It is more than just a name
Apple boss Steve Jobs' insistence that a company which
makes applications for his iPhones and iPods change its name could result in
the outfit having to shut its doors.
Sydney based Mathew Peterson's company has been making
cash with his "iPodRip", which allows people to back up their music
collections from their iPods on to their computers. Peterson's, The Little App Factory, employs eight staff
members, makes two other Apple-related software tools and claims to have
approximately 6 million customers.
After selling well for six years iPodRip has received a
cease and desist letter from Apple's lawyers, Baker & McKenzie. It
asked
him to stop using "iPod" in his software's name, remove any
Apple-related
logos from his product and relinquish control of his domain name,
ipodrip.com. While Peterson's lawyers advised him he could challenge
Apple in court the software developer does not think he has the money
to tough
it out against the huge mountains of cash that Apple fan boys have
given Apple
for PCs with high price margins. He has changed the software's name to
"iRip"
but Peterson is worried he will no longer be able to earn the revenue
to
support his staff. He thinks that the word-of-mouth marketing that
drives
his success would become worthless.
Apple has not even let him say on his website that the
app was previously called iPodRip and will even be unable to send an email to
customers informing them that he has had to change the app's name. This month Peterson's US-based business partner, John
Devor, this month sent an email directly to Jobs, pleading for him to
intervene.
Jobs's reply was dismissive: "Change your apps name.
Not that big of a deal." We are sure that Jobs would change the name of Apple in
the blink of an eye.