IPOD's Dirty Little Secret

Yup, this story's a little old. In fact, you can see where I first told Seth Godin about this in November in his blog. Now Seth must have received a bunch of e-mail regardin this issue because he posted this update in his blog regarding where to find cheaper replacement IPOD batteries (the fact is that on the Apple support site they list the battery reapir at $99.00). Even more interesting is that Gizmodo recently reported that the British Parliament was looking at getting involved in Apple's replacement battery cost pricing (as you'll note when you link through, Apple is listing a replacement battery on their UK site for 79 pounds).

Here's the point: The original IPOD's Dirty Little Secret video made news everywhere on the web. Did it matter that either the guys were wrong or that Apple had since corrected the problem? NO! The point is in the viral transmission of the message. The guys have a relatively valid complaint about unacceptable performance -- the point is the transmission; I would argue that his Internet video was far more effective than spraypainting billboards (and not illegal).