Dan Warne24 July 2008, 4:10 PM
Will your $500 iPod speakers work with your iPhone 3G? Don't count on it.
In tech circles there has always quip that comes up every time someone talks about a "standard": someone in the group always pipes up, "yeah, but which version of the standard?" The joke, of course, being that every standard has umpteen different implementations by different manufacturers. Bluetooth is a classic example… a "standard" which was implemented differently by every manufacturer, so, for the first few years, Bluetooth devices often wouldn't connect to each other.
For all its flaws, one advantage Apple should have is that since it designs its hardware, software and sometimes the standards, all its stuff should work together well.
If you buy a pair of speakers with a 30-pin, official Apple-certified iPod dock connector, surely it should work with iPods that have 30 pin iPod sockets. Don't count on it. Increasingly, angry purchasers of the iPhone 3G are discovering that their accessories don't work with it — even ones that used to work fine with the recently released iPod Touch.
Bose's pricey but excellent iPod speakers don't work with the iPhone 3G, for example. Correction — they do work for playing music, but if an appointment reminder appears on the iPhone 3G's screen, the speakers let out a frighteningly loud pop as if they are about to blow out, even if the music is playing softly. Also, the speakers cannot charge the iPhone, because Apple changed the iPhone 3G's charging system to no longer accept 12v charging on the Firewire pin in the dock connector. It now only accepts 5v USB charging. The same goes for Logitech's MM50 iPod speakers.
I have a Pioneer car stereo — DEHP8950BT — which cost me an arm and a leg because it includes both Bluetooth and iPod connectivity in the one device (most car head units require you to buy add-on boxes that provide imperfect integration with Bluetooth and/or iPod.) It works fine with my third-generation iPod and my iPod Nano, but it can't cope with any iPod Touch or iPhone, simply displaying an error on the screen.
All three companies named here — Bose, Logitech and Pioneer — are premium Apple partners. Unlike the cheap no-name companies that have pirated the Apple connector, these three companies have paid Apple's expensive licencing fees to get the connector properly and ensure they meet all of Apple's standards.
Like any company in the fiercely competitive consumer electronics industry, Apple constantly looks for ways to cut costs of manufacturing. Perhaps it changed the iPhone 3G to USB-only charging because it can be done with a chip that is 50c cheaper than the one that accepts both USB and Firewire. But it screws over everyone who has bought hundreds of dollars' worth of iPod accessories that no longer work with the new model.
There could, of course, be a more sinister motive for Apple doing this: with many suppliers of iPod accessories, Apple has a revenue sharing agreement. If companies want to use the officially licensed iPod connector and avoid being sued, they have to provide a percentage of the product's selling price to Apple. So, instead of paying a $2 per unit fee to get the connector, they could be paying x% of whatever their product costs. The more expensive the product, the more money Apple makes. The more times you have to buy those iPod speakers over and over again, the more money Apple manages to milk from you over time.
I have one message to Apple, and it's in the title of this article. Stop changing the F!@#ing iPod connector or risk frustrating your loyal customers to the point where they don't consider Apple for their next media player purchase.