Example: PayPal lets you open an account with minimal information, and lets you send money to that account no limits.

Now suppose you're a European citizen. The second you receive more than 2500 euros in your account, they're going to lock it and ask you to provide extra information to prove who you are.

They do this *after* they let you open the account, and *after* the money is in said account.

Then, if you can't or won't provide the information they ask (passport, proof of address), they'll lock your account with your funds in it. They'll only allow you to get the funds after 180 days, and you must initiate the process, or they'll just keep the money.

A bank would never be allowed to do such a thing. They'd have to verify who you were *before* they gave you an account, and they would never be allowed to lock your funds for half a year _after_ you received said funds. Unless you were part of a criminal investigation, of course.

It's not because they lack money that Apple and Google don't do more development.
Consider that Apple spends 2% of their revenue on R&D. And that they have 100+ *billion* in the bank and are doing nothing with it.

Here's my experience maintaining a couple of friend's and family's Macs:

- .dmg files in the Applications folder.
- Apps in the dock that refer to the .app inside the .dmg, which is still inside the Downloads folder.
- "My application stopped working after I emptied the Downloads folder".
- People who actually opened the .dmg and then the app inside it every time they wanted to use it.
- Every single .dmg ever opened since last rebook still mounted, icon showing on the Desktop and in Finder.

Here, we're the 1%. Apple wants to make life easier to the 99%. Can't blame them.

In Treatment, good show from HBO, 43 episodes per season. http://www.hbo.com/in-treatment/ . Just saying that although unlikely, it is possible and we don't even have to go look for obscure shows outside the US.

Regarding price, I have to disagree, there is a psychological price perception, based on what you feel that you're getting. I would never buy a single tvshow season for $100, as I would never buy a music album for $50.

From the producer's point of view, producing a tvshow episode is expensive, therefore it must be priced accordingly.
From the consumer's point of view, watching an episode is an ephemeral experience that is rarely repeated.

So, in the consumer's mind, an episode shouldn't cost three times more than a $1 audio track, when the track will get tens of listens and the episode will get one or two viewings.

In the end, the consumers would be right, but producers are fighting very hard to defeat the "the customer is always right" theory.

Don't fool yourself, there is a market for quality at the right price (not talking about the GPS apps here). The App Store just re-defined the concept of 'right price' due to economies of scale, by getting your app in front of a much larger audience, and under much much tougher competition.

-- Neville Flynn

15 cents/MB ~= $154 per GB

Still ridiculously expensive anyway.