Two iPads Per Person, Per Lifetime?

Yep, Apple’s becoming a little too “Big Brother” for me. They also will not accept cash but only credit cards. That must be so they can keep your data more accurately.

My solution is, I’ll never purchase another new Apple product. In fact, the used ones function so well and so much on-line information is available, repair and upgrading has become economical and easy.

I have a 2008 2.66 GHz iMac upgraded with 4 GB of Ram and two G4 PowerBooks, a 1 GHz 15″ Titanium model with 1 GB of Ram and a 12″ 1GB Aluminum model with 1.25 GB of RAM. True, neither one will run Snow Leopard, but so what? They all do exactly what I need for them to do and do it very well. Best of all, they were very inexpensive.

How about @#%! Apple. Over priced products that get forgotten about by the company as soon as the new must have apple product comes out. There are better, more reasonably priced products out there. And I’ve spent the $3,700 on a Powerbook for the wife for her work.

Interesting. Apparently Apple neglected to mention this policy to their authorized resellers – the store I bought mine from said they sold their entire stock of five 64 GB iPads to one guy on the first day.

Wasn’t there a kerfluffle about the AT&T stores not selling iPhones a bit ago? Seems likewise this a hamfisted (and, I guarantee, short-lived) attempt to discourage reselling/exporting. Remember, they had to roll back the European launch due to demand here in the States.

This is what passes for journalism at a Time website? No follow up to Apple to ask if the policy is right? And you sure you heard the conversation right? And your sure the employee wasn’t new or just wrong?

OK, so you don’t follow up, and you pose it as a question, and basically ASK commenters to tee up on Apple, who are in the unfortunate position of making incredibly popular products. Whatever.

We’ve contacted Apple for comment, Tokyoscience, and are patiently waiting to hear back.

And I know what I heard. I specialize in eavesdropping.

I’m not surprised by this…. though it’s hard not to suspect that this rather silly ad-hoc “policy” is either temporary, or only applies to the current iPad model.

The Big Brother stuff is equally silly. The reason for this is simple: until the international roll-out, there’s a booming gray market for iPads on eBay and such. Apple is trying to limit this market.

“Apple is trying to limit this market.” Why are they doing that? The idea is to sell as many as possible. To whom and for what reasons cannot be important to the corporate bottom line.

The “Big Brother” comment was before the “Lifetime limit of two” which I doubt is true anyway. Instead it refers to the battery policy and to the “you have to purchase content and everything else from us” idea. Sorry that wasn’t clear to you.

I am waiting for Sony’s response to the iPad. I hope it is great and not too pricey. Oh…and called the Sony Tablet, not a pad.

I am sure the policy was either misstated or a joke. I have a friend that bought 4 of them from the same store. If that sale was a mistake and there really is a limit of 2 per customer, I am certain it is not lifetime. That would be plain ignorant for a company to do.
More than likely this is to avoid “grey market sales”. And no, the idea is not 100% to get everything sold they can. Prices will be different in other countries and they may lose money on those sales. Additionally, Apple has a responsibility to their outlets. A certain amount of sales is required to keep those “brick and mortar” stores open. If some person is reselling at a high price, that takes sales from those stores (and really is a rip off to those consumers).
Sirman, I have heard of people getting mad about Apple’s prices and vowing never to buy their products again. But you really hate Apple! What did they do to lick the red off your lollipop? And your hate begs the question, why don’t you just buy Dell, HP or something? There are tons of good (price) alternatives out there, though I can’t say the quality is the same.
Mavbluedog, what the heck does your wife do that requires a $3700 Macbook Pro? (Not Powerbook, I assume you didn’t pay that much for a 3 year old computer?) Any way you look at it, that is one heck of a lot of computer. Did you shop around? Again, what price for the same features, quality, and would you get ANY service for those “better” brands? Or are you embellishing just a little? I personally have had fantastic service from Apple. I can’t say the same for my Sony Vaio, Dell Inspiron, or HP Desktop (I forget the name, it is gone).

bignumone, how could I hate Apple, when I said I own three of them right now and have owned at least one since 1987?

Disliking a given policy is not the same thing as hating a company or it’s products.

Dell and HO do make total trash. I have owned their products. At one time, I had six Dell laptops for a contract job for a company. Of the six, two failed withing 6 months. Is that an acceptable failure rate for you?

As for HP, every product of theirs I have ever owned was a disaster. Computers, printers, scanners, all were trash. Their tech support was also a waste. Every time I called them, they either didn’t know, gave me the wrong answer or sometimes outright lied.

No, the quality is hardly the same. My two PowerBooks (Yes, PowerBooks) are older and function just fine.

So I can hardly be said to “hate Apple”. Do you approve of every policy of your country, your state, and even Apple? Freedom means the liberty to tell others what they do not want to hear.

I’m sure Apple does not want to be called on things like the moisture detection fiasco in iPods and iPhones. Nor do they want to hear about the shortcoming of the iPad. But, an unpleasant fact is no less true because someone doesn’t like it.

I have a good source working at an Apple Store in NYC who tells me that the vast majority of iPad sales go to a rotating group of well-dressed immigrants who purchase two iPads at a time and pass a credit card and ID between them when staff isn’t looking to continue the rouse. They presumably re-sell these iPads overseas. Before the Apple Store forbade iPad sales with cash, they would present exact change for each sale.

This isn’t Big Brother; this is actually preserving iPad stock for the masses while combatting the re-sale industry, though don’t expect Apple to admit it.

Gotcha, Sirman. You just sound so angry at Apple in most of what I read from you. And for the record, I am not telling you what to think or say, just that I am not sure Apple deserves such ire. (And I read a different post from you that helps me understand your situation)
What ended up being the REAL policy here, anyhow? I have not heard anything more about this.