Handbags at dawn for the war
of the smug
It seemed a marriage made in heaven; toymaker Steve Jobs
and popular beat combo U2.
However it seems that the marriage of the
terminally smug fell down over who controlled things. Front man Bono has been
muttering in the Canadian press that Steve Job's tendencies for tight control of
its products drove U2 bonkers. In the end that lead to U2 walking into the
arms of Apple rival Research in Motion's BlackBerries.
Bono moaned that the
last straw was when U2 had approached Apple for designing products but had been
rejected. Apparently Steve refused to let anyone other than himself come up
with any designs. Bono said that RIM is going to give U2 access to their labs
and their people so it "can do something really spectacular". Apparently Jobs
would not allow another visions than his own.
From 2004 through 2006 sold U2
Edition iPods that had special colours and engravings as well as discounted or
free downloads of U2 music and videos.