SmartMoney.com’s Noah Rothbaum has penned a complete collection of iPod FUD all in one convenient article. We’ll pick them off one-by one.
Rothbaum covers the following in his “10 Things Your iPod Won’t Tell You” article:
1. iPod’s reign may be coming to an end (MacDailyNews Take: 2006 edition. See previous 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001 editions. According to Rothbaum, the end is near supposedly because of the proprietary iPod+iTunes symbiotic relationship that, by the way, continues to gain market share. Remember, in FUD-land, Apple’s solution that works on both Macs and Windows PCs is “proprietary,” but all other stores and players that use Microsoft’s Windows-only WMA format aren’t.)
2. Customer Service isn’t what it used to be (MacDailyNews Take: If you don’t pay Apple — consistently rated tops in consumer satisfaction by leading purveyors of such surveys — $59 for the AppleCare Protection Plan which allows you two years of unlimited calls, you have to pay $49 per call after getting one free in the first 90 days. Yeah, so?
3. If you drop the iPod it might break (MacDailyNews Take: As opposed to those also-ran players from Sony, Creative, etc. that just Bumble bounce right back up into your hand unscathed. Oh, yeah, iPod screens scratch, too. Get a case.)
4. It’s easy to load your iPod with music, but to appease music labels, Apple’s made it difficult to get music off of iPods (MacDailyNews Take: iPodRip or any number of other similar utilities. It isn’t hard. Do also-ran players let you copy music off of them by default?)
5. iPod battery’s don’t last forever (MacDailyNews Take: But rechargeable batteries in every other device on earth never wear out.)
6. iPods will make you go deaf (MacDailyNews Take: But every other device on earth that makes sound makes it so pure that you’ll never harm your hearing, no matter how far you crank it up.)
7. iPods are updated too frequently, making them “out of date” too soon (MacDailyNews Take: Rothbaum would perhaps prefer a total lack of innovation and stagnation? He must use Windows.)
8. iPods spark crime (MacDailyNews Take: As opposed to wallets, purses, watches, vehicles, expensive sneakers, jewelry, etc. that are just the innocent victims of crime.)
9. Apple “nickel-and-dimes” you any chance they get (MacDailyNews Take: Apple charges separately for accessories that people might want instead of charging everyone more by including them all in every box – even though many don’t want or need them. If your iPod fails out of warranty, it’ll cost a lot to fix – again, supposedly unlike those from the also-ran player makers or the makers of any product of any sort that comes with a warranty.)
10. Once you go iPod, you’re locked in for life (MacDailyNews Take: That’s fine with us. This is how locked in we are: we can play iTunes Music Store-purchased songs on Macs, Windows PCs, iPod models for every budget, and burn them to CDs to play in CD players or import into other computers and/or music players. If we join a subscription service or use another à la carte service (Windows-only) with some “soon-to-be-discontinued, won’t-intgrate-with-my-vehicle, has-no-accessories, parent-company-is-hemorrhaging-cash or reorganizing” digital media player, do we get less lock-in or more?)
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arthur” for the heads up.]
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Apple must be becoming successful again – it’s now chic to bash them.
For more information on Rothbaum and his writings, please grab the nearest dictionary and look up “ignorance.”
Speaking of “Smart Money”, AAPL is tanking.
67.99 (-2.61)
Nice Bumble reference. That thing scared the crap outta me when I was a kid. Still kinda gives me the willies until the very end when the dentist elf has pulled all his teeth out and he’s become tame and lovable.
Holy crap, this quote from the article is priceless:
“Apple’s edgy designs ‘tend to be more attractive, but also more fragile’ than other players, says industry analyst Rob Enderle.”
He quoted Rob “dumbass” Enderle? Do I even need to point out exactly how intellectually bankrupt this article is?
Yaah, uhhh, what’s the so-far-unknown “news” that’s causing AAPL to fall today?
This company rules and it gets treated like sh*t by the assclowns on Wall Street. F-ckers.
No negative Apple news, so this is just another bear raid on AAPL. It happens, chumps freak out and sell, then pros pick up cheap stock and make a killing.
Moral of the story: don’t be a chump.
Uhh, the whole market is “tanking” today. Any “smart money” knows that a single day does not make a trend, which tends to prove that “Investor” is hardly an investor.
Compared to AAPL in February, the stock is up more than 15%!
It’s always funny when people try to act like they know what they are talking about by throwing around numbers out of context.
Write the SmartMoney editors at editors@smartmoney.com to tell them that they StupidAuthors on their payroll.
the market is taking a beating across the board – it isn’t an appl thing
as I write this, aapl and goog are both down 3%
one final thought: “SmartMoney” is a serious misnomer.
It looks like “SmartMoney” isn’t.
(I’m only making this joke because I can’t believe no-one else has yet.)
Bashing iPods is so two years ago. These days, nearly everybody falls into one of three categories:
— Has an iPod
— Wants an iPod
— Isn’t interested in a digital music player
Outside of that, there’s the itty-bitty iRiver cult and people who buy other brands out of sheer ignorance. That’s pretty much it.
Apple – no longer beleaguered
Now –
They are a menace to the competition.
Time to spread the FEAR – what next; terrorists use them?
Oh yeah … and BOO!
============
Hey “investor” everything is down smart guy. Must mean a market crash! Not.
OMFG I can’t believe you MDN. You didn’t include the closing parentheses for point number two. How can you guys call yourself a news site?
Apple is “tanking” … down nearly 4% on the day!
Well … that should be no surprise. It’s trailing P/E is nearly twice Dell’s (~34 vs ~16) and it’s market cap is still higher than Dell’s (~$57B vs ~$56B). That could certainly inspire some profit-taking.
Oh, yeah, we were talking about iPods! I forget when I bought mine. Well, not exactly. It was the first day the 30GB 3Gs went on sale … I just don’t remember the date. Anyway, it was WAY more than 18 months ago … and it’s been to six states (excluding my home) with me and survived several months of daily use in NYC – and it still works just fine and it still offers more than I need. Maybe I’ll upgrade when I get a digital camera?
I could listen to it eight hours a day, every day, for a month, without a repeat. 99% of it was paid for (ripped from my own legal CDs or from iTMS) or legally free – I’m working on the rest.
“Speaking of “Smart Money”, AAPL is tanking.
67.99 (-2.61)”
—————–
It’s not AAPL that is tanking – it is the ENTIRE market. Take a look at the overall market before you start assuming something is wrong at Apple. BTW, driven a car much lately? How about that gas pricing?
O<G how funny is this story. It’s almost as if MDN WROTE it.
You know what is funny. Isn’t Smart Money a Wall Street Journal owned magazine. Why doesn’t Walt Mossenberg answer those ten questions.
MDN take #10 was too funny.
Funny, but I do sure wish they’d build in better scratch resistance. Mine was untouched untill I could sheath it in soft lamb skin, and then touched as delicately as one would one of nature’s hypersensitive love buttons. Yet….
Nissan demonstrated a clear coating that “heals” under sunlight (provided the scratch doesn’t go through the coating) by scoring it with a wirebrush!
Jim writes:
“”Apple’s edgy designs ‘tend to be more attractive, but also more fragile’ than other players, says industry analyst Rob Enderle.”
He quoted Rob “dumbass” Enderle? Do I even need to point out exactly how intellectually bankrupt this article is?”
Of course he had to quote Enderle – it wouldn’t be complete FUD without quoting the Fudmeister.
great MDN takes…
…the Dow is does 135 points…
NAPSter is down $0.26 which is 6%
DELL and MSFT are down about 2%…GOOG and AAPL are down 3%
this is just a bad day for the market and any company with a high Beta, like AAPL, will move more dramatically up or down as the market moves.
Ok the guy is a blatant moron, and I know this because he quotes another raging moron, Rob Enderle.
I read the headline wrong. The MDN headline makes it sound like SmartMoney is taking iPod FUD to task, which it isn’t it’s just spreading it.
Hey when the dow has been down over 120 pts. Krispy kreme is up 6%. Maybe rob glasser has bought his whole company donuts.
If you have your iPod nano surgically implanted in your butt, it won’t ever break or scratch. You can then slap or rub your butt to manage the click wheel. Have the surgeon implant the earbuds into your skeletal system for sound conduction and a tiny port for syncing and charging. What’s one more hole? And make them leave a Ziploc seal (yellow and blue makes green) in case you need to change the battery.