Apple disables Palm Pre syncing via iTunes

Anyone with the least bit of familiarity with the business tactics of Apple should find this move as no surprise. In fact, I had thought it would have taken place considerably sooner than it did: With its latest update to iTunes (8.2.1), Apple has disabled the ability of the Palm Pre to sync directly with the iTunes music management software.

An Apple spokesperson was unapologetic about the update. BusinessWeek quotes her as saying the update provides "a number of important bug fixes" but also "disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre." iPod pretenders? Heresy!

Pre owners who want to keep using iTunes really have one choice: Don't upgrade iTunes to the newest version. iTunes 8.2 will continue to sync with the Pre... though of course you'll be out of luck on those "important bug fixes."

Palm also suggests that you can use USB or third-party app syncing (DoubleTwist is commonly recommended) to do the job.

Is Apple in the wrong on this? The move is hardly unprecedented, but it's certainly annoying that Apple insists on tying its music management software so closely with iPod hardware, a move dangerously close to the evils of the Microsoft playbook -- the one that landed them all those antitrust headaches.

This isn't like the company's attempts to lock down the MacOS from running on non-Apple computers; the company understandably doesn't want to get into a support nightmare with people trying to install MacOS on computers which aren't equipped to run it. But refusing to allow iTunes to see third-party music players simply so it can be used as a conduit for copying MP3s and playlists? It's a little petty and, as someone who attempted to move from an iPod to a computing product recently (more on this in a future post), I can agree fully that it's exceedingly annoying.

Is it possible that Apple is actually afraid of the Pre eating into the iPhone's gargantuan market share? All sorts of strange news is bubbling out of Cupertino these days, so it seems plausible.

After all, it's not just the iPhone department where paranoia is running wild: Yesterday it was reported that Microsoft's legal department received a call from an Apple executive who demanded Microsoft stop running its "laptop hunter" ads, which deride Macs as overly expensive. According to the story, Apple said it had lowered its prices and the ads were no longer accurate.

Microsoft's response was, as expected, amusement and laughter.