I think there were two problems with the U2 thing...

First, U2's general public perception as far as grandstanding[0]...

I think the bigger subconscious part was, at the time, Apple stuff was still premium price compared to most other brands, and the consumer perceived price of a U2 album, i.e. "It would cost me 10-15$ to buy this at Media Play^W^W FYE^W Best buy or wherever, couldn't they have made the contract price 10-15$ (which back then may have been as much as 5-10% of cost) cheaper"?

Cause I know an ex-partner bitched about that.

And, to other's comments, they bitched about the bono stuff popping up randomly playing music...[1]

[0] - I mean there was a whole south park episode about Bono's grandstanding...

[1] - Interestingly, the South Park episode was good therapy for her.