As the Apple Turns: Scene 3364: It's All About The Handling (10/31/01)

It's All About The Handling (10/31/01)

Cheese and rice, not this again... Okay, so last weekend we were messing around with iDVD on one of the Quicksilvers at the new Apple retail store when we noticed that Apple still hadn't shipped the heavily-hyped iDVD 2. You remember the product; it was the "one more thing" at last July's Macworld Expo-- the one that left most Mac users dazedly wondering what alternate universe they'd all been sucked into that featured such anticlimactic Stevenotes. Well, anticlimactic or not, Apple had indicated that iDVD 2 was slated to ship in September once Mac OS X 10.1 was available; however, September came and went, and while the 10.1 upgrade arrived, iDVD 2 remained "shippingly challenged."

Yesterday, though, faithful viewer Dale Perkins sent us an irate note indicating that an iDVD 2 upgrade had finally surfaced at the Apple Store-- and that it cost $19.95. By way of calming him down, we read through the upgrade's description, and noted this little gem in particular: "the downloadable version of iDVD 2 does not include the themes or tutorial." From that snippet, we made a massive leap of logic and assumed that, well, there'd actually be a downloadable version of iDVD 2. (Go figure.) However, today Apple officially took the wraps off of iDVD 2, and we can't find any other reference to a downloadable version, either in the press release or anywhere within the revamped iDVD web pages. Indeed, the new "How To Upgrade" page refers only to an "iDVD 2 installer DVD," available for a $19.95 "shipping and handling charge."

Wow, where have we heard that before? We'll say one thing for Apple: at least the company is consistent. When was the last time a disc or two didn't cost them $19.95 to ship and handle? And can we send Apple $3.50 just to ship it, specifying that we'll handle it ourselves once it arrives? All we know for sure is this: we hope we don't have to sit through another spate of whining about Apple not providing a download option and charging twenty bucks for "shipping and handling," because we still haven't recovered from the 10.1 debacle yet.

To be fair, to the best of our knowledge, Apple never indicated that iDVD 2 would be a free upgrade; even in the July press release, iDVD 2 was described as a $19.95 "upgrade package for iDVD owners." And remember when iMovie 2 came out? That wasn't a free upgrade, either. Plus, given that the iDVD 2 upgrade is actually a DVD-ROM packed with "over a gigabyte of beautifully designed themes that make your DVDs look like the best commercial titles," it's probably worth pointing out that a download of the entire thing over a 56K dialup line would take about two solid days to complete. The bottom line, here, folks, is this: if you want iDVD 2, just grin and fork over the twenty bucks quietly. Please?

Oh, and Apple-- next time, consider selling this sort of thing as a $19.95 upgrade with "free shipping and handling." Somehow we suspect that'll go over better...

SceneLink (3364)

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The above scene was taken from the 10/31/01 episode:

October 31, 2001: iDVD 2 is finally here, and the no-download-provided upgrade costs $19.95 "shipping and handling." Meanwhile, Apple fends off multiple class action suits alleging stock manipulation last year, and Microsoft's "best testing efforts" fail to prevent its Hotmail service from ceasing to work with its own email software...

Other scenes from that episode:

3365: Three Suits, No Waiting (10/31/01) You probably thought that Apple's legal department has been getting a mite bored lately, huh? After all, we're long past the hustle and bustle of the iMac knockoff lawsuits, the billion-dollar Imatec suit crashed and burned over a year and a half ago, and even the threats of legal action against misappropriations of the Aqua look and feel have quieted down of late...
3366: Testing Is For Mortals (10/31/01) Here's a quickie that illustrates the classic attention to detail that Microsoft applies to all of its products, which accounts for the zillions of copies of Windows XP that the company has already sold following that operating system's glowing reviews...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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