Apple's monopolising exploitation continues!

I love Apple products really, deep down.  Macs cannot be faulted for their performance, speed and ease for things like installation and the such and the iPod is obviously a turning point in the history of listening to music.  The iPhone is a revolution (including iTouches) and, although the iPad is a complete novelty, it's pretty amazing if you can get you hands on it for a go.

But the exploitation that I believe goes on with them is a huge disappointment.  Let's starts with iTunes: this is the program that must be used in conjunction with any iPod and where any music bought in conjunction with costs a whopping 99p a track.  Next, the prices of these products are frankly humungous: for example, if I was to have an iPhone I would either need to sign up to a 24 month contract at between £25 and £60 per month paying around £200 for the phone, or pay upwards of £500 for a pay-as-you-go version.  Ouch.  Thirdly, their products are updated often, which is very nice, but this leave those with older models behind very often, and in the case of first generation iPod Touch users, this means they can no longer download apps which are all for the new iOS4 update exclusively.

It seems that Apple expect their customers to upgrade their products constantly, when they want, paying thousands to keep up with their updates.  In the case of the new iPhone 4 they even want customers to buy their 'Bumper' to use it fully.  How long will Apple exploit and monopolise their customers like this, I don't know.  But in this business age, I feel it will be something we have to learn to live with.