I’m fucking tired of any douche pundit or supposed technology expert complaining about Apple marking up their music player that, according to someone who isn’t actually doing the work, cost Apple $22 in parts.  This, according to BusinessWeek’s info from iSuppli, doesn’t include manufacturing labor, R&D, marketing, IP licensing, and anything else aside from the shit in the box.

So why is everyone complaining about their favorite (or not) company charging so much for the iPod Shuffle?  If Apple doesn’t present the world with cupcakes and fucking sunshine every quarter, the stock tanks to shit and everyone is discussing how Apple is going to lose its place in the world’s music market.  How does Apple get to the top of profit margins in the industry? Gouging the hell out of you while making you enjoy the gouging every step of the way.  And I’m all for it.

Sure, the Shuffle takes a little bit of cash to build.  But do you enjoy it?  Did you think it was worth every penny you spent on it before you realized it was $22 in bits of Chinese garbage thrown together in a pretty machined aluminum case?  Of course you did. Only now that your wallet feels betrayed by the marketing machine of Cupertino will you feign dismay at their overcharging you for the music player you use at the gym to flash at someone, hoping to get their attention.

To anyone who is complaining: shut your mouth and build one yourself.  Asustek, or their spinoff company Pegatron, is making a killing assembling these things for Apple faster and better than any douche in the USA could do it for.  And if they could, would you really want to pay $275 for a union-built, certified by Al Gore zero-emission iPod Shuffle?  Not me.

(PS: I’m basing my Asustek assertion on the serial numbers I’ve seen of the new Shuffle.  Foxconn may be building them, too, but as far as I know, the “4H” serial prefix was designated to Asustek.)