RE: "did the success of the iPod and the introduction of the iPhone make this company so greedy"

This is not greed. It's called COMPETITION.

Apple is in business to make a PROFIT. As much profit as it can make. The law does NOT restrict how much profit a company can make. Apple is NOT the only company making portable music players, it is NOT the only company making mobile phones, and it does NOT provide a life essential product nor service. If you don't like Apple's prices, BUY FROM ANOTHER COMPANY. It is not Apple's mandate to supply YOU a phone on YOUR terms.

Vodafone Germany is trying to protect its market. However, would Mercedes sue BMW because drivers could NOT buy a Mercedes at a BMW showroom? No! Vodafone did not want to agree to Apple's terms and, now, Vodafone realizes that it could lose business.

Vodafone is using the current law to protect its interest and filed the lawsuit as a fallback tactic, since its strategic decision, to not pay Apple, was WRONG!

First of all I never sayed Apple is a monopoly.  I'm simply not a blinded fanboy anymore. So why does European iPhone cost almost $200 more, why instead of doing what's best for the customer (as they used to do) they lock the phone only to receive a healthy share of the monthly fees.Don't get me started on ringtones or ipod games. wake up!

Apple obviously knows they have a great product with the iPhone, but I fear greed is going to do them in, in the end. I hope we will not see a repeat of the Mac, which was ahead of everybody back in 1984, but priced out of reach for most people, and has always remained a small niche. Maybe Apple thinks the iPhone is so far ahead of everybody that they can get away with anything, but the Mac was even farther ahead of DOS/Windows in its first decade, but people bought the slowly improving Wintel anyway. And then basically the same thing happened at NeXT, which was again a decade ahead of everybody, but went nowhere because of the low low minimum entrance fee of $10,000.

The iPod is Apple's only dominant product, because the price premium is not crazy. The brand name competing media players have some extra fluff and features, but usually don't cost much less (if at all). The iPod is priced right for mainstream dominance. The iPhone is not.

Hardware wise, it's clear from the iTouch that they can make a healthy profit if the iPhone was sold unlocked for €399. At €499 or €599, they would have margins that others can only dream of. Selling it for €999 (or €399 plus mandatory 2-year contract for minimum €1176 ) is just plain greed. Yes, I do think they have a great product, and that's why I think they could do some real damage to the Nokias, SEs and Samsungs if they were priced with reasonable margins of, say, 30%. But it seems Apple always likes getting lots of profit out of a small number of people better than getting less spread over a big number of people.

Of course, it's their product, and they can charge as much it as they like. I just hope they don't get so arrogant to think that they're so far ahead of their competition that they're untouchable. Remember the Mac. Remember NeXT.

"this is a very negative apple site on the whole for a mac site"

maybe you are right, but maybe just maybe they look at everything with a more open mind then you?

"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man." - The Dude

OK, I understand some of that.  I'm NOT an Apple Fanboy.  I use Macs and Windows (don't call them PC's.  Macs are PC's too...  remember, PC means Personal Computer.  No matter what OS it runs) and I even have a Linux Media Center box hooked up.  I love and hate them all.  Apple needs to make money, yes.  But it does make a LOT of money, conidering its share of the computer market hovers between 10-15%.

Microsoft makes way more money.  Easily.  Bill Gates is the richest man in the world for a reason.  He's smart and knows what people need.  I say need because the business world is almost entirely Windows.  If you need Access databases or an Exchange Server, you NEED Windows.  Apple makes products you want, that's how it makes money.

No one NEEDS an iPod, an iPhone, an Apple TV, or a slick, all-in-one computer with a 24" screen.  We want that stuff.  We could do basically the same things with a crappy MP3 player from Coby, a free Samsung phone from Sprint, a VCR, and a $300 Wal-Mart PC.  But we don't want to.  The Mac user experience is just plain better.  Everything just works.  I can download a movie, either through iTunes or "other means" and play it on my iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or Laptop.  I can record my EyeTV and do the same thing.  Can you do that on Windows?  H-E-Double Hockey Sticks No!  The Zune 2 (The NEW one) doesn't even support Microsoft's Plays-For-Sure copy protection.  That's right.  The Microsoft Zune doesn't even play Microsoft's music.  How's that for greedy?  You have to re-buy all your music left over from the MSN Music Store at the Zune Marketplace.  That's pretty crappy.

And let's talk about upgrades.  Upgrading from Vista can cost up to $400 if you want all the features.  You can get a stripped down version for $150, but all the features are $400.  All the features of an OSX upgrade are $129.  Want a stripped down version?  Too bad.  There's only one version.  The whole shebang for $129.  Eat that, Gates.

Nowadays, for home computing, anyway, you have a choice.  Pay more for a Mac with a fantastic user experience, and every couple of years drop a Benjamin for a new OS, or get a Vista box for less, pay for virus protection, anti-spyware, and a $400 upgrade every 5-6 years.  It all works out in the end.  I have a MacBook Pro running Leopard with iWork '08.  I haven't even opened Microsoft Office on this machine.  I have it, but I've never used it.  The programs in iWork can read and write office files, so why bother?

Make your choice, and live with it. 

And why not? Why can't they offer their products like they want to? If no one will buy the "bundled BMW", they might change their product ..  it seems that there's a lucrative market for the bundle Apple/Mobile Carrier (at least right now), so why can't they offer their product this way?