuit crazy against websites run by full-bore acolytes of the Cult of Mac. Attempting to track down the source of leaks of trade secrets seems legitimate, but attempting the legal smackdown of Apple’s biggest fans, a tactic Apple wouldn’t try against well-heeled outlets that don’t worship at the white plastic altar of all things i-, doesn’t make much business sense. Now Apple Stores are removing all titles from a leading tech publisher because the imprint had the temerity to publish a biography of Our Dear Leader:
John Wiley & Sons, a leading publisher of technology books, said Apple Computer has removed all its titles from the shelves of Apple stores in apparent retaliation for the upcoming publication of a biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Yes, Wiley is publishing iCon Steve Jobs: The Second Greatest Act in the History of Business, but it also publishes Macs for Dummies, written by a NY Times columnist. This comes as Apple is increasingly drawing the ire of the music industry, which thinks it can get a better deal from cell phone carriers eager to sell $3 over-the-air downloads. Given that a disproportionately large share of Apple’s profits come from iPods and the iTunes Music Store, Stevie J. could be managing Apple’s image straight down the tubes of profitability.
Via Virginia Postrel
Listening to (in iTunes, of course) The Chemical Brothers:Leave Home:Singles 93-03[5:06]
[composed and posted with ecto]
