I’ve seen some bizarre petitions started on people power internet sensation SumOfUs.org but this one is the first to cause me to put fingers to keyboard. First, let’s see what I’m making all the fuss about…
****, Apple is about to rip off every one of its customers.Again. If the rumours are true, the new iPhone 7 will have a non-standard, proprietary headphone jack — making every pair of headphones on earth useless. Not only will this force iPhone users to dole out additional cash to replace their hi-fi headphones, it will singlehandedly create mountains of electronic waste — that likely won’t get recycled. There’s only one reason for this change: to leverage Apple’s market share in order to extract even more profit from its customers. With virtually no third-party manufacturers ready to fill the new market gap, Apple stands to make a killing while we — and our planet — pay the price. This is right out of the Apple corporate playbook. A few years ago it swapped out the original iPod-dock connector with a new one, making countless cords, cables and chargers obsolete — for limited performance improvement. The screws in Apple products can’t even be opened with a traditional screwdriver — making it harder to repair a product you paid for. This decision will also have huge ramifications for climate change. According to the United Nations, up to 90% of the world’s electronic waste is illegally traded or dumped each year. We need to bring more care and attention to this growing issue — not aggravate it through reckless, profit-driven decisions that will deliver countless perfectly useable items straight to the landfill. Tell Apple to respect its customers and our planet. Keep the standard headphone jack. Thanks for all you do, Paul, Angus, Michael, and the rest of the SumOfUs team
********** The iPhone 7 might not come with a standard headphone jack, Quartz, Nov 30, 2015 |
So there we go folks. Rather than exercising consumer power by NOT BUYING A PRODUCT some goon decided that they have been sucked in by the Apple brand so much, that they’d rather start a petition than simply NOT BUY the latest product. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the motivation behind this petition but am I the only one who thinks that to call a petition rather than simply STOP BUYING APPLE PRODUCTS screams like “lunacy”?
Let me know your thoughts below.
