Luxpro Corporation recently filed a lawsuit against Apple in Arkansas for supposedly holding a monopoly in the digital media player market. They claim that Apple knocked their own shuffling model player off of the market. Luxpro's player was unveiled in Germany in the year 2005.
According to the lawsuit, "Apple sent warning letters to other companies doing business with Luxpro demanding that they cease doing business with Luxpro. For example, Apple placed significant pressure on InterTAN, a subsidiary of U.S.-based consumer electronics giant Circuit City, to drop Luxpro's MP3 players from its retail shelves."
Luxpro is asking for 75,000 US dollars in return. Apple has supposedly not commented on the suit.
Even in Luxpro won, Apple wins huge. Their own sales in the shuffle players is in the millions compared to a measly 75 thousand. I would hope that these claims are not true. I would think much less of Apple as a company if they conducted business in this manner.
An article about the lawsuit.
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2009 Automobiles
The year 2009 will be a notable year for Apple. Over half of the vehicles driving in the US, will now have iPod integration. This is a much more stable and reliable way to connect your iPod in the car, unlike an FM transmitter. Previously, this was an option in only some of the higher end/luxury models. Several car companies are now making iPod integration standard for all of their models. A large contract that was signed a couple years ago has aided much to this statistic. Apple had signed a contract with US Mazda, Ford, and General Motors to have the majority of models contain "bona fide iPod integration". Things are still looking quite high and up for the iPod and its control of the digital media player market.
A couple articles on this topic to peruse:
1) Apple iPod Integration coming to Ford, GM, Mazda
2) American vehicles offer iPod support
Above: iPod integration in a recent American made Chevrolet model.
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Campus Connection- literally!
Abilene Christian University in my home state of Texas recently had a technology change for incoming freshman. In addition to forms and papers, and parking permits, each freshman received an iPhone or iPod Touch. The choice between the two was theirs. The payment for these was calculated into tuition and student fees.
Students from the school say they get plenty of use out of the devices. Some teachers ask the students to pull them out in class to look up pertinent information. Students also have access to a campus document system on their devices. Through this, they can see syllabi's, spreadsheets, podcasts, and other things. Many students used a 3D campus map and list of their classes to figure out when and where to go at the beginning of the semesters.
This is a very clever and modern approach this school has taken. I hope to see this pop up more throughout the US. This can be a very good way to keep the level of connectedness fair and constant, and it gives the school a way of always being in touch with their learning students.
An article about this technology policy at Abilene Christian.
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