Consumers are making a CHOICE to go with Apple.

It's not anti-conusmer - it's offering a choice. Apple is not new - and these are not new moves - consumers know that Apple does this. Making the choice to go with Apple is not all upside - but it's not liek its sneaky or done in a way to actively fuck people just for money.

And Apple could make a bad decision and have people leave en masse.

You think the choice is more limited and "bad" for the consumer - many consumers don't agree (looking at Apple's profits its the case - looking at market share Apple is not the dominant player in the space.) (This isn't a poor person voting Republican situation.)

I think removing the headphone jack will definitely have some people leave. I agree (and posted over in the GD discussion) that not having the ability to listen to music with headphones and charge the iPhone at the same time will be bad - especially for people who own cars without iPhone integration.

There's always the iPhone dock or one of those Belkin splitters (not yet released) or bluetooth receiver - but again I agree it's bad.

But I felt that removing the optical drive from laptops was a bad move - now I don't care at all (and I have a $60 bluray recorder when I need it.)

Pentalobe screws? Man, GOFOH. You could get the screwdrivers for $1.99 within two weeks of the switch.

As for audiophiles - they don't like the iPhone *now* - it won't make a difference. The last Apple product they loved was the 5th gen iPod.

What they do are buy headphone amps - or custom DACS with balanced headphone outputs.