Apple letter breaks little girl's heart

MacNN ^ | 04/17/2006

[BadAndy]

"How many lawsuits do you think would have been filed if Apple had, for example, written back to people who suggested adding video to the Ipods a " thanks for your suggestion " letter before they got around to putting one into production ? "

Exactly. Companies must protect themselves from the crackpots who try to get rich by contesting intellectual property rights by claiming to have given the company an idea. It can be expensive to prove that you were working on an invention for 5 years before someone from out of the woods sends you a letter suggesting it.

[HIDEK6]

I agree with the legal counsel.

Any action you can take to quash the karaoke attitude is a good thing.

[dmz]

Steve Jobs... yet another 'caring' liberal.
__________

LOL. Freepers politicize EVERYTHING. Whether needed or not. In this case, NOT!!!!

A PR guy sends a response to a customer (Mr Jobs I'm sure is 12 levels removed from this person's day to day doings), and you post a comment about Mr. Jobs' politics, as if his politics are relevant to the topic at hand.

too funny.

[TalonDJ]

Allowing them to go through life thinking that Generals and CEOs are eagerly waiting to hear what they think, is not doing the children any favors.

Allowing them to grow up believing they too may be able to think up an idea for a really good product IS doing them a favor. It is what America is all about. Crushing that early is a good way to keep them to a life of mediocrity.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Communications with customers and potential customers is my point.

Probably easier to do with the volume of mail received on Theremins versus what is received on iPods was mine.

Sure, Apple could've handled it better.

Then again, I don't see the reason for the girl to react as she did. (Sounds to me like the parents are playing it for effect.)

[Red Badger]

Apple isn't slone in having this policy. GM, Ford, IBM, et al,. They do not want someone to solicit any ideas mainly because they possibly have a program already in progress to developt that very idea. A case a few years back was about a guy suing GM because they "stole" his idea for wiperless windshields. They had to prove in court that they had already invented ithe idea several decades earlier and declined to use it in their products...............

[steve-b]

Instead of a polite response from Jobs, the girl received a cold, stern letter from Apple's legal counsel telling her that the company didn't accept unsolicited ideas and that she should not send any suggestions to the company.

Well, there are polite ways and rude ways to communicate that message, and Apple comes in for some legitimate criticism if they used one of the latter. Without seeing the letter, there's no way to tell.

[APRPEH]

good. so when she grows up she will look for another computer other than an a Mac or maybe better start a company with a corporate ideal to "drive apple out of business". long term ramifications to stupid corporate policies.

for those of you wondering, the company was supposed to send brochures and marketing material about the product and the company. it is an excellent learning opportunity for the kids and the best use of a marketing budget out there.

[fishbabe]

Dead.....With a couple of bullet holes in you....

[Obi-Wandreas]

As my wife just pointed out, even if they had an update planned to ship tomorrow, they might have to can it entirely, simply because it would be too risky (and expensive) to release it. Besides, she could have simply used their feedback form, which states in the small print that feature requests become the property of Apple. This is how they protect themselves.

[dfwgator]

Seems to me the "liberal" is the girl's mother.

[Blzbba]

Welcome to Reality!!

[absolootezer0]

i'm just wondering why a 9 year old has an ipod nano?

[HamiltonJay]

First thing, you kill all the lawyers....

[RS]

"Any action you can take to quash the karaoke attitude is a good thing."

LOL - I've got enough of an issue with them dancing to music that only exists in their earphones - now we're supposed to put up with them singing along ( loudly ! ) with music noone else can here ?

... there are enough people on the streets who do that allready !

[TC Rider]

As a former Apple cheerleader, it continue to amaze me that a huge number of people still see Apple as warm and fuzzy.

[William Terrell]

Let kids have their dreams.

Followed by their lawsuits. I have to agree with Apple on this one, though I'd think they could have the person who suggested the feature, or their parents if underage, sign some sort of agreement.

I'd also think that a letter just only received by a company suggesting a feature or product could spark a lawsuit if that feature or similar were introduced later, even if it was developed as an idea of their own internal development division which never saw the letter.

[MineralMan]

"Instead of a polite response from Jobs, the girl received a cold, stern letter from Apple's legal counsel telling her that the company didn't accept unsolicited ideas and that she should not send any suggestions to the company.
"

Here's another sort of letter Apple could have sent:

---

Dear Shea:

Thank you for writing to us with your idea for the iPod Nano product. It's a good idea...so good that we've gotten the same idea from many people, including some of the best product designers working for Apple on new products.

Who knows? A future version of this product might include a display of song lyrics. It's something we have been thinking about for a long time.

We always enjoy hearing from our customers. As a token of our appreciation for your thinking about Apple, we hope you'll enjoy the coupon we've enclosed. It will let you download six new songs for your iPod. Just enter the code on the coupon on our download site.

Best wishes,


Steve Jobs and the whole iPod crew

[dfwgator]

You can bet this little girl is going to get a hand-written letter from Mr. Jobs now.