“There’s been rash of press recently suggesting Apple is weathering a growing consumer recoil following claims about poor quality control, anti-iTunes legislation and allegations about Chinese sweatshops,” Leander Kahney writes for Wired.
“‘Are we falling out of love with iPod?’ asks the Daily Telegraph. The BBC queries, ‘Is Apple Feeling The Heat?”‘ And The Scotsman reports, ‘Apple faces the music as public discord with iPod grows,'” Kahney reports.
“‘… two years after Britain fell in love with the iPod there are signs that the pocket-sized box that transformed the way millions listen to music is beginning to lose its shine,’ claims The Scotsman,” Kahney reports.
Kahney reports, “But, in fact, there’s no consumer backlash at all. Apple’s firing on all cylinders, and is selling more Macs and iPods than ever… The ‘backlash’ is entirely limited to newsrooms and journalists on the hunt for a story about one of most influential companies in technology… Apple has long punched above its weight in terms of the media attention it attracts — it’s just now it’s attracting the wrong kind.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The media echo chamber is a wondrous beast.
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099.
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
That’s what I’ve been saying. That’ll be $100.
The British media has, for years now, been following the same tired old formula of building up an icon (whether person, trend or product) just to knock it down at the height of its popularity. The iPod isn’t the first and it won’t be the last.
“The ‘backlash’ is entirely limited to newsrooms and journalists on the hunt for a story about one of most influential companies in technology.”
No, the backlash is entirely due to Microsoft and their ‘partners’ (Creative etc), feeding false stories, lobbying journalists, giving ‘funding’ to Apple Corps lawyers, posting false letters on forums and to newspapers, in order to unseat Apple.
Funny how Creative sued Apple ‘just’ after the ruling of Apple v. Apple came out in Apple Computer’s favour, probably under instruction from Microsoft when their other attempt (taking Apple to court under the cover of Apple Corps lawyers) had failed.
Microsoft has been doing this for years, in much the same way that the socialist Labour government in the UK distort democracy by staging spontaneous protests outside the oppositions conferences, which are apparently made up of local members of the public, when actually they are all paid up Labour party activists, they both try to fake popular support, and unfortunately it works in both cases.
Source: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,,1489797,00.html
Bill Gates, at the time of the web-browser embedded in the OS debacle was quoted as writing in an email, “It would help me immensely to have a survey showing that 90 percent of developers believe that putting the browser into the OS makes sense. … Ideally, we would have a survey like this done before I appear at the Senate on March 3rd.”
Source: http://internetweek.cmp.com/news0199/news011599-3.htm
Guys like this have distorted government and true competition for years.
The article is well worth the read.
Any thoughts on when the generation 2 MacBookPro will come out?
This company exerts a lot of power…
..and it is working flat out to try and halt the march of the Mac/iPod.
The journalists are doing what they are best at.. following the money. No more no less.
Pathetic, aren’t they.
BBC on-line stories routinely acquire an anti-Mac slant. The request for Mac horror stories is very much in line with what we have come to expect from the BBC.
There was an example last week concerning the story about Sophos advising customers to switch to OS X. It was originally published as a perfectly straight new report, but by the next day had acquired some ‘security through obscurity’ quotes, even though they were in no way factually related to that story. Copies of the two versions were made and can be compared.
This week we have another example.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/5157574.stm
The on-line version of this story about graphics cards refers to ‘smug’ Mac users, but if you watch the on-line video version of the programme, the presenter doesn’t actually say ‘smug’ even though it’s the same piece. They’ve seen fit to add that derogatory term on the on-line version.
YEah and MDN gets rich digging up the dirt or the praise!
Suckas!
I guess any publicity is good publicity. The fact that Apple is getting media coverage sends the message that the company is relevant.
Microsoft’s iPod killer photos?
http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/10/microsofts-argo-xbox-wireless-portable-media-player/
“Microsoft’s Argo sails into iPod waters”
The Seattle Times reported this week that Argo, the name of the ship sailed by mythological hero Jason, is the code name for a new digital music player being developed by the company’s Xbox division. Now blog Engadget has what it claims are pictures of the device.
According to the reports, the Argo will be Wi-Fi-enabled. The newspaper reported that there are several other devices under development, including a media player, and an online media service.
http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6092562.html?part=rss&tag=6092562&subj=news
And for a laugh:
“Gates: 80 per cent chance Vista will ship in January”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060711.gtvistajul11/BNStory/Technology/home
So, I know not everyone is great a math, but that’s a 20% chance of Vista MISSING its launch date again. Gates is really good at inspiring confidence.
This ugly abomination of an MP3 player is no threat to Creative, let alone to the iPod. And that’s before you start it up, when its true genius will really have to shine through.
I give MS a 3% chance of making a 1% inroad into iPod…!
“Bill Gates, at the time of the web-browser embedded in the OS debacle was quoted as writing in an email, “It would help me immensely to have a survey showing that 90 percent of developers believe that putting the browser into the OS makes sense. … Ideally, we would have a survey like this done before I appear at the Senate on March 3rd.””
If Mr happy philanthropist is capable of such underhanded ideas, just think what lesser-altruistic corporate leaders would be willing to do…
*COUGH* *COUGH* oil industry *cough* ack* ..
MacTel TPM chip bypassed! 10.4.7 running on $300 PC faster than a Mac!
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/mac/0,68501-0.html?tw=rss.culture
Most media people are like Enderle, they have no clue about Apple’s technology or how it even works.
@ duper:
From the article:
“He said Microsoft was investing $8-billion (U.S.) to $9-billion in developing Vista and the company’s next version of Office, its key cash-generator.”
Yeah, “developing” Let’s split that up into categories:
Amount of money spent on actual Development: $1 Million
Amount of money spent on Marketing: $8,999,000,000
Less altruistic CEOs are willing to cover up problems related to Vioxx, they are willing to cover up exploding Ford Pinto fuel tanks, they are willing to cover up Chevrolet Corvair handling problems (discovered by Ralph Nadar), they hire private detectives to uncover dirt on the same Ralph Nadar, they cover up shoddy maintenance and safety concerns at plants such as Bhopal in India. Need I go on?
Dynamic Mesh…..did you friggan look at the date on the article? August 2005?
Apple must be shaking in their boots </sarcasm>
Oh come on Macdud….
That’s 2005 news, do you have any real additions to the comments of others? Seems that you celebrated getting your second braincell and are now making backups of old comments. On top of that, you seem to have found the cut and past function…grrrreeaaaat…
Well, it’s getting to be about that time… for the press to pull out their old favorite term, “beleaguered Apple, maker of now-unpopular iPods and marginalized personal computers geared to consumers and a few artsy, hard-headed nutcases.”
Fickle indeed!
Dynamic Mesh… Apple corrected that over a year ago.
Dynamic Mesh, I don’t believe that has anything to do with 10.4.7. Apple closed that hole over a year ago, no sure who is reporting otherwise.
For my next trick I will comment multiple times on everything.
DUH, me so stupid.
So where are all the commodity PCs running OS X? According to the smug Slashdot hacker community, OS X was supposed to be hacked and running on Dells within days! How many months has it been?
Heh heh. 4PPL3 0WNZ H4CKZ0RZ!