The 15 Dumbest Apple Predictions Of All Time
It's easy to dump ire on anlysts for getting it wrong so often. What those guys do, however, is provide a particular service to particular people. Interpreting what analysts say in terms of truth or falsity is to forget the real lesson we should take from Prof. Frankfurt: words build worlds.
That said, here are some of the most awesome flubs to be found in the futures that people have wished for Apple. Recommended listening while reading this list is "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."
The iMac Will Fail
"The iMac will only sell to some of the true believers. The iMac doesn't include a floppy disk drive drive for doing file backups or sharing of data. It's an astonishing lapse from Jobs, who should have learned better... the iMac is clean, elegant, floppy-free–and doomed.” — Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Globe, 1998.
Give the Money Back
"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." — Michael Dell in October 1997,as an immediate prelude to a renaissance that would see Apple ultimately eclipse Dell in size.
Coming Soon: Apple's Subnotebook/Tablet/UMPC/Newton 2
"UltraPortable PCs from Apple using Flash memory to be delivered as early as Macworld San Francisco 2007." — Benjamin Reitzes in June 2006.
In Reitzes' defense, the fellow scried the Mac Mini three months before it appeared. And here's Gene Munster with the same thing, just a few days ago. Someone will eventually get the timing right. Right?
Gamers Will Flock To Macs
"Gaming will be an important part of Apple’s focus on the consumer market. ... By the end of calendar year 1999, the Mac platform will have the best gaming machines available to the general consumer." — the usually-wise Robert Paul Leitlao, in 1998.
Apple's Post-iPod Era Decline Proceeds Apace
“The biggest long-term problem with moving to an Apple platform is that the company is in decline." — Rob Enderle, in October 2003.
iPhone, The Bomb of 2007
"The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks." — Matthew Lynn, in Bloomberg after the January announcement.
IPhone Revolution To Kill Subsidy Status Quo?
"Wolf also notes that he expects Apple to sell the phone as an unlocked device through the Apple Stores, allowing people to choose their own carrier." — Charles Wolf, paraphrased by Barrons' Eric Savitz in January. In reality, to quote one AT&T executive, Apple ultimately "bent" for them.
Hewlett Packard iPod To Be a Winner
"The expectation on the iPod is that HP's version will probably outsell Apple's version relatively quickly." — Rob Enderle, quoted in MacObserver in August 2004.
Sony To Buy Apple
"Within the next two months, Sony will acquire Apple. ... Sony will be the white knight who will step into the picture." — former Apple VP Gaston Bastiaens, in January 1996.
A Range of Click-Wheel iPhones
"Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora said the first and slimmer of Apple's initial two cell phone models will look like an iPod with a small screen and a click wheel interface." — Jesse Tortoya, paraphrased by MacRumors.
The Goose is Cooked
"Apple as we know it is cooked. It's so classic. It's so sad." — Stan Dolberg of Forrester Research, quoted by the New York Times in 1996. See also Fortune's "By the time you read this story, the quirky cult company…will end its wild ride as an independent enterprise," from the same year. Time: "Certainly No Future."
Microsoft's Nathan Myhrvold couldn't even predict the present: "Apple is already dead," he said after Jobs' return.
AppleTV's Features and Impact
"Apple's iTV will include features beyond streaming content and could have an impact on video similar to what the iPod has done for music." — Andy Neff of Bear Stearns packs several failed prognostications into one sentence.
Jobs, Shjobs!
"The idea that they're going to go back to the past to hit a big home run . . . is delusional" — Dave Winer, quoted by the Financial Times in 1997.
Self-Mutilation or Sale Is the Only Way Forward
"[Apple] seems to have two options. The first is to break itself up, selling the hardware side. The second is to sell the company outright." — The Economist, Feb. 1995
Shut Down The Primary Source Of Revenue
"Admit it. You're out of the hardware game," — Us, in 1997. Of course, the rest of Wired's 101 Ways To Save Apple list is packed with suggestions that turned out to be chillingly accurate! ("We’d all feel better ... if we could get a tower with leopard spots.")
Any others to add? Now, don't go posting the complete works of Rob Enderle, folks. Bandwidth isn't free.
Don't forget the classic Slashdot zinger where the site's editor smugly informed readers that this new iPod device sucked: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."
Post the comments of Rob Enderle? Er, no. He's paid for page-views, not insight. When he has more insight then the industry might give him respect. Respect is *earned*
How about the retail thing... how many articles are out there about how apple will fail in the retail business
He palenoue:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/mac-users-get-a.html
LOL. Pwned.
The iMac didn't fail??
Ed Zander: "Screw the Nano. What the hell does the Nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?"
After which the iPod nano sold millions and millions while the ROKR became obsolete in one year, only to be replaced wholesale with Apple's next set of magic tricks - the iPhone and two revisions of the iPod.
I'll give him one thing. People don't want to listen to 1,000 songs. They want to listen to as many songs as they can fit on their MP3 players.
Businessweek on the Apple retail store, May 2001: "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake," says Goldstein.
"There's some top secret features to Leopard that we're going to keep a little close to the vest and not going to show you today. I just want you to know they're there. We don't want our friends to start their photocopiers any sooner than they have to. So we're going to keep a few things a little secret." - S. Jobs
Beschizza is Enderle spelled backwards. Bizarro world, Kool-Aid style.
Dude, you forget to put the most important quote for your list:
"If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth -- and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago."
-- Fortune, Feb. 19, 1996
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/03/70512
Technically, its not a 'dumb' quote, as Jobs is doing exactly that, to the dismay of Mac professionals the world over (Leopard delay for the iPhone, etc.).
That games comment was made when Halo 1 was in development for Macintosh!
Heh! That Rob Enderle guy is as sharp as always... ;)
"Apple as we know it is cooked. It's so classic. It's so sad." — Stan Dolberg of Forrester Research
He was right. The Apple of '96 was "cooked." It was a very different Apple that succeeded after that date.
"Apple as we know it is cooked. It's so classic. It's so sad." — Stan Dolberg of Forrester Research
He was right. The Apple of '96 was "cooked." It was a very different Apple that succeeded after that date.
'iPhone, The Bomb of 2007
"The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks." — Matthew Lynn, in Bloomberg after the January announcement.'
What makes you think this ranks as a "dumb quote"?
At the moment, with the iPhone being released in a retarded/limited fashion, requiring some notable geekiness to unlock, and being reliant on highly priced mobile data services to utilise the more advanced features of the handset (rather than allowing WiFi connectivity), it is still an overpriced bauble for geeks.
Add to that the fact that Apple is delaying the iPhone release into other markets outside of the US to maintain the "cool crowd" kind of vibe the iPhone has garnered, I'd say that this quote is bang on the money.
If it had been about the iPod - whole different story.
'The Beatles will soon be available on iTunes' - just about every journo every week since what feels like the beginning of time. I suppose someone will get it right eventually.
Shouldn't there be some type of lifetime achievement award for Dvorak's mess of predictions?
Today has announced a new MP3 player/Music Service, dubbed the "iPod/iTunes Killer".
Luke,
"At the moment, with the iPhone...SNIP...being reliant on highly priced mobile data services to utilise the more advanced features of the handset"
The iPhone has UNLIMITED DATA for its plans. Non-issue except for SMS.
Weather - FREE
Stocks - FREE
Safari/Internet - FREE
email - FREE
YouTube - FREE
Google Maps - FREE
ITunes Store - FREE (data downloads)
Camera-to-email - FREE
Oh noes! I have to pay to "utilise the more advanced features of the handset"....uh....such as SMS???? LOL Big deal. I'd consider the above free things to be the advanced functions.
Put your Zune down for a second and play with one of your friend's iPhones. Barring friends, visit an Apple Store.
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse'. There is no evidence that people want to use these things". — John C. Dvorak, 1984
To answer Jouster:
Matthew Lynn's Bloomberg quote has earned its right to be listed as a 'dumb quote' ("...luxury bauble that will appeal to gadget freaks"), because that's what it is. If anyone hadn't noticed yet, iPhone is by far most successful consumer electronic device in history, with broadest of all possible appeals. Gadget freaks? Well, it turns out world population is then made entirely of gadget freaks and geeks (with very few notable exceptions, such as our Jouster here).
As for the inaccuracies, iPhone does NOT require unlocking in order to work properly (and activation is as straightforward and as un-geeky as it gets); iPhone's data plan is the LEAST expensive among all the competition ($20 extra, on top of the CHEAPEST voice plan, for UNLIMITED data!!??)
Correction: my message was referring to Luke, not Jouster (first-time visitor; didn't quite interpret the forum format; sorry to Jouster)
Dvorak VS Enderle for America's Biggest Dillbag Award.
S. Balmer:
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."
There were dozens/hundreds of announcement of Apple's imminent demise back in the early and late 1980s. Saw a collection of them on the web once, can't find it now.
Here is a list of a few dozen such predictions from the last 10 years that shows up on the Apple Death Knell:
http://www.macobserver.com/appledeathknell/index.shtml
Given enough years these predictions will eventually become true, but it may be many, many years.
The iMac in '98 was a failure. Going without a floppy drive was ahead of its time but OS9, the puck mouse and a host of other little things were complete crap.
But, hey, at least you could get it in teal...
I know quite a few Apple long-time users (everyone has their faults...) and none of them would touch an iMac back then. Other than the one I loathingly had to use at work, I've never even seen one in the wild...
Analysts don't have the word 'anal' in their name for no reason.
"This will be a difficult year for Apple, and the iPhone could be more of a drag on earnings than a help."
Yep, Enderle on Apple for 2007. Unbelievable insight!
And we can't let that other Apple hater Paul Thurrot get away from this little exercise:
"Apple's short-term success is very real and quite admirable, but the company's inability to see coming trends in video, subscription content, and interoperability suggests that Apple is repeating the mistakes of the past."
Paul Thurrot, 2004
I laughed so loud I ached at that one...!
"Apple Computer, everyone's favourite little OS imitator; excuse me, innovator."
Paul Thurrot, 2004
"Leopard is the fifth minor revision to the company's OS X system, and it is shipping almost exactly a year after Windows Vista, an OS that Apple incessantly ridiculed for its tardiness."
Yep Paul Thurrot again..
Do these guys have VERY thick skins, or what?
Don't forget the Disney + Apple + Pixar rumors that caught even the attention of Matt Drudge in 1999. Here's an old reference to it Salon.com
http://archive.salon.com/21st/log/1999/02/17log.html
Disney to buy Apple and Pixar -- rumor at 11
Everyone on the Web loves a good rumor -- and no one, perhaps, more than the devout Mac fans who religiously visit Apple gossip-and-news sites like MacOSRumors, AppleInsider and Apple Recon. So when AppleInsider posted a detailed rumor Tuesday that Disney was going to buy Apple and Pixar in a $12 billion dollar stock swap, with Steve Jobs at the helm of the whole shebang as of June 7, 1999, Apple fans immediately went wild speculating how this would affect their beloved company.
Never mind that AppleInsider reported it as a rumor; at least one person on the AppleInsider message board said he was rushing out to buy stock in both companies. (Despite rampant rumors online, neither Apple, Disney nor Pixar saw major stock value fluctuations Tuesday.) At Slashdot, geeks mulled over Jobs' CEO-worthy qualities, evoked memories of Atari's time in the Warner Brothers fold and swapped jokes about the upcoming iMick -- to the tune of over 100 posts in just a few hours.
it's funny how often analysts make bad predictions:
http://www.applerumortracker.com
wasen´t there a big consultin company who said apple should sell or stop there hardware business for a year ago?
they should concentrate to the software . thats what they do better than other.
:)
Accurate?
And I quote:
60. Abandon the Mach operating system you just acquired and run Windows NT kernel instead. This would let Mac run existing PC programs. (Microsoft actually has Windows NT working on Mac hardware. It also has emulation of Mac programs with NT running on both Power PC and x86.)
- Run Windows NT instead of Mac OS? No. You can run Windows on a Mac - but Mac OS is what is selling Macs. Way off, there budro.
The prediction he gets right every time:
"I will take a crap today."
-- Paul Thurrot
The prediction he gets right every time:
"I will take a crap today."
-- Paul Thurrot
Not every day, sometimes I have writer's block.
November 2006 - Ed Colligan, Palm CEO, on the forthcoming iPhone:
"We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone... PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in."
8 years ago, when Apple was selling at $13 a share, a wise (oops) friend of mine said, "Who would ever buy this stock! It split at $100 and is now over $180. If he had bought 1000 shares of Apple instead of the cheap car that is rusting away in Iowa, He would be approaching HALF A MILLION $. Some financial smarts, huh.
"Today, I am putting a SELL on Apple, the maker of the iPhone" - Laura Goldman - LSG Capital April/07
Apple has gone up over 70% since. Wonder how her customers feel?
MarkM: Just because you didn't have an Imac it doesn't mean that it wasn't successful. Imac made Apple return to profitability back in 1998. I remember people talking about it all the time and me wanting one so badly! This is part of an Forbe's article in 2000:
"1999 was a banner year for Apple, whose rainbow-hued iMacs and snazzy iBooks made a fashion statement for the entire industry. The company's stock is up nearly 300% to $113.81 per share since the beginning of last year (the stock rose 4.56 points yesterday). In the process, Apple ended fiscal 1999 with a $601 million profit, and its current market value of $15.6 billion is five times what it was two years ago."
Be nice.
Nice retort, streetwalkers. Ironically, that should be the name of all the hataz...
:)
I love it! Mine even gets the top of the list! I like to think it's the elegance of my prose that did it.
Hey, I think I said something similar about the iPod too. Something like, "boy, this thing is cool. But nobody'll pay $400 for a portable music player."
Just call me Nostradamus!
David Perry of Shiny Entertaintment, when invited by Edge Magazine in 1997 to make a prediction for the next ten years (about the game industry), said something like:
"Certainly Edge won't be publishing the magazine using Macs"
Shiny Ent. has ceased to exist as independent company for a while now.
We Macbiggots hold or grudges we do.
:-)
The iMac was not a failure in 1998. The original iMac sold 6 million - the best selling computer of all time ... okay, admitedly, that's also because Pc makers like to name their computers F-5634SW and two months later change it to F-5646SW ... but hey, 6 million is 6 million ...
These predictions prove beyond shadows of doubt that most of these people are, one, "self proclaimed" technical journalists in many cases, who right or wrong, believe they are all knowing and have that inside track (not).
Two, they seem much more interested in short term ratings for their tiny little writing gig than accuracy or depth in reporting, hence a slurry of bad guesses and what amounts to foolish sounding predictions after the fact.
Predicting what Apple or Apple products will do in next month or year, let alone in the next ten minutes is fraught with danger as history has proved time and again.
Tabloid tech journalism is alive and well (no surprise really).
The CryBaby Paul Thurrott is defending his "predictions" on his blog today. Maybe he can soothe the scathing facts showing how out of touch he is by downloading some songs from BuyMusic.com:
"It's clear that Buymusic.com is going to stomp all over the iTunes Music Store. WMA is the right technology, Windows is the right platform, and Buymusic.com supports a much wider range of PCs and devices than does Apple. And there is just no way for Apple to adequately address that problem.
- Paul Thurrott, July 2003
I think the current $35.70 price is too high and when Wall Street begins to understand AAPL's income statement, I think shares could fall to the low $20s
Malcolm Berko, The Beacon News, September 2004
Self-proclaimed expert Paul Thurrott:
"Well, the Mac is dead. I have often argued that the only reason to consider using a Mac these days is for its excellent digital movie applications, iMovie and iDVD. But with the recent release of the Windows Movie Maker 2 beta, Microsoft has walked all over iMovie and just made it look silly, and Sonic's MyDVD 4, though not a perfect replacement for iDVD, is basically just as good. I've enjoyed playing with Mac OS X and my Macs for the past year and a half, but an interesting thing has happened over the past few months: I can no longer say I use the systems every day, as I did for a long time. As the Mac slides inevitably into irrelevance--due partially to the clueless people running the company--I'm just losing interest. You almost had me, guys."
www.internet-nexus.com/2002_11_03_archive.htm
Self-proclaimed expert Paul Thurrott, July 22, 2004:
"So BuyMusic.com is live. Like the excellent iTunes Music Store, it offers digital singles and album for download. The layout of the site is, perhaps, overly similar to iTunes. The similarities end there. BMC offers more songs (300K vs. 200K), better sound (WMA 9 vs. AAC), better prices (singles start at 79 cents vs. 99 cents), much better PC compatibility (it reaches the 97 percent of the world using Windows, not the ~1 percent using OS X), and better device compatibility (slew of devices vs. just a few on iTMS). The much ballyhooed problem with BMC--various DRM-related "limitations"--are not a problem: Most songs have unlimited sharing capabilities, or very reasonable limits (i.e. a limit of 10 CD burns. Oooohhhh.). In other words, iTMS, excellent though it is, is now officially toast. Apple should have supported Windows from Day One. Now it's too late"
www.internet-nexus.com/2003_07_20_archive.htm
The iPhone is more or less a thin-client UMPC, and will be even more so when they start allowing third party apps. It wasn't devlivered at MacWorld 2007, but it was announced. So I kind of think that guy was actually right.
Hi Rob, How you doing?
nice piece , i'm linking you back in the new apple related blog I'm writing for.
(www.theapplelounge.com)
It will be out tomorrow morning.
Thanks and Keep rockin'!!!
P.s. I'm spreading the Table of Malcontents song around, everybody likes it !!
'The iMac in '98 was a failure. Going without a floppy drive was ahead of its time but OS9, the puck mouse and a host of other little things were complete crap.
But, hey, at least you could get it in teal...
I know quite a few Apple long-time users (everyone has their faults...) and none of them would touch an iMac back then. Other than the one I loathingly had to use at work, I've never even seen one in the wild...
'
They weren't selling them to power users like you; you would see them in the average user's home, and they sold a whole crap load of them. My parents (who are older) had one, as did just about every college age kid I knew at the time. In those days (pre-G3, right before the iMac debuted) a pro Apple system fully tricked out could easily cost upwards of $10,000. The iMac really was for the 'rest'. It was a tremendous success with the average consumer. Seems to me after the rev B and C's started coming out that you could look pretty much ANYWHERE and see the proliferation.
HOWEVER, DÉJÀ VU =
"Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to describe the history of the computer industry for the past decade as a massive effort to keep up with Apple."
- Byte, December 1994
"The iMac in '98 was a failure". Yes, such a failure that apple quickly dropped that name in the marketing trash bin with such failures as Edsel, and Microsoft "Bob".
Oops, I forgot. They still make an iMac. Oh yeah, and an iPod. Oh, and iLife and iPhone and iWork.
Never mind.
The iPhone has UNLIMITED DATA for its plans. Non-issue except for SMS.
Weather - FREE
Stocks - FREE
Safari/Internet - FREE
email - FREE
YouTube - FREE
Google Maps - FREE
ITunes Store - FREE (data downloads)
Camera-to-email - FREE
*Since when does a $120 a month plan equate to Free idiot?
How about this prediction. Apple is only 5% of the home computer market.
Oops, STILL IS!
All you smug, arrogant Mac fags just don't get it, and never will. Macs are a pain in the ass and totally inferior to many of the Linux distro's out there and Windows XP.
Period.
AppleTV's Features and Impact
"Apple's iTV will include features beyond streaming content and could have an impact on video similar to what the iPod has done for music." — Andy Neff of Bear Stearns packs several failed prognostications into one sentence.
Andy Neff will be proven correct, once streamed content is accessible through iTV and time shifting of broadcasts is incorporated.
How about an iFuckYou?
If anything Apple needs some WAY better marketing than the smug blusshit Gap style they have now.
Apple marketing is as annoying and uncool as MTV is today. Made for white assholes that wear berkenstocks, dress like they have $4 to their name yet drive a brand new Mini Cooper to work and have horn rimmed glasses. They are always white and have their hair engineered to look messy.
There is no arguement. At 5% of the market for their home systems, no body, NO BODY considers a mac ready for the business world.
It would be like saying the Odyssey console system from 1981 is superior to a Xbox today. It isn't, never has been, never will be.
Keep dreaming Apple fags. You aren't gaining any ground.
"Andy Neff will be proven correct, once streamed content is accessible through iTV and time shifting of broadcasts is incorporated."
I suppose Apple will be dubbed the inventor of streaming video over the net as much as they are credited for inventing the mouse eh *cough XEROX, *Cough.
Delusional twits.
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse.' There is no evidence that people want to use these things." - John C. Dvorak, Feb 1984
"iPhone, The Bomb of 2007
"The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks." — Matthew Lynn, in Bloomberg after the January announcement."
I think this is only slightly wrong. Apple's luxury bauble appeals to a _whole_lot_ of gaget freaks. Which may well be the thing to give it staying power. After all, look how long silly putty has been around. And it can be lots messier than an iPhone.
"Jobs, Shjobs!
'The idea that they're going to go back to the past to hit a big home run . . . is delusional' — Dave Winer, quoted by the Financial Times in 1997."
Well, yes, the idea was delusional. But Jobs moved Apple forward, not backwards. Until he was brought back in, Apple had stagnated and stopped innovating. He didn't resurrect the Mac, he came up with the iMac, new styling, new hardware (CD's standard, USB and firewire among others) and, a bit later, a new (to Apple) operating system, merging an older OS (NeXT rewritten to be Darwin) with a completely new GUI, Aqua. So Dave was right, though about the wrong things.
Michael Kanellos at News.com on the iPhone: "It will largely fail."
http://www.news.com/2010-1041_3-6141607.html
He'd be the first to say that he's a better journalist than product designer, but the trouble is, when he's prognosticating, he isn't a very good journalist, with such gems as "Cell phones aren't clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good." Sounds a lot like Bill Gates talking about Windows 3.1 or 95, with about as much insight into the truth. Somebody remind me again how many button-pushes it is to send a picture taken with a Motorola Razr to someone's email address? Ick.
Scrambles
What is really amazing is that some journalists still do not realize Rob Enderle is a fool and continue to use him as a source.
Apple will continue to drop popular and lucrative fruit for the foreseeable future, regardless of the haters.
Hey Apple, some of us use mouse's with more than ONE button!
"Just wait for the iMouse!" Steve Jobs
The iPhone is a failure. How many people outside California have one? Oh wait, no ne.
Great article, and just as much interest in many of the comments too...
And I'd just like to also thank the few brave troglodytes who are defending these hilarious mis-predictions, and demonstrating afresh the sort of woolly headed thinking which brought them about in the first place... : ))
Paul Thurrott is a Microsoft hack, why pay attention to anything he says about Apple? He writes articles, blogs and books about Windows, he knows nothing about the Mac, Apple or why they're so successful. He just doesn't get it.
As someone else said, the only prediction Paul Thurrott ever got right was "I will take a crap today." Even in that case he's only right most of the time (eat more fiber, Paul).
Apple likes to think they are in the top 5%, unfortunately they continue to be in the bottom 5%.
Smartest move? For apple to drop their entire computer line, and just do gadjets which they seem to do well.
Their OS and systems are utter crap and laughed and pointed at in the business world.
Paul Thurrott: "I will take a crap today" - Oh, is that how you get the material for your columns? Well, actually your columns smell a little bit worse.
All this Thurrot hate cracks me up. I'm a mac guy who listens to his Windows Weekly podcast every week. I love the perspective he brings. It's interesting that all the mac groupies hate him for being a "Microsoft shill" while half the Windows fanboys hate him for the love he shows Apple all the time in his reviews and podcast. I suspect one of the reasons that Leo killed comments on twit.tv is that Thurrot was catching so much flack for talking about Apple too much on the Windows podcast. That kind of response from both extremes is usually the mark of decent journalist, IMHO.
I think Wired's "PRAY" cover deserves the top spot.
If Thurrot gets flack from both sides, all it means is that he's twice as incompetent and disingenuous as we thought.
Amusing list. Haven't used an apple product for 13 years but I'm glad they're still around.
but what's with all this pointless itunes vs other music sites - surely anyone with any sense buys CDs? non-lossy sound, permanent media, artwork, no silly DRM, and usually cheaper. Sadly the record co's stand to make much bigger profits out of downloads, so I predict the death of CDs.
It's nice to see that Applecooker/eater was let out of his 'special program' today so he could come online to entertain us. Little does he suspect, however, that there is a group of 'Apple fags' waiting for him in his bedroom ready to teach him the manly arts of port probing.
(It's a good thing that Bill Gates is such a damned masculine figurehead that Windows users don't have to reveal their sexual insecurities every time they post to a comment section. 'Cause that would be gay...)
Yo Applecooker
I love my iphone! We are on a family plan and I traded in my Treo and Razr for two new iphones for my son and I. We cancelled the Treo pkg and Razr data pkg and added the $20 pkgs required by AT&T contract to the 2 new iphones and our bill is now $60 less a month. I have no complaints and nothing but praise for this new phone. WiFi is super fast, ipod is phenominal. The iphone is much better than anyone can imagine. I've convinced 5 friends in trading in their phones for an iphone. We signed a new contract 2 mos. prior with AT&T, and they transferred the contract to the iphone with no penalties to upgrade. Activation is a breeze. Do it yourself on Apple's website. 5 minutes set up. If you're considering an iphone. You'll love it. I think the iphone will be on everyone's Christmas list this year.
I'm sure there's a Ballmer prediction about Apple going bust in 6 months. But it's hard to find, without wading through all of his utterances...
I can't believe this quote from Dvorak didn't make the list: "Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers." - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1923151,00.asp
sarcasm
Apple... been going out of business since 1984!
end sarcasm
>"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." — Michael Dell in October 1997
I am a Dell employee and stockholder. They are in trouble. They are getting sued in Winston-Salem, NC. Their Tennessee facilities are getting smaller and will soon close.
iGay...it IS a two button mouse. Is that your mom calling you from upstairs? Go finish your homework...and hope the Apostrophe Police aren't reading this.
since I've been reading wired since um er..
Electric Word....you guys always produced with macs and always declared death....Glad to see you have changed your tone (a little).
Meanwhile -Dvorak should have about eight pages here.
Slave, your claim that the iMac was a failure is a hoot. Other than YOUR having to use one in your office (hey--was it the only one in the office?), you've never seen one in the wild?
You didn't get out much. I saw plenty of advertising agencies turn to iMacs for admin and writer sides (see, they were replacing Mac 6100s and the like), equating to anywhere from dozens to hundreds of lickable, fruity iMacs in single companies.
And that is just the business side; the original iMacs were a home user hit. I still have mine in the wild.
The hockey puck mouse didn't make it a failure. The lack of a floppy drive was a masterstroke and it was missed for about thirty minutes.
If only your claim were a prediction, we could add it to the list...
YOU ALL ARE DELUSIONAL TWITS!
biased boneheads you all are.
I may be a mac user and my opinion may be biased at times but in the end everyone has their pro's and con's.
So bottomline..........
SHUT THE F*U*C*K UP!
"Apple's day has finally come, and Apple users are going to get hit hard. OS X is the new Windows 98."
Security researcher Gadi Evron, Wired 2007
To be honest, also us mac users (That's you, not me :) ) got the iPod terribly wrong as well: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500
You left out John Gruber's Daring Fireball MacWorld Expo 2007 predictions.
-- Massive new Aqua replacement
-- Resolution independence
-- New mobile device OS for iPhone
-- New MacBook Pro form factor
-- New subcompact MacBook
-- Apple branded high definition television
-- Roz Ho presentation
http://daringfireball.net/2007/01/macworld_expo_predictions
How about some JOnh C dvoraks delishes :
1984
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things."
How about some John C dvoraks delishes :
1984
"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things."
Strange how all the anti-Apple people resort to name-calling and condemning Mac users' appearance. It doesn't really help your argument when you call someone a "fag."
Slashdot on the iPod when it first appeared:
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
I remember well the Hiawatha Bray column. He recounted (fabricated?) a story about having to take a document home. His solution was to copy the file (via the iMac's built-in networking hardware)to a Windows computer in the office, where he then copied the file to _a USB attached ZIP drive_!
I wondered at the time; did he think that his readers were as stupid as he was?
some people like living in trailers, some people like houses. some people like to tinker on their old american muscle cars that have bad gas mileage and are in need of air conditioning, some people like fine automobiles. I like it when the people who like trailers and drive to work in their run down cars build my computers and stuff. so you guys keep using your old crappy cars and living in your old crappy trailers. i'll be over here in my nice car watching toy story on my apple tv, can you grab me a beer? no it's in the bottle, canned beer is so.... 2001, wait... isn't that when xp came out?
Clueless readers at MacCentral wrote this on the day of the iPod's introduction:
- "I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player?"
- "All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off."
- "Better bring that price down or you wont sell any of these babies"
From a Wired article dated 11-1-2007
"Apple's day has finally come, and Apple users are going to get hit hard," security researcher Gadi Evron said. "OS X is the new Windows 98."
...
Evron sees more problems for Apple users than just new Trojans that try to trick users. Hackers will find it profitable and all too easy to find holes in Apple software, because the company hasn't paid sufficient attention to security, said Evron.
He predicts Apple will experience a full-range of attacks, just as Microsoft did a decade ago when Windows machines and the internet first met.
"It's Mac season. The next two years will be interesting."
Many of these are not dumb, but simply wrong.
Like the one about the iPhone being sold unlocked - it was wrong, but it wasn't a dumb prediction. Likewise with the AppleTV; it was a reasonable prediction that it'd do more than streaming content, even if it was wrong.
Anonymous: The iMac hasn't sold well every model, every quarter, but no, it's nothing like a failure for Apple.
The original one sold like hotcakes; in 2003 or so, the Flat-panel "necked" iMac made 20% of Apple's revenue.
Apple doesn't release per-line sales details currently, but I'd be shocked if they weren't doing comfortably with the current Intel iMac as well.
(I had links, but of course the blog here won't let me post them. Seek and ye shall find.)
When you have a _really_ memorable name like Hiawatha Bray, you need to avoid saying anything too stupid in print, because people remember it for a long, long time.
That kind of response from both extremes is usually the mark of decent journalist, IMHO.
Yeah, if your idea of decent journalism comes from the "Fox News" school of journalism.
To me, it says two things:
1. He is a sensationalist, just looking for attention.
2. His readers are a few kb short of a megabyte.
Kudos, John. I would add that most analysts aren't that different from said journalists. They're opportunistic charlatans looking for a brashly-worded "home run" to establish themselves as an oracle in the financial community. How quickly the industry forgets their bombs. They're the ultimate in outsiders who desperately want to be on the other side of the glass corner office.
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I'd like to add all of those pseudo-virus/hack threats that never materialized. You know, the ones by "security companies" that issue a press release trying to make it sound like macs are wide open to hostile take-overs, and after the tech media makes a big deal out of it for a week it turns out the claim borders on fraudulent (or is completely faked) and could never happen in the real world.
A good follow up to this would be all of the windows lemmings who take each of these vapor threats as proof that the mac is just as vulnerable as windows, totally ignoring that windows has _thousands_ of viruses, trojans, malware that affect it every day, while the single mac flaw they're cheering on has yet to materialize in the real world.