And it’s never good.
I really don’t like being in such a position, and I try to avoid them. No matter if your situation is in a relationship, a job where you’re overpaid and under qualified, or simply as a consumer it is never a good thing. You give the other party all the power, and often times things are just hunky dory either the other party does not know they have the upper hand on your, or they do know it and are ok with the status-quo.
This is the situation that I found myself in today.

I needed a new iphone, mine went thru the wash, and it needed to be replaced. The only place I could do it sort of buying a brand new one at $500 was the aptly named Apple Genius Bar. So I went to the Apple store, well first I had to schedule an appointment, an appointment! This is not a visit to my doctor, or a job interview. I want to give Apple a large portion of money, and they want me to schedule a time do it! Their first problem was that they have one single Apple store in a metro area of well over a million people, but I will set that aside. The store was packed, and to their credit it went pretty fast. They smiled as they send me out the door with my ‘new’ $200 iphone. Regardless I still don’t think I like the idea of a business dictating to me when I am allowed to come in and give them my money.
I just worry what happens when Apple realizes that they have the complete upper hand with me, and can do just about whatever they want to me.
Apple is a company that has been to the brink of disaster and come back several times. They have fired their current CEO in the 90’s just to bring him back 5 years or so later. To me everything apple does is centered in a tactical objective of protecting their competitive advantage.
Your Apple product can only sync with other apple software and run Apple applications. Your Apple can only be worked on by Apple Technicians, and your Apple MP3s will only work on Apple Devices. The only recourse dissatisfied customers have with a business is to give their business to someone else, but with Apple products is that even possible without replacing your entire media collection, computers, and music players? There has been talk that Apple is pushing out Flash and Adobe players because they wont play ball with apple, and as a result everyone’s iphones no longer will run videos or documents in those formats.
Now this is all well and good if you love apple, and are happy with the way things are. It just worries me that apple is sending us all down a path of dependence that there is not getting off of. I love my phone, it’s made by Apple, but I don’t think I can give it up. I just hope Apple does not raise its prices simply because it can.