One of the reasons I have always held Apple in a high regard revolves around they have offered an international service, and rarely favoured US customers above those in Europe. Of course, there have always been price discrepancies between countries but that is an acceptable part of business and we have come to accept the increases in price in the UK. Whether that is to do with exchange rate, tax, or the fact that we are happy to lay down more cash - I don’t know.

Recently, however, it seems that this strength is deteriorating. One of the first announcement and services which completely bypassed us as Europeans was the iTunes Music Store. This was pretty disappointing at first, but it didn’t take too long for a UK version to be offered. This was followed by Apple introducing TV Shows and then Movies for sale through iTunes. This was back in 2005, and to this date it is still not possible to purchase any video in Europe at all from iTunes (aside from music videos). I can understand how Apple need to negotiate rights and all the legal issues surrounding video sales - but it does seem that if they really tried they could sort that out hastily enough. They managed to fine in the USA…

With all their new products (Apple TV, Video iPod, iPhone to name a few) focusing around video it is really quite staggering that they still don’t offer any video in Europe.

The latest product to hit the USA way before Europe is the massively anticipated iPhone. Apple went ahead and announced it in the US, placed all the promotional material on their website and even redesigned their site in the wake of that announcement. The European websites are still the same, and there is little or no mention of the iPhone. Apple haven’t announced a carrier, or given a specific release date at all for Europe.

I think that as a company, it really is time to start placing more value on their European customers. Come on Apple, start feeding us some information and keeping us in the loop! You can’t grow and expand without your customers across the pond.