“If you think politics arouses strong passions, try writing about Apple,” Brett Arends writes for The Boston Herald. “Earlier this week I made the mild suggestion that the company take advantage of its soaring stock price to snap up Palm, the handheld computer maker. I argued that would quickly and cheaply open the door to the kind of multifunction handheld that combines a phone, an iPod music player and a PDA. The reaction among Appleheads? Feel the love. ‘Pinhead . . . you are indeed alone . . . what do you know anyhow? . . . clearly an idiot . . . go drink your Kool-Aid . . . worse than an idiot . . . should be fired on the spot . . . you obviously do not have a clue as to what you are writing . . . drunken clod. And people wonder why journalists aer (sic) loathed . . . do you even know what battery life is?'”
Arends writes, ” Wow. I quickly discovered that Apple, Inc. [sic], isn’t just a company. It’s the world’s only publicly traded religion. And I just earned a fatwa.”
“Palm is cheap – really cheap. At current prices, Apple could buy it with around 2 percent of its stock, and instantly add nearly 10 percent to its own sales,” Arends writes. “And Palm would be worth a lot more to Apple than on its own. It would gain a huge boost in credibility, innovation and marketing muscle.”
Full article here.
Arends either must have forgotten what he originally wrote or he just wants to blast the entire “Applehead” community based on some choice emails from a few bad apples. What he wrote that prompted the emails was idiotic, therefore, he was treated like an idiot. Not the nicest way to approach such things, but at least it seems logical enough, doesn’t it? [We recommend levelheaded factual responses to correct writers, columnists, pudits, analysts, etc., not the type of emails that Arends republishes in his article. It would probably be best overall if you blew off the initial steam here on MDN, as we often do in our “Takes,” then take your best ideas, our best points, and those from the best comments to construct devastatingly effective emails to achieve your desired effects in the future. Certain pundits and chronic repeat offenders excepted, of course. 
]
Arends tried the simplistic “iPod is closed, Mac was closed, Mac ‘failed,’ so iPod will fail” theory in his first article. Perhaps he doesn’t mention it in his second article because he realized how uninformed he appears when he writes it? Arends also wrote of iPods, “They’re no longer clearly the best digital music player. They’re heavy and the battery life isn’t that great. Rival products the size of your thumb include a radio.” This, mind you, as Apple has the smallest, lightest, and highest capacity players (iPod shuffle, iPod nano) with excellent battery life (a now years-old canard), the market has proven that very few give a sheet about an FM radio, and Arends offers no proof whatsoever that Apple iPods are “no longer clearly the best digital music player.” (See related article below).
In his new article/hit piece, Arends throws out mostly everything from his first idiotic article and, after cherry-picking inflammatory emails to publish (likely the vast minority of the emails he received on the subject), replaces it all with “Palm is cheap, Apple should buy them to add to their bottom line, and help Palm gain value, credibility, innovation, and marketing might.” It sounds almost like Arends is a Palm user (dare we say “Palmhead?”) who’s looking for Apple to save Palm.
“Palm Inc. is teaming up with Microsoft Corp. to launch a Windows-based version of the Treo smart phone, marking the first time the handheld computer pioneer will sell a device based on its former rival’s software… The new device will run on Windows Mobile 5.0, the latest version of the operating system that has been challenging Palm OS for years,” Greg Sandoval reported for The Associated Press on September 26, 2005. “The new Treo 700 will be offered through Verizon Wireless, according to market analyst Rob Enderle and other industry sources. ‘In terms of the level of importance, this would be in this space the same thing as Apple announcing they were going to be using Intel processors,’ Enderle said.” Full article here.
Perhaps Arends missed that bit of news? And Enderle was wrong, as usual. What Palm has done would be like Apple announcing they were dropping Mac OS X for Windows XP. What does Arends suggest Apple do with a company that’s moving to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile? Market it mightily? What would that do for Apple’s credibility? Apple would have to kill that deal and work heavily on the new Treo and the Palm OS or create a new OS / integrate NewtonOS to compete. How much would that cost? Much more than Palm would be worth probably.
For our finale, we’ll leave you with this:
“In 2001, Jobs explained: ‘You can’t imagine how many people think we’re crazy for not doing a Palm,’ said Jobs, ‘I won’t lie; we thought about it a lot. But I started asking myself, how useful are they, really? How many people at a given meeting show up with one? I don’t think early cultures had organisers, but I do know they had music.’ – Sydney Morning Herald, May 24, 2005
[Note: we wouldn’t mind if an Apple-designed, Apple-branded mobile phone+PDA+iPod device became available, but Apple certainly doesn’t need Palm if they wanted to create such a product.]
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Related articles:
Confused Boston Herald writer: Apple should buy Palm because iPods are not invincible – December 19, 2005
Palm goes to the dark side, next Treo to use Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 – September 26, 2005
The iPod is not the Mac, so stop trying to compare them – August 13, 2004
The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
MDN’s take and insight says it all.
The guy is a total idiot. Just simply ignore him….
HE IS RIGHT. Seriously, Appleheads need to back the f#ck off sometimes. They are, like all extremists, hurting their own cause with their shortsightedness and anger. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes there is a place to let a writer know when they are purporting myths, but other than that I say kill ’em with kindness.
If he doesn’t want people jumping on his case he needs to get his facts straight before he writes a word.
Seems that any old hack that can write or type can call himself or herself a journalist these days.
I don’t feel sorry for him, he needs to own what he writes.
Whether a techwriter is wrong or right does not really matter, ‘Apple hooliganism’ is becoming a major concern for Apple and causes a lot of loss of goodwill and credebility.
Show respect and you will receive respect, show contempt and you will receive contempt.
regardless of what this guy wrote, he didn’t deserve this. Allow me to repost what i wrote here yesterday regarding the Matarese fiasco from two days ago.
(my post from yesterday:)
I did get a very thoughtful reply from John today (for real). His tagline might have confused things and may be silly, but he did say that he learned a great deal in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately, one thing he learned was that there are a lot of jerks in the Mac community, mostly from this board. So criticising MDN for any potential anti-Apple bias really is misplaced. The users of this board did more than MDN could ever do make a terrible impression on this guy – a cosumer reporter BTW. It’s exactly this kind of arrogant behavior that still haunts Apple to this day from its first glory era, lets not taint this one in the same way.
I think one thing Mac users need to learn, and people need to learn in general is there is no need to be hateful and mean spirited. Those who are willing to listen to you will be turned off forever and those who are already adamant against you just get further away. Even the most ardent Mac haters can be swayed with some thoughtful and very positive conversation. I know, I’ve seen it first hand. Lots of it. A whole lot of it.
Those of you who claim to be Apple loyalists, who continue this negative behavior should know that all you are doing is hurting the company. Learn some tact or keep your mouth shut. And if someone insults you for your platform choice and you get offended by it then perhaps you should consider not hanging so much of your self esteem on your choice of computers.
And remember, you’ll always catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.
(end re-post)
This certainly applies to this guy as well. Good work MacIdiots. You just alienated another guy who will now have an anti-apple bias from here forward out of spite.
He might not be an idiot; he might just be writing about something he’s not very knowledgeable about. But then, he might be an idiot. Personally, if I had to write an article about, say, nuclear waste containment systems, I’d do a little research first. But then, we’re all different. Maybe Brett Arends honestly feels that asking his gut for its take is a more appropriate approach toward writing for a major newspaper than is interviewing some experts or reading a little bit.
Yes, buying Palm would add to Apple’s top line. But so would buying any other money-losing venture. If Apple were in the business of building revenues, profits be damned, then they could buy any number of money-leaking failures. Why Palm? What’s the IP they would get from Palm? Where’s the synergy in buying Yet Another Crappy OS?
So anyway, idiot or not, Arend is off the mark here. Bad idea. No biscuit.
Newton was before Palm.
Apple still owns Newton technology. That would be way we’d see them go into handheld market. A long shot, but some of us like that lil green machine. Wouldn’t be shocked to see it revived in Jan.
Why Palm? Why not bat guano? It’s even cheaper and might be more useful.
Obviously in a much greater sphere of importance than this situation but a good example anyway: The “peaceful protests” of Gandhi and Dr. King demonstrates how to beat your enemy without alienating the masses.
The visceral attacks on these so called “writers” has to stop; it’s self defeating.
That being said. This guy is an asshole. Just pick where and when you point it out.
Rock “Macheads”!
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uuuuummmmm!
Mac fundamentalism! Not good guys!
Write to these journos, but be nice about it.
OK
Leo
We recommend levelheaded factual responses to correct writers, columnists, pudits, analysts, etc., not the type of emails that Arends republishes in his article. It would probably be best overall if you blew off the initial steam here on MDN, as we often do in our “Takes,” then take your best ideas, our best points, and those from the best comments to construct devastatingly effective emails to achieve the desired effect in the future.
Excellent. Thanks, MDN. Will do. Hopefully most will do it this way, too.
Jack Arends, I hope you’re not related to Brett Arends!
Hey Hammer, shut up. Someone has to teach these people a lesson. As MDN stated, doing what a newspaper columnist wants Apple to do is probably not a very bright idea. So if a newspaper columnist chooses to write an idiotic article he should expect to be met with idiotic responses to that article.
The last thing we need is some paid propagandist on our side.
He is suggesting an idea that goes against everthing that Apple is currently doing correctly because he thinks it would improve Palms position in the marketplace, then he deserves a reality check.
Apple is currently winning on simplicity and ease of use. I have a PDA/Phone and I love it, but I’m a geek. My Aunt Betty could never use my phone, she might not be able to figure out how to make a call on it, but she asked for an iPod for christmas.
Apple has learned its lessons about the bleeding edge of technology and only an idiot would ask them to return to the days before they learned those lessons.
If he is too thin skinned to be able to read past the fanboys and see where he has made a poor reccomendation then perhaps he needs to stop writing for the public.
tHE dUDE,
How exactly does acting like an idiot achieve anything useful? If, as you say, he deserves and should expect idiotic responses, doesn’t that just make all of us look like idiots? How again is that useful?
Apple would gain nothing by buying Palm.
If Apple felt the time was right for them to get into the PDA market (beyond the modest PDA capabilities of an iPod) they would surely design their own hardware and their own mobil OS based on OS X.
MDN’s quote of Jobs is valueless as Jobs is known to use misdirection at will to keep us all guessing. His quote could just as easliy be used to support the existance of such a product.
With all the tchnology that goes untapped in OS X, such as InkWell and Voiceover and Text to Speech, you know that Apple R&D has Apple proto type PDAs floating around their secret lab deep in the bowels of the Apple Campus.
Right on hammer. The friendly Apple community is sometimes misrepresented by a few militant idiots who pretend they’re speaking on behalf of the whole community.
Gee, I guess now he’ll be offended because a real religion will take issue with the use of the word “fatwa”. He should be allowed to write whatever he wants without fear of being told off… sorry, but this is the real world.
Does this guy not get it?
Magic Word: “shot”, as in “He shot his mouth off again!”
Please, Please, Please make a PDA apple.
Actually, I think that the Palm OS is based on some Newton OS technologies….can anyone confirm? So how hard would it be then for Apple to scoop Palm up and improve upon the OS given that they basically created the technology to begin with?
“What he wrote that prompted the emails was idiotic, therefore, he was treated like an idiot. Not the nicest way to approach such things, but at least it seems logical enough, doesn’t it?”
Are you guys for real?
Let me paint an alternative future.
It’s February, 2006 and Arends had never written his Palm article. On Feb. 16, 2006 at 4 p.m. (after markets close) Apple announces that they have entered an agreement to purchase Palm.
Here’s the interesting part: All you guys at MacCentral and every other Mac zealot would be sitting around commenting on the obvious genuis of Steve Jobs and pointing out to the world the obvious synergy and value of this acquisition. You’d all be spinning and speculating like crazy but you’d all mostly have positive things to say.
It’s laughable but that’s exactly what would happen. Of course, it still could and then what would you say?
LOL
Actually, I was wrong…Grafitti was the handwriting recognition technology built as an alternative system for the Newton by Palm. Palm was started by an ex-Apple employee though.
<sing>Cannn you feeel, the lovee tonight???</sing>
WOW! This is an interesting topic. Its almost a story, it includes the idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut, and a bunch of other not so idiots who can’t keep their mouth shut! For anyone who wants to speak directly for Apple and the whole board of staff who make decisions, here’s what I have to say.
Yes we may have ideas of what is good for apple to do, being their consumers and loyal followers. But mind you, we don’t have access to the information they base their decisions on. I mean if someone there proposed a full out plan that would be totally beneficial to apple for buying PALM. They would do it. Through our own speculation of this idea, we ALL know that Apple will not do this though. Someone else would say, “Well, now we have this iPod that we created, what now, iPalm? No no no, lets make our own device, we can do better. How about i(input some brilliant name here)?”
What I am getting at Slike, (yes this is directed at YOUR idiotic post) is that whatever Apple does we are behind them, and we don’t pretend that things never happened, otherwise nobody would hate M$ so much, and with a valid reason. IF Apple had a good idea, and reason for doing something, we would back them all the way. Lets say even after all this they did buy PALM (not happening), they would also produce a good reason for doing so. A reason that would make people who were opposed to thie idea, rethink what they had said, and see the other side of the coin.
Now I will sit back and wait for the reply calling me a fanatic and blah blah blah, point of fact is, I have a company I can trust. Trust enough that I put a LOT of money on the line because I saw their stocks rising. I am not a techie, nor do I know everything about apple or internal specs. But I do know smart people when I see them, and this company is filled with the best. Anyway, this si really fscking long now, and I need a beer. Cheers MacHeads!
MDN magic word: Usually
I USUALLY make sense but its the holidays and I’ve already had 7 beer, who knows what my brain is thinking today!
Apple fans should not be REPELLANT to the rest of the computing public. It’s HOW you say it, not WHAT you say, that we’re talking about. Even if most of us get it, though, there will always be a few knuckleheads, as “tHE dUDE” amply demonstrates.
Jake