Why is it not possible to merge apple id's?

Question

Why is Apple being so stubborn that they will not let us merge two apple id's?  Forget that, I just want to change the primary e-mail address on my NON-MOBILEME apple id to my e-mail address, but for some reason it has a mobileme address in there and will not let me change it!  REMEMBER THIS IS A NON-MOBILE ME itunes account!!  HELP!

Answer 1

you can change an apple id that is NOT a mobile me address but you can NOT do so if it has EVER been a secondary email on ANY apple id. This is the **** i've been going through the past couple of days!
if your primary email is a mobile me or dotmac email that *is* your apple id and it permanent you can not change it ever.
if, however you have a non-email apple id, you can merge your email into your apple id on THAT account ; you can not combine apple id's. I'm quite certain it has to do with the licensing of the music, and some loophole that would help pirates.
you CAN change your PRIMARY email on a non-mobile me email address but like mentioned above NOT if it's EVER been accoisated to ANY apple id.
the workaround: an ALIAS:
say for example you inadvertenly assigned [email protected] to your mobileme apple id as a secondary email, THAT will prevent you from making it your primary email on your other apple id, but you CAN set it to [email protected] and if you set up an alias that points [email protected] -> [email protected] then you can do that and then delete [email protected] from your non-mobile me account and you can add [email protected] to your mobileme acocunt (the benefit of that is that you can use findmyfriends with your REAL email address.
the only drawback is that when you buy something the receipts will go via the alias.
it's a bummer that you have to have two accounts but it's actually good to have the iTunes purchases NOT share the same login and password are your email and frequently entred user/passwords for iCloud / mobileme.
-awr