Apple sucks

Apple is a strange kind of company. They have a reputation for being a consumer friendly company and, at times, they take actions which are very consumer friendly. But on the other hand, they also do stuff which looks seriously sketchy from a consumer point of view.

The latest case in point is their action against a young entrepreneur who had the idea to sell white iPhone 4 conversion kits prior to the launch of the white iPhone 4 (worth mentioning that I found this post via Techdirt - love that site!).

Reading through that article as well as the various articles it links to, it appears that some 17 year old kid in the US managed to build up a relationship with a supplier in China for white iPhone 4 repair parts from Foxconn, one of Apple's suppliers. This was before the white iPhone 4 actually launched and judging from the articles, it looks like a lot of people were really looking forward to buying a white iPhone 4. The kid realised that there was a market opportunity here (smart kid) so he sold those repair parts as a conversion kit so that people could convert their iPhone 4 into a white iPhone 4.

And for this, Apple is suing the kid for trademark infringement.

Apple - Really? You are going to sue a 17 year old kid for, what is effectively, the buying and selling of iPhone 4 parts?

What are you going to do next? Sue me if I ever sell my iPod nano?

Apple's decision is baffling on many levels and makes me suspect whether there is more to the story than initially meets the eye. With that said, I can't think of any likely scenario where what the kid did could be considered wrong (the only thing I can think of is if he tried to pretend he was an actual Apple representative but if this is the case, I'm pretty sure that the news would have covered it as well).

Update: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha