“It plays on iPod!” “You can play it on iPod!” “Put your Real Audio files on your iPod!” Enticed by a dizzying maelstrom of assurances and come ons, Ogilvy PR director John Bell bought an iPod and tried to port his Real Audio collection to his new, glistening white brick. Try as he might, he couldn’t get the Real Audio files to play on his iPod. 92 steps and four hours later, after following tech help from Real Networks and driving to the Apple store, he still can’t get it to play.

In the end, one Apple rep suggested to him that, “back and forth bad blood between the companies that precluded cross support.”

Further proof that after 30 years as a cult brand, Apple has quickly come to the point where it unilaterally creates its own reality, at consumer’s expense.

Read more: “Trust is down in Real Networks” [Digital Influence Mapping Project]

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