osmartormenajr

Just my 2 cents (also full disclosure: I’m Brazilian, and I have a better understanding about some local issues, but I’ll defer to my fellow forum members if that skews my judgment).

Brazilian consumer protection law states that any product sold here must be fully functional. There should be no need of additional purchases to get basic functionality. Now there are some legitimate arguments that the lack of a power brick infringes the letter of the law. I myself am all in for “greener” initiatives, but IMHO Apple is wanting in providing a satisfactory justification.

Now, for the price raise argument. It’s entirely on Apple’s power to do so, and maybe they should. I can’t fathom where the state controlled prices, Soviet Union and AOC narrative came from in previous comments. I’d go out on a limb here and just say it’s some sore Republican that never traveled more than a 100 miles from his hometown, and/or attended an university.

Just keep in mind that Apple has an extremely loyal customer base in Brazil. In the past two years our currency devaluations to half its value when compared to US dollar. Five years ago I purchased my current MBP. Today the same amount of money would only get me halfway into a new iPhone price tag! If you account for purchase power parity, it’s even worse than that. A new iPhone costs 11 months worth of minimum wage for a person.

Now, you may disagree with me (it’s kind of the point of a forum), but my take is: for that kind of money, not only should the power brick be included, it shouldn’t be a half-assed 5 W that takes half of forever to fully charge my iPhone!

To a Brazilian audience Wagner is recognizable for more than a decade of excellent artistic work — he'll forever be recognized as Capt. Nascimento from Elite Squad. One that stands more on talent than ephemeral physical beauty.

danvm said:

MplsP said:

JWSC said:

Putting aside the merits of this legislation, questionable though they may be, I’m not sure this can be done at the state level.  Interstate commerce remains the realm of the federal Government.

It would be enlightening to know who is behind this legislative push.  As Deepthroat would have said, “Follow the money.”

My thoughts exactly. The other question is why an xbox console is any different from a phone, other than some legislator got a campaign donation from Microsoft.

There are a few differences.  For example, a console is not a general purpose device, as an iPhone / iPad.  Second, as today, console users are not forced to use the app store, neither the app store payment system.  They can purchase a physical or digital game from a retailer, like Amazon or Walmart.

It’s been profusely discussed here before: that’s a distinction without a difference! Microsoft and Sony get the same cut from developers. Either as a digital download on their built-in marketplaces, or as a physical copy sold at GameStop.

Without the APIs that Microsoft, Sony, Apple, etc. build and maintain for their devices (at a significant cost) every developer would have to start from scratch with a native app, or just throw their hands up and make a web application (🤢)!

Apple is doomed! It could ill afford to lose a market like ND, just shy of 800,000 people! Most of them inveterate Apple customers!

You could see more of an impact by closing any of the top 20 grossing physical Apple Stores. Because I don’t think Apple will undergo such a major restructuring (which I won’t argue the pros or cons) for such a tiny market.

It’s time some people get inconvenienced on some things they take for granted. Perhaps this way, they stop voting for stupid...

I know these weeks are slow for tech news, but one can know the content of a piece such as this by just remembering last year’s: Samsung will promote an overprice PoS hardware that can’t keep up with a 3 year old iPhone, absolutely bloated with crapware, with a fad for a tent pole feature that in a year time no one will remember (unless it catches fire).

Come January 2022 I’ll copy paste this comment, and it will remain true, as it has been for about a decade now!