Congress vs. iPod

Drew Clark writes well, I miss commerce committee but read this article and be afraid, be very afraid.

Going, Going, Gone ...
Last Christmas, Santa stuffed my stocking with an iPod, Apple's portable digital device that was -- and is again this year -- the hot holiday gift item. In the past several weeks, my Pod went kaput -- fortunately.
I say fortunately because the timing of its demise allowed me to take it back to my neighborhood Apple store for a free replacement within the one-year warranty.
The problem appeared to be the irreplaceable lithium ion battery. It would no longer hold an electrical charge for more than a few minutes. But Patrick at the store's "Genius Bar" diagnosed it as a failed connection between iPod and computer. Another few days, and I would have had to buy a replacement.
I probably would have. The iPod has become indispensable for both business and pleasure. Besides music, audiobooks and radio-style podcasts, I put a tiny little Griffin iTalk attachment on top. Voila! It's a digital voice recorder for interviews, and a conversation starter.
One such exchange, conveniently date-stamped, took place at 4:06 p.m. on Feb. 1:
"What is that?" asked Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.
"An iPod with a voice recorder," I replied.
"You're kidding," he said excitedly. "What did that cost?"
"$300 plus $40" for the 20 gigabyte recorder.
"What do you feel about this battery life issue? Does that offend you?"
"What do you mean?"
"It only lasts 18 months, and you can't replace the battery. You only have 17 months left to go on this device, and it dies." (This isn't always the case. Some iPods are still going strong on the original battery more than two-and-a-half years after they were purchased, despite heavy use.)
"Trust Ed Markey to find some consumer issue," I joked.
"The reason I know this is that it was brought to my attention by my 12-year-old nephew, who I gave the $250 iPod to for Christmas," Markey related. "You have to mail your entire iPod back to Apple, and then for a $99 fee, plus $7 for handling, they will put a new battery in.
"You are not allowed to put a new battery in, and they are giving no technical instructions on how to do so. So it is already planned obsolescence here, but with no personal ability to be able to correct it yourself. And they have a 95 percent share of the market."
"I guess people will be upgrading," I said.
"Seventeen months from now, you will have a decision to make, to spend $106 to get the new battery, or buy the new one."
"I've got a new story idea here."
"Which is fine for you, but is it fine for a 12-year-old? That is a lot of lobbying."
Markey was right. This week, out of frustration, I called his office to recount my travails. I even suggested an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the subject next year. But this was before I discovered how easy it was for someone, like myself, to walk into the Apple store and get a replacement.
It was two years ago that Apple first began taking flak about flaws in its batteries. This past June, after a class action lawsuit -- and a do-it-yourself home video by Van and Casey Neistat of lower Manhattan -- Apple dropped the price of replacing the battery from $99 to $49.
Apple spokesmen refused to comment on why, unlike cell phone manufacturers, they designed their product with an irreplaceable battery. But iPodBatteryFAQ.com, a Web site unaffiliated with the company, offers a compelling rationale: "It was an engineering decision to use an integrated battery; if it were not integrated, the unit would not have the small, sleek form factor that makes it so attractive in the first place."
That form factor keeps getting sleeker and sleeker. Look at this year's version of the iPod: It's smaller, holds three times as much music, and also plays videos, including full-length, commercial-free episodes of "Desperate Housewives."
For such continual advances, we can praise the devotion that Silicon Valley companies like Apple pay to Moore's Law. Named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, this "law" states that computers double processing capacity every 18 months to two years. More a force of will than a law of nature, Moore's Law has held continuously since at least 1965, and will keep churning for the foreseeable future.
Moore's Law means that more choices are continually available to digital manufacturers. Want a new battery opening? Apple officials informally told Markey that future models might not have the same impediment, a Markey aide said. Also, Apple and other companies can increase storage capacity, lower prices and tinker with circuitry to better preserve battery life. This is what Intel itself did when it introduced its Centrino microprocessor chip, designed specifically for laptop computers.
As my iPod player/recorder demonstrates, digital convergence is flourishing in electronic devices. With companies like Walt Disney and NBC Universal cutting deals to distribute television programs via podcast, digital convergence also is happening on communications networks.
Yet it remains to be seen what will become of a third form of convergence -- the regulatory type. Will different laws continue to govern television, cable, telephones and the Internet?
I might have myself to blame if Congress also turns to regulating iPods. By Drew Clark