Ah! The iPhone, the device that has made people go bonkers. Keeping my thoughts on the device aside, one of the biggest complaints against the iPhone is the crippled bluetooth support it has. The fact that it cannot send files over bluetooth is considered as one of the major flaws for a cellular device in 2008. I too think so, I hate the fact that a ~22k (gray market) device does not allow me to share pictures I take from my phone to the other phone and vice-versa.
I was reading the newspaper today, Mumbai Mirror to be specific. The Business section carried an article – It’s ringing losses for the mobile content industry. The article says that the sales of mobile oriented content (wallpapers, ringtones, videos & songs) is worth ~500 crores. But they face losses as big as 250 crores due to content piracy. According to Mr. Savio D’Souza, secretary-general Indian Music Industry (IMI) trasnferring copyrighted content over bluetooth is illegal and this is the biggest source of revenue loss due to copyright infringement. He says that, “Mobile-chip piracy comes under provisions 51, 52A, 63, 65 & 65A and poeple who transfer songs & ringtones are liable for punishments under the same act.”
Mr. D’Souza said that his organization has started talks with cellphone manufacturers like Nokia “to adopt measures that block further sharing of copyrighted content on the handsets.” – A line that answers the million dollar question.
The article was about losses incurred due to piracy by cell-phone content & music industry but in turn answered a question that has baffled me for long. Apple is the biggest online retailer of music and it sure knows how it feels to be cheated of revenue due to piracy. It is a company that does not even allow installation of it’s software on non-Apple hardware, forget allowing sharing DRMed content freely!
I am pretty sure that not allowing users to freely transfer songs & other copyrighted material over bluetooth was the reason why Apple took such a step, but I guess for a company like Apple it makes sense. It has allowed syncing of the phone with iTunes because you will want to transfer your songs to your other devices.
You may also like
Related
5 comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Me
Hi, I’m Manan and here I write about gadgets and technology. Find me on Twitter or Mastodon and my stream on Twitch. Get updates over email. Or sign up for the Newsletter.
So does that mean as a measure against piracy we should not be provided this service? We can’t even transfer our work related files?
Bring down the internet, ban cds & dvds. After all these are the major players in piracy.
It is true what Rajbir says. Just because the end is wrong doesn’t make the means wrong as well.
I can understand if they don’t want you to transfer music and movies from the iPod section of the device. But I would like to see some transferring going on from my Camera roll, my contacts, my (future) cam videos, and heck, even my entire photo library. The Macs do it so well, with Bonjour, that I’m sure the iPhone can also have this kind of flawless syncing.
And even if bluetooth isn’t the ideal way for bonjour, then at least provide some wifi syncing so that two iPhone users can so such transfers.
Nice article btw. Didn’t expect this to come from you…
Damn it! I had typed up a nice, long reply and lost it due to a combination of the flakiness of my Wi-Fi setup and your blog’s AJAX feature. Damn! :(
—————
Anyway, what I wanted to say was that you’re writing skills have improved. Congrats!
It’s the content providers who forced Apple’s hand here. Since the feature exists on Macs, I see no reason why it wouldn’t on the iPhone had it been Apple’s call to make.
As for transferring pictures, it’s fairly low on Apple’s priority list as there are already at least three ways to do so. Greg Joswiak said they were scratching items off their list one-by-one and I’m sure they’ll get there. Have patience.
————-
Of course, in the previous iteration that was a much more lucid reply but I’m very frustrated now, so I just chopped it up. Depending on who you are, that may be a good thing or a bad one.
(Oh, and your blog saved my name and website address and everything, as if that’s what I would mind typing again. Grr.)
the quirky business :p
Only legit users suffer due to DRM and these funny stupid restrictions while pirates enjoy :p
And musicians and artists are not getting much cuz the publishers and middleman takes a huge amount from the revenue. Musicians and artists are left with nothing but a lock up contract for years.
read why apple is evil (yes it is) and other corporates too:
http://www.magnatune.com/info/press/coverage/usa_today
no wonder you missed some good artists
read the whole concept of magnatune:
http://www.magnatune.com/info/
need more links ? I can give but wise one don’t look for coolness or other oomphs but the real thing.
I don’t think Apple really crippled Bluetooth cause of the Music piracy factor.
If Apple wanted they could’ve easily DRM’ed all Mp3s and restricted all transfers of Mp3’s/Mp4’s.
I feel Apple didn’t pay much attention to Bluetooth since a Music Oriented Company like Apple didn’t include a basic feature like the A2DP Profile !
I think Apple might provide us with these features !
If I remember correctly Steve Jobs had once said that iPhone doesn’t need PC like Applications, its a Phone its meant to work as a Phone, but finally he realized the potential and opened up the iPhone ! Guess he’ll do the same now.
Hope the future Firmware updates provide us with atleast A2DP !