The Golden Screw

Quite some time ago, I read a book about the history of IBM. Back when computers were mysterious behemoths residing mainly in laboratories or corporate computer rooms rather than compact little boxes on the desks of the average person, IBM ruled the computer roost without challengers.

One of the things they used to do to keep production streamlined was make one fully functional monster machine model which they sold to all customers at different prices. Depending on the functionality the customer required and how much they were willing to pay, they disabled parts of the machine to customize it to the specifications the customer ordered. That meant there was a computer with far greater functionality sitting in offices that was intentionally hobbled so as not to do all it could do.

When the customer was ready to pay for an upgrade, an IBM technician was called in to perform the task. While the companies believed they were getting new software or hardware installations, the truth was that the tech person was actually just turning "the golden screw". That is, they enabled some functionality which was always there but turned off. This way of doing business allowed IBM to get additional revenue while investing very little in the products they'd already sold. They called this turning the golden screw because it was profitable and literally sometimes involved the turn of a screw, though it probably also at least carried the subtext of gouging the customer.

Recently, I have experienced my own firsthand encounter with a golden screw though not at the hands of IBM. My experience was at the hands of Apple. The CH bought an iPod Touch around spring of last year and has been using it for its basic functions since then. He told me that he'd have to upgrade its OS at a price in order to enable it to use other applications. While I'm accustomed to paying for OS upgrades on my computer, I pay for them in order to get the OS itself to acquire new functionality. For instance, you get an back-up utility, a better search function, faster operation, or a better interface. The OS itself is improved and it has nothing to do with running other software as the OS generally doesn't hold you back from running other programs made by other companies. It's the responsibility of Adobe, for instance, to make Photoshop run under the current OS, not for Apple to make their OS so it run Photoshop.

I have never needed to upgrade a device or computer in order to be able to run someone else's software. In the case of the iPod Touch/iPhone, one has to pay for an OS upgrade in order to get the device to run third party apps, not because some new desired functionality is coming with the device's operating system. That means that Apple is essentially turning the golden screw. The device's hardware is capable of running such apps, but it is hobbled in its ability to run other software until you buy an upgrade you don't want.

Yes, I know there was some added functionality with the new OS, but it's mainly for Apple's benefit like being able to use the AppStore and MobileMe (essentially enabling us to pay for more services by paying for an upgrade) or fixing some of the shortcomings of previous versions of their software, particularly the e-mail and web browser. In other words, we're paying to get what should have been in place from the start, rather than getting some great shiny and new stuff with a very few unexciting exceptions. The only "improvement" we wanted was to enable third party application installation.

Frankly, this strikes me as incredibly lame on Apple's part. They squeeze another 1200 yen out of us because we want to be able to read books using free software like Stanza. If we were getting some great new OS capability on the iPod Touch, that'd be one thing. If Apple were selling us Stanza, that'd be another, but they're just wheedling a little more money out of us so we can install a third party application and can offer some software polishes for some imperfectly implemented apps with the customer footing the bill. Apple used to offer OS upgrades for free, even major ones. Now, they dominate the MP3 market sufficiently to give us the golden screw just like IBM once had the mainframe market in its back pocket.

Separated at Birth

Yes, we watch Roseanne. What's it to you?

The first DVD player my husband and I ever purchased was a Pioneer. We bought it from the U.S. through some sort of grey market distributor and had to manually reset the region code through a "secret" sequence of buttons every time we wanted to swap between Region 1 (U.S.) and Region 2 (Japan) discs. The player cost somewhere in the ballpark of $400 and lasted about 5 years, though it sputtered long and hard through the last one. It frequently spat discs back out at us as if it were coughing and wheezing its dying breaths.

By the time that player went belly up, things in the DVD player market had changed. Players were cheaper and makers didn't have to go to such great lengths to hide their multi-region functionality. My husband and I didn't want to trek to Akihabara ("Tokyo's Electric Town") to track down a new player, especially since we'd heard some needed little tweaks to become "all region" players. The idea of removing the back from a new player and messing about (as well as violating the warranty) wasn't appealing, nor was having to ask clerks if they carried grey market machines. The truth is that the clerks in Akihabara shops seem to come in two flavors and you can't trust what you are told anyway. There are people who know everything and can tell you anything and people who are clueless and make a big show of investigating your question. However, they really just trot off to a boss who also is clueless and tell you "no" because it's too much hassle to find out the truth. They have all the appearance of being helpful and competent but actually are just putting on a well-meaning act to fulfill their role as a dutiful worker. Since neither flavor of clerk is clearly marked for your convenience, it was just easier to buy a cheap Chinese-made machine from the FBC (Foreign Buyer's Club).

This player was only ¥8,000 and guaranteed to just play any damn disc from anywhere in the world out of the box and it was much smaller than our Pioneer player. However, that player went belly up recently after just two and a half years of use. For the price though, it was equivalent value for money to the Pioneer player...and it didn't take nearly as long to die, so it was less frustrating at the end. Though I'm not happy with the product life cycle issues (waste), I do hope to recycle the player by handing it off to the trucks that patrol the neighborhood asking for dead electronics items. They strip them or fix them so the components aren't completely wasted.

Siblings of the same parents who changed their names between births.

Last week we found that a similar player was still available from the FBC (at a slightly lower price, no less) but this one was the "Felicis" brand instead of "Fuze". However, it is clearly the same player as it has almost the same design, the documentation was very similar, and the circular display is absolutely identical in how if functions. Also, the box now has a Region 2 code symbol on it and says in Japanese that it is meant to play that region's discs. I'm guessing that the company name and packaging were modified to play down the fact that this player is designed to circumvent all of the (ridiculous) coding meant to stop people from buying discs at a much lower price from other countries.

However, the player is the same as before. You pop in whatever disc and it just works. I've heard recently that there's a move to stop region-free players. I can imagine this is motivated mainly by corporate pressure to keep markets under the thumb of particular companies and to allow them to sell their massively overpriced discs in countries like Japan. I have to wonder if players like the one we're buying will slip in under the radar as it can be claimed that they are meant to play only one region (and are labeled as such), but just so happen to play other discs as well. One can only hope it stays this way.