The saga continues…

From: Jeff Pitzer
Subject: Re: A Bit More iPhone 5

Hey Bob,

I was an Apple retail employee from Mar. 2011 to Feb 2012. Water damage is covered in AppleCare plus, which is what you now purchase with a new iPhone. It covers 2 incidents of accidental damage including water damage. My mom had her phone swapped under AppleCare plus because of water damage. The traditional AppleCare coverage did not cover water damage, only manufacturer’s defects. This is what you can buy with a computer. It extends the normal AppleCare coverage for an additional year or 2. I hope that clears things up.

Pitzer

I’m getting e-mail about this from all over the world. Half from people who believe water damage is covered and have who believe the opposite.

I point you to two articles from the Apple site:

1. iPhone and iPod: Liquid damage is not covered by warranty

Relevant language:

“If an iPhone or iPod has been damaged by liquid (for example, coffee or a soft drink), the service for such liquid damage is not covered by the Apple one year limited warranty or an AppleCare Protection Plan (APP).”

This note was last updated on October 18, 2012

2. AppleCare+ for iPhone

Relevant language:

“Coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage from handling, each subject to a $49 service fee plus applicable tax.”

Footnote re the above:

Service coverage is available only for the iPhone and its original included accessories for protection against (i) defects in materials or workmanship (ii) battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification, and (iii) up to two incidents of accidental damage from handling, each incident being subject to a $49 service fee plus applicable tax. Replacement equipment that Apple provides as part of the repair or replacement service may be new or equivalent to new in both performance and reliability. See terms at http://www.apple.com/legal/applecare/applecareplusforiphone.html for full details.

If you click through to the link, you find this language:

3.2 Accidental Damage from Handling

ADH coverage only applies to an operational or mechanical failure caused by an accident from handling that is the result of an unexpected and unintentional external event (e.g., drops and liquid contact) that arises from your normal daily usage of the Covered iPhone as intended for such Covered iPhone.

Reading the above, my interpretation is the iPhone 5 is covered for water damage under AppleCare +.

But Apple certainly does not make it clear.

Subject:     Re: A Bit More iPhone 5

I work at an Apple store. It does protect against water damage. In fact, in buying AppleCare, you get 2 “incidents” of damage protection, whatever the cause. You can even swap out your phone if you don’t like the scratch your keys made on the front of it. 2 chances to swap out your phone for 49 bucks in two years.

Maybe don’t publish my name cause of the insane confidentiality agreement I signed to work there.

Sent from my iPhone

Subject:     Re: A Bit More iPhone 5

Hey Bob. I know it’s confusing. You’ll notice in the first article that it doesn’t mention AppleCare+, only Apple’s limited 1 year warranty and AppleCare Protection Plan. This was Apple’s old AppleCare service. If I remember correctly you could purchase that for $79 anytime within the first year of your original warranty to extend your warranty another year. It did not cover accidental damage including water damage. I went through the genius training program right before I left so I learned all about the water sensors.

Once the iPhone 4S was released, they changed their Apple Care plan for iOS devices. Instead of traditional Apple Care (just like with computers but 2 years instead of 3 years), they started covering accidental damage. This is why the price went up to $99.

I don’t know why the first link is still on Apple’s website when it mentions the old AppleCare protection plan, but that is not the same as AppleCare+. Think about it, it wouldn’t make sense to cover other incidents of accidental damage and not liquid damage, which in essence is a form of accidental damage.

And I can testify to the fact that my mother’s phone fell in the toilet and they swapped it out under AppleCare+.

Peace,

Jeff Pitzer

1. AppleCare does not cover water damage, I stand corrected. Then again, the “genius” at the Apple Store said it did. What we’ve got today is a plethora of misinformation parading as truth. I do not want to fall into that category, therefore I print this correction.

It’s just too hard to keep up on everything today. The amount of factually wrong information that comes into my inbox is frightening. If you’re going to buy something, and care what it is, best to do research. But I have compassion for you, keeping up is a full time job, and it’s a futile effort.

P.S. Buy with an AmEx card and you could be protected against theft and accidental damage, the devil is in the details:

AmEx Extended Warranty

P.P.S. AppleCare may be worth it because of the lack of hassle. They never argue, they just repair, frequently replace. Unless you’re ten, time is more valuable than money.

2. Loyalty

Sit on the lift and ask someone how they like their new skis and they always say GREAT! Because they paid for them. You won’t find anybody with a new phone who says it sucks…unless they’re planning to get rid of it.

3. Argument

I wish people were as passionate about bands. My inbox is coming apart at the seams with opinions, people argue Apple/Android the same way we used to argue Beatles/Stones back in the sixties…yes, they used to have competitions on radio between the two back then.

Unfortunately, mobile manufacturers are more cutting edge than bands. They know if they go to sleep for even six months, they fall behind. I.e. HTC. Whereas a band puts out an album and expects to tour on it for two to three years. Stay in the marketplace. Keep coming up with new stuff. Surprise people, like Apple did with the iPad 4. Give people more than they were looking for. And go for the wow factor. And I don’t mean dancing.

4. Apple’s Hidden Advantage

Read this:

The Unsung Apple Advantage

The money quote:

“What I will add in this article, however, is my belief that an architecture decision by Apple has also given it an intrinsic and durable advantage over Google’s Android OS.”

“This intrinsic advantage allows Apple to run Apps in its devices faster than those same Apps would run on Android devices with comparable hardware specs; or alternatively, to consume less power when running at the same speed,” Santos writes. “This is non-trivial for Apple, for both performance and power consumption come at a premium in battery-reliant mobile devices. It’s also non-trivial because an architecture decision is something which stays rather immutable over long periods of time, so any advantage gained is hard to overcome.”

The unsung, intrinsic Apple advantage over Android

5. Functionality

We’ve now entered the sixties/seventies of phone development. Where the exterior is more important than what’s under the hood. Toyota and Datsun crushed Detroit by making cars that ran well, that did not break down. They might have been boxy, but they were headache free and cheaper.

Your Android phone may look flashy, but how much of its functionality do you use? How much do you know how to use? Where do you go for help?

For every self-starter hacking his phone, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are completely clueless. Who own what is essentially a thick brick which can dial calls, text, maybe get e-mail and possibly display maps. Apple won by making it easy.

6. Luddites

If you’re bragging about having an old phone, you’re saying you don’t listen to new music, your opinion doesn’t count. They’re no longer phones, they’re mobile computers. The desktop is dying, get with the program.

7. Service Providers

They’re different. In reach and speed. T-Mobile might offer you a great deal, but if you need LTE…good luck!

Verizon might be expensive, but take a look at its LTE map. It blows AT&T’s away. Sprint might give you unlimited data, but check its speed.

And maybe you don’t care about all of this, but if that’s so, please stop bloviating, you’re just demonstrating your ignorance.

8. Profitability.

Samsung and the low cost providers own television. Panasonic may get out and Sony is a shell of itself.

But at what cost?

Flat panel margins are so thin as to frequently be nonexistent. I.e. the TV’s are selling at a loss. Market share doesn’t mean much if you can’t make money.

There’s a business in being BMW or Mercedes. Making top drawer stuff for people who can pay. But what is fascinating is Apple employed this strategy to create and own the iPod market, and the tablet market and a lot of the smart phone market. Can they pull off this strategy in the future? That was why I was writing, not to ding the iPhone 5. I can’t tell you how many e-mails I got from people who “read” my article and then said they had changed their mind and were no longer going to buy the iPhone 5.

Mine was a business analysis. Can you own the sphere when you’ve got no low cost option, and others do?

Let’s go the other way, with Clayton Christensen, the business guru who wrote “The Innovator’s Dilemma.” He’s all about the mantra “good enough.” That “good enough” triumphs in the end. He won’t pay for the best. He says “good enough” keeps getting better and then squeezes best. Are we seeing this now in smart phones? Have Android handsets gotten good enough that the Apple superiority is no longer worth the extra price? That’s the question.

9. Tomorrow

Apple is no different than a band. To rule in the future, it needs hit new products. It can make money/tour on the old stuff for a long while, but playing to a smaller audience/smaller buildings.

We revere those who can do it once again. Who can reinvent the wheel. Show us something we’ve never seen before. That’s one of the keys to the Beatles’ success. They kept taking us to new places we couldn’t even contemplate.

That’s why music’s in a funk. You know what you’re gonna hear before you turn on Top Forty radio.

Then again, many kids don’t even listen to the radio. They don’t even watch TV. If you’re a fat cat businessman you’ve got two choices… You can plan your exit strategy to coincide with the cliff, i.e. exit the car just before it plunges. Or you can tackle these challenges.

The music business is littered with those employing the former strategy. Caring only about themselves, they’re paying themselves high salaries and planning to exit before tomorrow comes.

And then there are those who think they have the power to prevent tomorrow. As if Microsoft could stop the tablet and keep the desktop computer dominant.

You can’t stop tomorrow. You’ve got to play for the day after tomorrow.

One thing we know for sure is no one’s going to be using the same mobile device ten years from now that they are today. Many will not even be using the same device two years from now. What will they be using?

And early adopters sculpt the landscape for those who follow.

10. Trade-In

iPhones are worth more. So you can trade up each and every year for a minimum of cash. Usually less than a hundred bucks. There are websites that buy used phones, you can sell them on eBay. Therefore, there are many surfers of the new who get a new phone every year and don’t pay that much. But you’ve got to trade early. Skip a cycle and your old phone becomes a worthless brick.

As someone e-mailed me, maybe cutting edge phones should be leased!

1. IT’S EPISODE 60

Four plus years in. If you’re not in it for the long haul, you’re never going to make it, especially if you’re not chasing trends. Set yourself on fire, people may pay attention, but not for long. Get the press stirred up and many will know about you overnight, but you’re going to be subject to backlash. I was into the Alabama Shakes until I kept reading how great they were in the mainstream press. Then again, Brittany Howard just revealed she refused to be on “X Factor,” got to give her props for that, especially in a world where no one can say no and everything is seen as an opportunity.

2. IT’S DARYL’S OWN MONEY

That’s what everybody carps about today, they can’t get someone else to pay for it. But if someone else pays, you’re beholden to them, you’re working for the man, which doesn’t work so well in artistic endeavors. Furthermore, you don’t own it, not if you make a deal with a label.

Sure, Daryl Hall’s got royalties. But the price of technology has plummeted. You can buy a guitar (which have gotten strangely more expensive), and you can buy a computer and make music. You can make a video with your iPhone. Don’t complain about money, just start and keep going.

3. PALLADIA

They’re airing it now. But it’s years in. The way you succeed today is to prove the concept first. Especially in art.

4. HAVE TALENT

Daryl Hall can sing and play, and so can the musicians he surrounds himself with. And that’s rare in today’s world. Most people haven’t practiced and good voices are rare. Put them both together with someone who can write and you’ve got a hit act. Very few people are triple threats, very few people are stars.

5. TODAY’S MUSIC BUSINESS

“All these kids are a legend in their parents’ garage, they can’t play in front of people.”

Joe Walsh

This is not sour grapes, this is truth. Just because you’re old, that does not mean you’re not right. In this everybody gets a trophy world where parents are their kids’ best friends, no one knows they suck. Talk to any classic rock musician who’s made it and he’ll whip out dues that’ll make your jaw drop. And tell tales about the big opportunities that weren’t. The record deal, the TV appearance… If you haven’t been disappointed by your supposed big break, you’re not in the game.

6. SOMEBODY LIKE YOU

This is the piece de resistance.

Entitled “Someone Like You” on Daryl Hall’s 1986 solo album “Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine,” this slow-burner could be covered by Adele, Paul Young or George Michael could employ it to engineer a career comeback, this is everything you loved about Hall & Oates before they had all those hits and were labeled “yacht rock.”

And it’s still not even the best track on the album. That’s “Foolish Pride.”

But in 1986, it was hard to go solo. Phil Collins did it, but almost no one else managed it. And you were always at the mercy of the label, who wanted you to get back together and do it the commercial way.

Still…

Only you could ever know how hard it was for me to let you go

That’s one thing they never write about, that it’s almost as hard to leave as to be left. You want it, but just not this way. There’s some deal-breaker that makes you head for the exit, even though it may only come up once a month, life can’t go on that way.

Hard to face all those nights and suffer through all the fools’ advice

So much in one line…

It’s the loneliness that kills. It’s even in the statistics. You’re not gonna live as long without them. Being alone after being together is one of the most devastating elements of the human condition.

And then there are your friends, giving all the wrong advice. Telling you to break up and then abandoning you. Your friends won’t keep you warm at night, advice is cheap, follow your heart and if you need advice, talk to a professional, especially because in your friends’ view, you’re never wrong, and oftentimes you are.

But as great as “Somebody Like You” is, its slow burning penetration, the reason I’m writing about it has nothing to do with the composition or Daryl Hall’s still stellar voice.

It’s Joe Walsh’s guitar solo.

I remember “Hotel California.” Buying the album at a long defunct record store on the day it was released, breaking the shrinkwrap and dropping the needle on the title track.

I was not enamored of the single, “New Kid In Town.”

It was unclear who the band was gonna be, now that Joe Walsh had joined.

And then, there it is, in the second solo, his brilliance, his excellence, the distillation of all those moments in the James Gang and solo records. Only he could slide and distort that way.

It happens at 3:28. It only lasts until 3:52. In twenty four seconds, not only does Joe Walsh demonstrate his chops, he reminds us of what once was and no longer is. When it wasn’t about awards shows and gossip columns, but being able to do it at the church of live performance, blowing your fans away, reaching in and touching their souls, tickling their taste buds, making them feel fully alive.

Joe comes in again around the five minute mark, but that’s just a victory lap, lying in bed with your loved one after the peak experience.

If “Somebody Like You” doesn’t titillate your soul, you’re dead.

7. YOU NEED TO PLAY

You’re a musician, not a star. You make music, not money. If you’re not willing to strap on your axe, sit down at your instrument and wail…we’ve got no time for you.

The twenty first century is all about live performance. Convincing people that not only can you still do it, but you can make them feel fully alive, not only reminiscing about the past, but feet planted firmly in the reasonable present.

You can get plastic surgery. You can go on an extreme diet. But then you look nothing like your audience, there’s a disconnect. You’ve got to get down in the pit with people today, they’ve got to realize you’re just like them…but with a special skill.

Kim Kardashian is a star.

But she’s got no skill.

“Star” has become a bastardized term. Rich is for bankers. Chasing money no longer works. Hanging on to status doesn’t either. No one’s going to see the Stones be good, because they almost definitely won’t be, they haven’t been in eons, but to say they were there. That’s not life, that’s death. And last time I checked I was still breathing…like you.

Don’t bother writing. Don’t bother making new records. No one cares.

But they’re dying to hear Joe Walsh play. They’ll listen to new solos. They’ll let their minds be stretched. If you let the music come alive, instead of being calcified.

“Live From Daryl’s House” is one guy’s effort against all the b.s., all the rules everybody says you can’t break.

That’s art, not commerce. In art, one guy or girl can change the course of history. Can light the way for millions. Can wake us up and make us feel fully alive.

Watch “Somebody Like You,” you’ll get it.

EXTRA NOTES

A. Notice how you don’t have to wade through the crap to get to the good stuff. You can go immediately to what you want to hear, you don’t have to start at the beginning to get to the middle, Ed Sullivan is long dead, even AC/DC has finally licensed their material to iTunes. Do it the audience’s way, make it easy, do for others as you would like it to be done to yourself. Leave it to old established edifices like record labels and movie studios to put up roadblocks, you’ve got to tear the barriers down.

B. Word of mouth built “Live From Daryl’s House.” It’s your most important asset. Hard to achieve, just as difficult to maintain. Once the mainstream gloms on to your story, your audience no longer owns it, people move on, they find something else to champion. PSY is overnight. What lasts today is not. Three dimensional takes time to grow. Images and hysteria break through online. In this complicated, overwhelming, tech-infused world the way to succeed is to be as human as you possibly can.

C. Another solo, in the middle of “Life’s Been Good.” Beginning at 3:18. Almost as good is when Joe just strums his guitar a couple of times right before… It sounds so real! We were inspired by heroes to buy instruments to practice and play. Music has become too much of a spectator sport, except in EDM, which is easy. Not easy to be great, but easy to play. If it’s hard, there are fewer people involved. If it’s hard, you’ve got to do it a long time before anybody will pay attention. Alone. You’ve got to really need it and want it. And that’s more than fame.

D. Notice a reference to Sly’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” at 1:54 of “Funk 49/50.” We love noticing this stuff, it bonds us to the performer. And you can’t do this if you’ve got no musical history, if you’ve done no listening. First and foremost, you’re a student.

Live From Daryl’s House – Joe Walsh

It’s too expensive.

I’m in almost six hundred dollars, and I’m not sure the end is in sight.

SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS?

Well, first the phone. Which is $369.36.

But they advertise it for $199!

But I bought the 32 gig model for $299, upon which I got a discount of $30. The rest is…tax. You see you pay it on the full price of the phone, not the discounted price you get for signing up for two years.

And then there’s $131.72 for AppleCare and a case.

AppleCare! Don’t you know extended warranties are b.s?

I agree. But not on a phone. If you haven’t dropped your phone in a puddle (or the toilet!) you don’t have one. Water damage is rampant. I killed a BlackBerry. This way, I can get a brand new phone for $49. I can go for that.

And then there’s the case. Gotta have a case. Actually, two. One for $29.95, the other for $9.99, but the latter was late in the shipping and I wanted my investment protected.

Then there’s the cables… I’ve got a plethora of the old 30 pin jobs around, but I now need Lightning. They’re $19 apiece. And another charger for on the road… That’s $29. And I still haven’t gotten a car charger for this notoriously weak-batteried phone.

Now I’ve got a 2006 Mac Pro, tricked out to the nines, that I’m still using as my desktop machine. Cost me nearly $5000. But it’s over six year later. I’m gonna throw out my iPhone 5 in two years. I’m gonna want the latest model!

Which is why Apple is in a pickle.

Everyone’s become inured to upgrading. And even Apple stokes the fire. You’ve got envy after one year, you’re waiting for your contract to end to buy the latest and the greatest as you’re approaching two years.

$300 every year, just for a damn phone?

Oh, you say, I could get a 4 for free, or a 4S for a hundred bucks.

Yes, let me sell you a two year old car. Without all the safety features. With an incredibly costly contract to boot. No one wants yesterday’s merchandise, they want TOMORROW’S!

So they spring for Android. Which you can get for free. Even though it’s not as intuitive and the app store is a mess and you’re subject malware. It looks cool, even though you can’t do as much with it.

But we all know the money is in the contract!

Yes, but people can’t see past today when it comes to debt. They can’t see a free phone is just an enticement to an expensive two year contract. Buying on credit and not thinking about tomorrow… That’s the American way.

But Apple has the largest profit margins! And the most use! (Just check web-surfing stats.)

But Apple became the world’s most valuable company by domination, by owning the sphere.

It was all about the iPod. It owned the space. From beginning to its sunset years, today. It was about hardware, and software, and price. Apple kept introducing new items at a lower price, no one could compete, Apple locked up flash storage to ensure this.

You could buy a Shuffle and have Touch envy.

But now that’s it’s all about software, can you make a cheaper phone that’s desirable?

Apple tried to do this with the iPad Mini. If you think Amazon’s Kindle Fire is competition, you’ve never used one. But cheap Android tablets…they could make inroads.

In other words, to succeed in the future, Apple has to dominate.

And they’re not going to dominate in the future with this phone strategy. Apple has to come up with a way to compete on price.

Oh, I know, Apple never competed on price with its computers.

And it never dominated in computers.

Apple was first with the graphical interface and mouse, but Microsoft crushed them soon thereafter.

The big boys employ a scorched earth policy. They want to take it to the limits of antitrust. They want to allow you to compete, they just don’t want to allow you to win.

And that’s how Apple won in the past.

How is it going to win in the future?

P.S. The price takes nothing away from the phone. If you think Android compares, you’re either a cheapskate or an Apple-hater.