Apple Charges For 802.11n, Blames Accounting Law

If you have a Core 2 Duo Macintosh, the built-in WLAN card is capable of networking using (draft 2) 802.11n. This capability can be unlocked via an update Apple distributes with the new AirPort Extreme Base Station. Or, they will sell it to you for $4.99. Why don't they give it away for free, say with Software Update? Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (which was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal). iLounge quotes an Apple representative: "It's about accounting. Because of the Act, the company believes that if it sells a product, then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn't finished delivering the product at that point."

Comments

Don't tell Microsoft!

[celardore]

Imagine if they even charged $1 for every patch, for every user. There are more MS patches for a product than every dollar in the asking price for said product. I'm aware that Apple are scared because it's a "new feature", but MS has done that a lot.

Oh, poo on that...

[fudgefactor7]

Here's how Apple can get around SOX: Put the update on their site, list it as BETA, let anyone register to be a "Beta Tester" for the application, they have to agree that this is a Beta, and you have to uninstall the product when the final implimentation comes out...kind of like what MS does...then let people have the file. Or they can charge you $4.99 for it, but give you a special once-only keycode that's worth $4.99 off any purchase. Result: a wash, accounting-wise. No odd accounting practices, no shuffling of cards, just people getting the app.
 
It's funny how BIOS updates and other drivers aren't seemingly worried about SOX...or how Microsoft Update isn't either...

Re:Option (c)

[bluephone]

But would this still apply if you never promise to upgrade it? TFA says that the clarification from Apple is that they may be accused of selling unfinished products, and recognizing revenue from those unfinished products too early (which is retarded IMO, but then I'm not an accountant). If they never come out and state they WILL offer new features, but DO later with these firmware updates, could they not then claim the product was finished, but these were free bonus features? They can justly state that consumers bought the product as sold with no promises of future expansions, thus the customer wasn't buying some potentially unfulfilled future promise (which, IIRC was the point of anti-Enron laws, to keep companies from spending now money that had to be used to fulfill their obligations).

Similarly, what if: with the products there's a disclaimer that Apple makes no guarantees that there will be future product enhancements, only bug fixes for the declared product lifespan (like MS does with Windows support lifetime declarations), and that any future product enhancement that MAY exist MAY OR MAY NOT be offered for free to existing users of this product.

This is where we get asinine workarounds just to comply with poorly drafted and overly expansive laws that are crafted too quickly and reach too far. This is why accounting, and law in general, is so byzantine needed the existence of entire cadres of lawyerbots just to navigate the waters...