“This is my last “Byte of the Apple” for BusinessWeek Online. I started writing this column roughly three years ago. At the time, I didn’t understand what I was getting into. Yes, I had been a Mac user for two decades. My first was an Apple II that my father purchased for my two sisters and me. We used it to write book reports. When Dad wasn’t paying attention, we played nifty games like Sneakers and Castle Wolfenstein,” Alex Salkever writes for BusinessWeek.
“But I had been a casual Mac user. I never paid attention to the vigorous debate over Apple, the personalities, and the fascinating technologies that invariably emerge from the skunk works in Cupertino, Calif.,” Salkever writes. “I’ve learned a lot — not least that writing about Apple is a more consuming activity than covering any other technology company. After every column, e-mails jammed my inbox. Many flamed me for alleged ignorance. Others brought thoughtful opinions. A significant handful led me to even more interesting tidbits about the Mac. My greatest problem became too many things to write about. Of course, Apple CEO Jobs helped me along by doing amazing things. The flat-panel iMac, the iTunes Music Store, iPhoto, the iPod, and the G5 chip all were unveiled on my watch. “
Salkever writes, “Jobs also sent me an e-mail or two telling me how wrong I was. That made the whole exercise even more interesting. Journalists often wonder if what they write is being read, not just by the masses, but by people in power. An e-mail from Jobs, even a scathing one, is an important psychic reward. As OS X emerged and blossomed, I came to realize more and more that what Apple lacked in market share it more than made up for in mind share.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good riddance. A sort of low-grade Dvorak, Salkever was often wrong, out of touch, way off base, misinformed, and just plain ignorant about Apple and their products. So, no fond farewell for old Alex will be found here. The only downside is we won’t have him around to kick anymore, unless he pops up somewhere else attempting to write about Apple. Note to BusinessWeek: bring back Charles Haddad.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
BusinessWeek writer can’t figure out that comparing iPod to Mac licensing is fruitless – October 14, 2004
BusinessWeek Tech Editor issues public apology to Apple CEO Steve Jobs – August 19, 2004
BusinessWeek writer outlines six (really three) point plan to increase Mac market share – July 08, 2004
BusinessWeek: So far, Apple retail stores fail to produce market share gains for Mac – April 06, 2004
BusinessWeek: Virgin Digital ‘a digital-music challenger to be feared’ by Apple – March 09, 2004
Yeah, this guy says he’s leaving that column, but you can bet he’ll be peddling his anti-mac lies wherever he can.
Bloody hell, I hope I never get on the wrong side of MDN. That’s some bile you’ve got going there.
Thank God for MDN!
Dave H, if you want “safe” Mac and Apple news, try MacCentral and bore yourself to death.
Thanks, MDN for telling it like it is.
All’s fair in love, war, and defending the Mac David H.
Nay, nay, MDN! Much too harsh, I say. Let’s not be so sensitive. Nothing and no-one has all the cheerleaders on their side. Basically, he’s been there doing a creditable job. Not perfect, but who can claim to be?
Still…it is complimentary that he compared Apple to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works.
It’s about time! For someone who supposedly learned so much, he knew surprisingly little!
Two things:
1. I’d LOVE to read the letters Jobs sent him!
2., Businessweek, give ME his job!
The Microsoft dirty tricks dept. must think he has outlived his usefullness. Wonder who they’ll get to replace him?
Just reading the MDN Salkever headline list above makes you realise just what an ass he was. No need for sympathy methinks…
Bravo MDN!
I enjoy MDN for its thorough coverage of Mac related news. However, its commentators and the great majority of its readers are such vicious, small-minded morons, that they are an embarrassment to the Apple community. So Salkever doesn’t always say what you want to hear? Listen to his view and disagree intelligently. Otherwise, stick to writing your monkey bile on the washroom walls.
MDN is flame site, pure and simple. Always has been, always will be. The day it dissapears the flames will continue, elsewhere …
“So Salkever doesn’t always say what you want to hear? Listen to his view and disagree intelligently.”
MDN did this already – click any of the related headlines and read the respective takes.
Salkever leaving is a good thing. Now if he’d only promise to stop writing about Apple-related subjects.
So MDN is the web equivalent of a toilet stall wall?
Obviously, Alex Salkever is “Dissapointed” as well as “Disappointed and surprised.” Good riddance, indeed!
Bravo, MDN for telling the truth in your take.
I can’t even begin to say how disappointed I am with MDN for the scathing opinion. The man publically apologized to Jobs in print, which in this day and age, is an extremely noble thing to do. I doubt MDN would ever have the balls to do something of the same sort.
Burn, baby, burn!!
I love how Alex Salkever says “The flat-panel iMac, the iTunes Music Store, iPhoto, the iPod, and the G5 chip all were unveiled on my watch.” No, not on “my watch”, while you were admittedly watching from the side lines writing about a company and it’s products as a “casual Mac user.”
A good reason for no wireless cards for older Macs – the chips aren’t being made any more and Apple never made the chips.
Headles Mac for schools? Not a bad idea. But as Steve Jobs has said, he sees tone of great ideas but Apple only has the resources to pursue and suceed on some of them. Perhaps if Apple grows some more, there may be more offered. Why should Apple devote time and resources to a very small-margin product and shelve a higher-margin product if both would sell well?
I love it when a journalist cites, as his proudest moment, receiving a letter telling him he’s a moron who’s out of touch with reality.
Oy.
Well, I see that after a brief hiccup of self-consciousness, most of you are back to spewing bile. Do you people have any friends who don’t agree with you word for word? Been in any barroom brawls, peed on any fire hydrants?
As I suggested earlier, MDN is unparalled at bringing together interesting Mac stories in a nicely accessible format. Why don’t you also show similar intelligence in the comments you make on those stories?
By the way, Herm, intelligent responses don’t merely involve setting out a few points in your favour. They also involve trying to understand the other’s point and resisting name-calling.
This only goes to show how rare and shocking it is for some people to see the truth in print. Way to go, MDN!
Old ladies in church fervently say, “We got the truth, brother,” but they don’t tell you how they know, nor do they like being questioned or challenged.
When you say, “way to go, MDN” you’re effectively saying, “go, team, go,” and suggests that what you call “truth” is simply what you already believe.
MDN thesis: Salkever sucks.
MDN defence: We got the truth, brother.
Dude,
Salkever sucked. All you have to do is be up on Apple info and then read his articles. You’ll see all of the mistakes and misunderstandings in Salkever’s own “scribblings.”
Pick a fight over something you can win. MDN is 100% correct on this one.
I didn’t found his columns too bad given the forum, he did bring some points to the table. A lot of the points MDN readers would already have explored, (I would suggest many MDN readers are better informed about Apple than Alex) however BW’s target market is not the same as MDN’s.
BW is about business and if there is one thing we have learned is that business analysts don’t understand Apple. Looking at Apple from a business analyst’s (correspondent’s) viewpoint is frustrating and mind boggling. Motley Fool (an analyst web site) calls Apple a ‘rule-breaker’ and yet analysts have all these rules to follow. Alex perhaps refers to this in his market share/mind share comment.
Covering Apple from a business point of view (as opposed to a consumer’s like Walt Mossberg does) is a bit of a poison chalice. I’m not suggesting analysts shouldn’t do better with Apple but they do have an inherent problem understanding quality rather than quantity.
Nevertheless having recently exchanged a few emails with Alex I question his ability to read, write and understand plain English. Too prone to getting the wrong idea and firing off a volley based on his misconception.
Will the new BW tech editor be better, hope he’s prepared for the deluge if he gets his first Apple related story wrong
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Even though Salkever can be totally off the mark and a dweeb a lot of the time, he does hit on some good points occaisionally. In the full article he mentions that he thinks Apple should have a headless Mac (which I happen to agree with but which is a hotly debated point) AND that Apple should have continued to make airport cards for the older units that can’t take an Airport Extreme card. I am on a Tibook and using wifi access almost exclusively. I had one Airport card crap out and got it replaced. If the new one craps out I guess I am screwed.