Categories: Techtoday
In light of the news that iTunes has finally opened its door to Asia, its obvious that Apple is prepared to make even more money than every before from the mesmerized masses of monetarily-enhanced Asians. For my part, I felt that getting access to content from the Philippines, China, and Malaysia is long overdue. Considering how popular the brand is in Asia (and how much of the hardware is produced there) it seems somewhat odd that Apple waited for so long before making the iTunes Store fully accessible to country-specific content. The payment schemes, with some countries being billed in U.S. dollars, was perfected for years, with plenty of Apple users in Singapore, Shanghai, and Manila purchasing apps online despite having access to bootleg content in many places (for around $1.50 per app or $8.00 download-all-you-can).
Although I'm not a slave to Apple, their online store, and Apple products (I have a certain amount of loyalty to Linux, Google, and Microsoft), I'm pretty happy about Apple's service and concede that in some ways they deserve their success. Despite all the criticisms leveraged against the iTunes as an application and the business model Apple uses, the free content that can be accessed using this beloved/hated media player (e.g. iTunes U) adds extra value to a competent product like the iPad and iPod Touch. My appetite and ability to purchase and consume media is very, very limited, but it's nice to know living in Asia doesn't deprive me of choice. Now, let me take out my HSBC card and purchase that Color Me Badd album . . .
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