If you are one of the billion people in the world who accept the Apple method of control and, admittedly, the epitome of electronic distribution then Steve Jobs has news for you: they’ll handle your software applications for the iPhone and iTouch as well. No problem. They’ll take it all.

Why? Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen once the SDK finally reaches the masses and those masses clamor to strut their stuff.

Small development and creative firms will try to create the next $1.99 killer application and larger development firms will try to close the gap between business productivity and one of the coolest devices ever created.

Will this mean that there won’t be any freeware?

Of course not, but consider the stronghold of Apple in their distribution of electronic content. They’ll be certain to set strict guidelines surrounding QA, pricing and size than any standalone development shop. And, if they’re going to have the opportunity to charge you for their control, then they should implement best practices to refund or allow credit for items which do not meet specifications or the promise to customers.

The development community, as always, has the say on whether or not they’ll sign on for distribution with Apple. The choice to not join, however, would be detrimental to the bottom line. In reality, it could stop all means of getting the product out the door.

Hello, music lovers.

The Apple iTunes WiFi store is open for business (I downloaded, installed and listened to music last night around 8:00 PM) and I have done everything I can to break it.

DANGER, WILL

We expect Apple to deliver us classy, beautiful, easy to use UI, and they definitely delivered.  This, my friends, is why the latest addition to my iPhone is dangerous. It’s too easy to just get what I want.

Now, I realize that’s the point. I know they’ve been sitting in meetings at APPL wringing their hands and salivating at the sheer thought of millions of people in love with their touch screens and their ability to show off to mall teenagers and corporate c-level geek-at-heart types. Good job.

In a matter of roughly 28 seconds I had searched for an artist (I went with Stone Temple Pilots because I was feeling old-school) and found the acoustic version of Plush (a great song that I don’t care to understand and perhaps one of the best acoustic versions of any rock song by the original artist. The closest thing to it, in my opinion, is In Your Eyes –originally performed by Peter Gabriel– and remade in the incredible acoustic form by Jeffrey Gains).

If you have an iPhone and a WiFi connection, go have some fun and spend a couple bucks. After all, why the heck did you buy that thing if you weren’t already sold on the abilities?

There are two very recent purchases that I’ve made (or made on my behalf) that have both become fodder for class-action-type melodrama:

• The discontinuation, and subsequent fallout of the 4Gb iPhone.
• The discontinuation, and subsequent fallout of the GM OnStar Analog Verizon Service.

They are not, however, being handled the same way. For those pining away for retribution at the hands of Mr. Jobs and company, this comes as a good piece of news. For those who are flat-out annoyed and willing to throw their pencils at the windows of the Detroit Uppities, well, you’re out of luck.

You see, Apple decided that even though it did something within it’s full spectrum of rights as a corporation, they bowed to the consumer and decided that they shouldn’t let this whole thing get out of hand. GM, however, said “hey, man. It’s not our fault we built this system based on an archaic and cheap, but useless technology just so we could get some phone numbers and cheap service costs from the nation’s largest carrier at the time….” (or something to that effect).

Apple didn’t do anything wrong. There are at least a couple hundred thousand people who disagree with me (including my business parter), but the fact of the matter is that they have every right to adjust to the market; this is exactly what they did.

They chose a pain point when they started the sales cycle and it went over just fine. People were so enamored by the clever technology that it made the purchase justified. So why isn’t it still justified? Because, of course, Steve decided he wanted to make sure that his goal of a million by Christmas was fulfilled and the only real way to do that was to cut the inflated price and “go for it”.

The other side of the equation is the side that’s actually the more irate: the ones who bought the 4GB model. To be fair, there were two reasons why people bought this model:

• Supply and Demand — The 8GB model was sold out on the day they decided to make their purchase and said, “Heck with it. I’m gettin’ a 4!”
• Pricing — This one is pretty obvious, and these are the ones who should be re-thinking their decision.

The $100 store credit is fantastic. They’ll give you the credit, Mr. and Ms. Irate, and you’ll go barging into their store and do what? Purchase more stuff. Not $100 worth of stuff. More than $100 worth of stuff. Brilliant.

While you’re there, pick me up some new ear buds.

The fallout isn’t bad and, to be fair, and to quote my friend Carl, “They would have forgotten about it in a week, anyway”. Yup. They probably would have.

Apple didn’t need to give out a store credit. Neither did Sony after I bought that $355 DVD player many years ago. (The price eventually went down to $74 at Wal-Mart.)

Just about anything you buy has the price risk associated with it and you should probably beware of any purchase situation. But, above all else, once you get it home and it gets a scratch, be smart.

If you wanted to wait until there was a significant enough upgrade to the already popular iPhone, I’d consider price as one of those major upgrades.

Steve Jobs announced today that not only will there be a $200 drop in price of the iPhone, but that there will only be one iPhone model (the higher-end with 8Gb) to buy. This couldn’t have been orchestrated better. They captured the early adopters (even the skittish ones who only shelled out enough for the 4Gb version and are now a select group of disgruntled early adopters), and when it seemed like they had done what they could to unload the first batch, they cut the price and offer the higher end model for a steal.

That’s right, it’s a bargain. In today’s world of pocket computing, the iPhone still offers a personal experience like nothing else on the market. HTC included, there isn’t anything out there that we’ve seen come close to this.

Consider getting over the network issues by using wi-fi and go out and get one. It appears to us that there aren’t hardly as many dropped calls as they say there are.

In the immortal words of Nestle Pure Life: Go Play.