There is no actual &quot;revolt&quot; because both Apple and Amazon make sure it doesn&#x27;t happen by using CBR. You&#x27;re right in that consumers don&#x27;t care about it all that much.<p>But let&#x27;s say Amazon decides to go with VBR to save space and download speed, now there&#x27;s an easy way for Apple to attack Amazon. &quot;We never dip below a certain quality. Amazon does. We care. Amazon doesn&#x27;t&quot;<p>Maybe that ad&#x2F;slogan works, or maybe it doesn&#x27;t. But if you&#x27;re Amazon would you be willing to risk some weird consumer backlash over it? And if you&#x27;re Apple it is an easy point to attack, and if it doesn&#x27;t work, no harm no foul (and then secretly also switch to VBR and announce it at the next Apple conference!)