I have 2 Apple IDs. How can I move all my purchased (paid-for) apps under only 1 of my Apple IDs?

Question

Long ago I bought several, relatively expensive, apps under a old Apple ID.
I then purchased many more paid-for apps under a new Apple ID.
I was unaware that the purchased apps are tied to the Apple ID which I happen to be logged in with, at the time of the purchase: I thought they'd be tied to my authorised PC(s).
Now I'm absolutely sick of having to constantly switch between IDs, even just to CHECK for updates.
What I want to do is move all the paid-for apps which I bought under the old Apple ID to the new Apple ID. Both ID demonstrably belong to me.
Having all my apps under 1 only Apple ID would allow me to update them easily, and no longer be FORCED to switch IDs all the time.
In short I want to use only 1 Apple ID for the future.
If the Apple Store locks the apps to the Apple ID (as it does) instead than to the authorised PC (as it should do), then it should also PREVENT a user from creating a second Apple ID (at least, from the same iTunes installation on the same PC!), or at the very least display a HUGE warning that any paid-for apps purchased under another, older Apple ID will be unavailable under the new Apple ID! The apple Store, and iTunes, do neither thing,
Then the Apple Store and iTunes should at the very least allow a user to put all apps under the same Apple ID!
After all, the Apple Store and iTunes on my PC and iTunes on my Iphone can all "see" that I own TWO legitimate Apple IDs (with purchases and updates): it must be possible to move these apps from one ID to the another ID, at least once! They're MY OWN purchases, paid: can I manage them a bit easier?
Marco

Answer 1

No, it seems you don't (want to) understand. I see 2 things very wrong with your explanation.
1. The move would only need to happen between "accounts" demonstrably and legitimately belonging to the same user. In fact, I'm still using both the old one (for updates only, no new purchases) and the new one (updates and purchases -- actually no morep urchases until Apple solves this). And unless I'm mistaken, I can already have my apps on more than one iDevice at the time: eg. on 1 iPhone and1 iPad. I don't ask for apps to be moved between unrelated accounts: only between accounts belonging to the same "person". And I do not see how changing what is effectively just a "label" embedded in the binary files residing on my hard disk (or in the cloud), which can be verified as legitimately belonging to me thru two ID registered on the same authorised PC could possibly allow anyone to cheat the system. The apps' files have embedded an old label before, and a new label after the operation, both belonging to me, associated to my payment details. That's not rocket science.
In fact, both my Apple ID were at some point linked to the same credit card. And in fact, I only created a second one because at some point I managed to forget my Hotmail EMAIL password, not my Apple STORE password!
The two passwords needn't be the same, adding to the confusion. For months I used that account to buy apps, and never checked the email, since I was not interested in marketing from Apple, and I could see the payments from my credit card statements: that's how I forgot my Hotmail EMAIL password for that Hotmail email address.
Since Microsoft wouldn't allow me to access my Hotmail account anymore (and rightly so, becuase I managed to exhaust all possibilities, and even forgot the security question), and so I could not check my Apple Store emails, I then decided to create a new account, this time with a Live! email address, and this time I used the same password for both the Live! EMAIL and the Apple STORE authentication.
For more than TWO years I used the old Hotmail Apple ID to get updates, without during all that time being able to read the email or access that Hotmail account: this should tell you how stupid this system is! And for the same time, and until last month (I no longer buy anything), I used the new ID for both NEW purchases and their updates.
Now after getting both a new iPhone (only because the old one was unfortunately stolen on my holiday) and a new PC, i NO longer want to be forced to use both IDs, which forces me to constantly switch between them, and also carries the risk that I inadvertently purchase something with the old one, to which EMAIL address I no longer have access: so I can't even check invoices. But most of all, I don't want to be inconvenienced like this by Apple.
Since the Apple ID is such an important concept, forever ID tied to your purchases, it should NOT be an email address, which are disposable by their own nature. When creating it, one is naturally driven to think it'll only be needed to check Apple Store's emails and newsletters and the such. Why should people be forced to FOREVER use an email address, perhaps linked to a job or relationship they had years earlier, to update their purchases?
The thing is, Apple made the Apple IDs as email addresses simply to ensure that as many people as possible can at any time buy as many apps and songs as possible: just create a new Apple ID: after all, it is (seems) just an email address! and you're done. But they DON'T telly you they'll tie FOREVER your purchases to it. So you're reasonably entitled to think they'll tie them to your payments details, until you discover otherwise the hard way.
And since most Apple users feel humbled by Apple (the "genial" idea of calling "Genius" the support guys at the stores, wo usually don't have a clue on anyhting less than trivial, is part of this) and fear of feeling "stupid" for getting wrong soemthing with what are supposed to be the most user-friendly company and products, they will simply buy the apps again under the new ID, bringing more profits to Apple. This also can't be casual.
My apps are available, under both Apple IDs at the same time, to iTunes: be it on my PC on in the iCloud. The same mechanism that physically "embeds" that Apple ID in the app file when I first buy it, can surely be used to change it afterwards. It's just a matter of willing to do so. This content (apps, songs, etc) may be digital (that is, files) rather than traditional (eg. books), but I assure you that the disk blocks taken by the app or song files in the iTunes directory on my PC or in the iCloud are as physical as a book or a mp3 player: they CAN be changed in a perfectly safe and trackable way, without risk of cheating. Ever heard of MAC addresses? Or other unique info that can easily be gathered from the PC's operating system or BIOS? or credit card details, already available?
2. The policy of inconveniencing (punishing) the huge majority of users (citizens) to prevent a tiny minority from misbehaving can be good for sheep, but not for rational people. It's typical of unimaginative, monopolistic companies (oppressive governments), not of progressive, modern and innovative ones. The cost of protecting their proficts from those who would steal from them is theirs (the company's), not ours (the users'). They should be more creative and inventive, in finding solutions to stop 10 people who would misuse their system, rather than annoying the 10 million who won't. I would never do so (mostly because I thing it's morally wrong, but also because I can't be bothered), but I understand why people invent ways to circumvent this gratuituos, bullish constraints.
Also, CAN'T you REALLY see the difference between these TWO options:
- allowing a user to change an app's associated account ONCE IN A LIFETIME, even only ONCE per app
- FORCING a user to switch Apple IDs EVERY TIME (DAY, OR WEEK) FOREVER, to check and/or update
??? Am I talking to a person, or to a robot, or to a undercover Apple employee here?
Both things are possible. The second is more convenient financially for Apple, that's all.
But it's also so clearly unfair to their customers. No more, thanks.
To finish, many if not almost all of the issues in threads like https://discussions.apple.com/message/18954743#18954743 (like husband and wife sharing a PC with two iPhones, or kids' gifts, etc) really boil down to this issue, despite being often complicated by sloppy explanation (when they say "password" , do they mean the Apple ID's or the Email account's?, and so on) and unreasonable requests (like having the same app, only paid once, available under two IDs, even if on the same PC: this is not what I ask, and it's unreasonable) -- and could be solved by the concept of a "master" ID and "secondary" ID: if you read well, the real issue is almost always for everybody having to switch between "old" (or "wife's", "kids'") and new (or "husband's", "dad's") Apple IDs: and this must be done on BOTH the iTunes application on the PC or Mac, and on the devices themselves.