[trekky1700]

Rather than smashing $500 into oblivion, wouldn't it be better to sell it and donate the money to some worthy cause, you'd probably be able to get better publicity coverage for that too. I can't help but feel disgusted with people smashing their iPhones out of rage over an app, throwing away hundreds of dollars, while many families can't even afford to eat. Sig, first world problems.

[diydsp]

Red herring fallacy. Why are you typing and reading this instead of volunteering right now?

It's a symbolic protest. Baudrillard noted the opacity of Americans to perceive symbolic protest. It points out that Apple will no longer have the privilege of revenue from these particular devices.

[sanswork]

I think in the general population you'll find a lot more people who would be so annoyed at the people smashing their phones that their message will be drowned out with anyone they might possibly be trying to influence.

People won't see this and think "Apple is bad for blocking these types of apps" they'll think "I can't believe those guys smashed perfectly good phones!" and the message is lost.

As for the lost revenue they only revenue Apple will be losing is future iTunes store purchases. Should they give the phone away to someone that was going to buy one they will probably cost Apple around $300 in lost profit. Given Apples take from the iTunes store it would take a very long time for most users to hit that level of profit. So it's not even effective as revenue denial.

[mcintyre1994]

They should have gone to their local Apple store and given it to someone inside about to buy an iPhone, much bigger revenue hit in almost every case.

[DaemonHN]

But this wouldn't affect Apple as much. By destroying the phone, they're effectively reducing the number of users. If they sold it, the number of iPhone users stays the same. Not to mention that it makes quite a dramatic statement: "I'm so upset, I'd rather lose $xxx dollars than continue passively supporting Apple's policies"

[herokusaki]

Proof of rage?

[higherpurpose]

Selling the iPhone means someone else is getting it. The point of this "protest" is to get Apple to have fewer users.