By SteveJack
As I fully expected, the Apple iPhone hit pieces have begun. These articles will attempt to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) for the next six months leading up to Apple’s first shipment of iPhones and well beyond that date.
If you thought that iPod and iTunes was subject to FUD, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, my friends. You’ll have to look to the Mac to find a threat of such magnitude that inspired such a FUD campaign. The reason for such a campaign against iPhone? Money. Lots and lots of money and the fear of losing a good portion of it to Apple.
You can call me conspiratorial. You can call me a crackpot. Call me whatever you like, but I will be proven right soon enough.
You will see articles that go way beyond legitimate reviews that will attempt to call into question every aspect of Apple’s iPhone, attacking everything from battery life, the type of battery, fingerprints on the screen, its Mac OS X operating system, and the type of network technology the first iPhone will employ (quad-band GSM) while failing to mention that Jobs stated that Apple plans 3G iPhones in the future. These articles will harp on the prices Apple plans to charge for the iPhone. They’ll claim the soft keyboard is difficult to use. They’ll make up even more things and they’ll find quotes from people who are supposedly not impressed with the device. I guarantee it.
Apple’s target of selling 10 million iPhones, or 1% of the total market, in the first year is too low, far too conservative. Apple’s iPhone user interface (UI) is far too advanced and too well-protected by patents (granted and under review) to be ripped off successfully. It will change the mobile device market in radical ways. I am, if anything, understating the havoc iPhone will cause.
The other phone makers, the other mobile device makers, and the other makers of so-called “smartphone” software understand the massive threat Apple’s iPhone poses. They have no recourse but to start up the FUD campaign, desperately hoping to slow Apple’s assault on the market. There is so much money at stake that things will get very nasty, very quickly.
The chits will be called in and the articles will get written. It’s already started.
So, keep this in mind whenever you read about Apple’s iPhone and you see an article slanted against the iPhone: the real Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt is being felt by all of the companies that Apple just humiliated yesterday. They are very scared and rightfully so.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
Related articles:
FUD Alert: Analyst – I am pretty skeptical Apple’s iPhone can succeed – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
When the next generation of Macs and MacOS come out there may be very little to spread FUD about. When a multi-point touchscreen Mac is announced…
The iPhone is only the beginning. Someday Windows will be relegated to POS status. Point of sale. Windows will be used like a dumb terminal.
You can count on this because those companies really hate change epecially when it’s for the better and when it forces them to give the consumer a better product.
First?
Okay. Conspiratorial crackpot!
Seriously, the press has been reasonable, so far.
Less is More,
Oh, yeah? Read this hit piece from CNET and then see if you can call SteveJack a conspiratorial crackpot.
Okay, I’ll start:
“[…] its Mac OS X operating system […]”
You show me where, in the video of the keynote or where on Apple’s website it says Mac OS X. It is not running Mac OS X. There is no Aqua, for example, in OS X.
yeah, i’ve read some really nuts shit on this.. from.. the usual suspects..
here’s a real gem, Apple leaving the PC industry?
*rolls eyes
Yo Judge:
Read further on your link from CNET hit piece: http://news.com.com/Mac+Views+Does+iPhone+hit+the+spot/2009-1042_3-6148638.html
cmon peter, you didnt even try!?!
http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/specs.html
4th spec down
WHAT?! Here’s an executive summary: Anybody out there who says anything negative in any way, shape, or form about the Apple iPod is being paid by other smartphone manufacturers, is anti-Apple, wants Apple to go out of business, and is spreading FUD.
WHAT?!
Face it SteveJack… People are allowed to find FLAWS in Apple products. Yes, they exist.
Sure they might eventually come out with a 3G phone, but this doesn’t have it, so it’s a little inferior. Yes, there might be fingerprints on the screen and that actually is annoying. Yes, the battery life may be lower, and you can’t replace it.
I, personally, have had two phones in the past few years and have kept TWO batteries for each of them. When one dies while I’m out, I can plug in the new one and keey going, then use my cradle back home to charge the one not in use. No-can-do with the iPhone. That’s a problem. And I’m NOT trying to spread FUD.
Critiques will happen. No product is perfect. Otherwise there wouldn’t be such thing as a SECOND-generation iPhone. So please, it’s YOU that is starting the FUD. Against the people with opinions.
Duh! When yer competitors find themselves photographed drunk and lying in the alley with no clothes on waist down you bet they’re gonna cry foul. No doubt in the coming months they will strive to copy everything that Apple has done, too.
“You show me where, in the video of the keynote or where on Apple’s website it says Mac OS X. It is not running Mac OS X. There is no Aqua, for example, in OS X.”
Huh? The most sophisticated OS on the planet..? OS X?.. Take the bucket off your head and the earplugs out and watch the Keynote again..
Peter,
iPhone specs: Operating System: OS X
http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/specs.html
Watch iPhone Introduction (at 8:38), Apple CEO Steve Jobs, “iPhone runs OS X.”
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/
@ Peter
Er. at timecode 34:59 in the keynote, Steve said, with a bit of a flourish, that “iPhone runs Oh… Ess… *Ten*.”
Make up stuff that harder to shoot down.
Uh, I think Peter is pointing out that it isn’t running MAC OS X but rather a stripped-down version of OS X. Have we verified that it’s the full operating system? He’s pointing out that we don’t see Aqua in the OS X on the device. Am I right?
Peter wrote:
“Okay, I’ll start:
“[…] its Mac OS X operating system […]”
You show me where, in the video of the keynote or where on Apple’s website it says Mac OS X. It is not running Mac OS X. There is no Aqua, for example, in OS X.”
Umm Peter you must have been asleep during the keynote mate!
Steve Jobs mentioned the fact that it ran OS X at least twice by my recollection.
Also even if he didn’t, next time you want to make such emphatic statements, it may be worth checking first.
You ask where on Apple’s web site it says OS X, so I went and looked, in about 30 secs I found it under “tech specs”
iPhone Tech Specs
Sorry buddy, but the egg is just dripping from your face.
Cheers,
Luke
Peter = slammed!
Mac OS X is not Aqua. Aqua is a UI for Mac OS X. You can have other UIs for Mac OS X. We already have them. For example, Dashboard. Another example is Time Machine. Expect to see more of new UIs and less of Aqua going forward in Mac OS X on full-sized Macs, too, not just on pint-sized Macs called “iPhone.”
I was with this piece, but I think there’s an unintended mis-statement at the end: “keep this in mind whenever you read about Apple’s iPhone and you see an article slanted against the iPhone”. . .
So anything slanted against the iPhone is FUD? That’s not right or fair, and in fact use of the term “slanted” is probably yellow journalism.
Let me hasten to add that I understand this is an opinion piece, and further that I agree with most of it. I think I agree with the intent of the last line, but I sure wish you hadn’t written it that way. There are going to be criticisms, many of which are valid (even if not shared by all).
Heh. MW: problem
OS X is modular. If they build a different UI layer for the mobile (and of course they would) why would this not just be OS X with an alternative UI? Isn’t that the whole point of building the systems the way they did?
@ Judge Bork
Uh yeah, the CNET piece does have some critiques. Most of them valid. What’s wrong with that? Why is it OK for tons of articles against the Zune, but not OK for ONE on the internet to find a flaw in the iPhone?
Because the Zune really does blow chunks. We all knew that ages ago.
And no one had any *CLUE* how cool the iPhone would turn out to be.
Step,
SteveJack obviously knows how to write very well.
From the Oxford Dictionary:
slanted: to present or view (information) from a particular angle, esp. in a biased or unfair way
SteveJack’s use of “slanted” is actually excellent. SteveJack also wrote above, “You will see articles that go way beyond legitimate reviews that will attempt to call into question every aspect of Apple’s iPhone…”
SteveJack was very clear. He’s talking about “articles that go way beyond legitimate reviews.”
So Steve Jack, Do you mean that people will start writing FUD pieces about the iPhone before it’s released?
Do you mean like MDN did to the ZUNE way before any details about it were eveb announced?
Huh. Interesting.
Your such a prophet Steve Jack.
Like most things from Britain. (why is that?)
@ Journo
What is a “legitimate review?” How far do you have to go before you’re no longer “legitimate?” Like someone above called that CNET article a hit piece. But it seems to raise some valid concerns, even though it’s not specifically a “review.” I’m sure you can find a Zune article out there that critiques it without being a “review.” So no, SteveJack wasn’t very clear, imho.
MW: present. I really do want an iPhone as a present. I just think this article is a little over the top.
@ Isaih
He said the Zune would suck and it sucks.
It hardly took a prophet to come to that conclusion.
In one of the MSM interviews Phil Schiller or somebody says it’s a stripped down (subset) of OSX, not the full monti. And it’s not open to ouside development because a bad app could take down the whole cell network, concession to Cingular.
I like stevejack’s examples.
If he didn’t have examples he would be just another rabid mac looney. But he has examples!
Hint to MDN: articles like this sound defensive, scared, and weak. Mac users have nothing to be so defensive about.
It’s funny how much Steve Jack/MDN hates the likes of Enderle and Cringley. Even though they are on opposite sides they both do the exact same thing. There is always a middle ground, MDN can rarely seem to find it.
Source link?
Hint to MDN: articles like this sound defensive, scared, and weak. Mac users have nothing to be so defensive about.
——————-
Overly defensive people have a lack of self confidence. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
Check out the always-reliable-and-entertaining Daniel Eran’s latest Roughly Drafted blog- “Macworld: Ten Myths of the Apple iPhone”
This is his summary of the top ten iPhone FUD myths he expects to see.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4DD0941D-9097-4FAE-A3BB-29DA5CA07199.html
Myth Three: The iPhone should be sold unlocked, not tied to Cingular service.
“Shortly before the iPhone’s release, Dean Hall, a seven year software engineer for Motorola, explained in an email the limited usability of an unlocked phone: “When a phone is unlocked it loses its privileges on a provider’s data network. An unlocked phone can make GSM calls and send basic SMS. No MMS, no Internet, no iTS. Apple would either have to reverse engineer a method to gain access to the data network (unlikely as most data networks require SSL-level security to access) or it would have to offer something different.” – “But as Hall points out, even if Apple were to sell the iPhone unlocked (or users were able to unlock it without authorization), the unit would only be able to make basic calls. It couldn’t do remote web, push IMAP, visual voicemail, and various other services that are key features of the device.”
“Myth Five: The iPhone is just a phone with features lots of other phones already have.
This will be popular among the Thurrott crowd, who like to downplay innovation by saying something vaguely similar has already been done.
Yes, the iPhone is a phone, but you’d have to be a complete moron with zero vision to look at it and say “it’s been done before.” Key features are not only shockingly well presented, but will be difficult to even copy.
•The multitouch screen isn’t innovative because it’s a touch screen; it’s new because it offers a finger gesture system that just makes sense and is intuitive.
•Visual voicemail is obvious in retrospect, but nobody in the last half decade of phone development at Palm or Microsoft thought to fix the problem.
•Ever use an existing phone’s web browser? Apple has demonstrated the difference between a placeholder product and a well executed one that actually works.”
It’s not just about the “reviews” of the iPhone. Suddenly, the Washington Post — the paper of record where the feds live and work — has taken an interest in the stock backdating scandal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011002605.html?nav=rss_print/asection
The cell phone providers and manufacturers are vastly more active in the halls of power than Apple. When those chits are called in, I suspect you’ll see the SEC ignoring just about every other of the 200 or so companies it is investigating and focusing a lot more attention on Steve Jobs.
The telecommunications industry is a global behemoth that intentionally cripples its products to protect a predatory pricing and business model. Steve Jobs has just called them out. They’re not going to just sit back and take it.
You know what’s really funny is that <b>this opinion piece is FUD.<b>
Really it is…
So far, the overall consensus and reviews for the iPhone have been nothing but spectacular. And yet, Steve Jack is creating fear, uncertainty and doubt about the fact that there will be FUD pieces..
Give it a rest buddy and go back redesign your website. It is god awful.
Pfft! He’s covering his butt. He’s written this piece so it gives him the legitimacy to question that might be seen to being criticial of the iPhone.
FUD is not about criticisms. If someone says the iPhone is a piece of shit, that’s not FUD. FUD is more subtle.
FUD is based more on hearsay and guessing.
“These articles will harp on the prices Apple plans to charge for the iPhone. They’ll claim the soft keyboard is difficult to use. They’ll make up even more things and they’ll find quotes from people who are supposedly not impressed with the device.”
Saying the keyboard is difficult to use is not FUD. That’s a valid criticism. Criticizing cost is not FUD.
FUD is suggesting that the phone will be unusable at the end of its two-year contract; FUD is saying because it’s OS X it won’t work properly with Windows; FUD is saying a because they’re popular, they’ll get viruses; etc etc
The secret of FUD is it realies on things that sound believable but are harder to verify.
SteveJack is right, there will be lots of FUD. But we have to be careful that we don’t treat every article that makes a criticism as FUD, and flame the writers with our flame-throwers on incinerate.
And I’m with a couple of other readers here, worrying that SteveJack’s piece is putting him in a position to flame anyone who criticizes the iPhone.
Steve Jobs did a masterful job of explaining iPhone. Three revolutionary devices rolled into one. Why the magic touch screen versus having dozens of buttons. Justification on price. The “lineup” of the leading “dumb looking” smart phones next to the sleek iPhone. This is a case where all the FUD in the world will only give iPhone more positive publicity when it is actually released. More people will be aware of iPhone when it is released.
More people were aware of the Zune release because of all the negative pre-release reviews and commentary. Some might call that FUD. However, Zune lived up to those negative expectations. It is probable that iPhone will live up to our positive expectations. Think about it… If the best the FUDsters can do is complain about battery life (which exceeds comparable devices), price (which matches the best of the less capable devices on the market today), quad-band GSM (when there is a good reason for starting with this worldwide standard), fingerprints (have a hanky handy), and Mac OS X (what’s the complaint there?), then it must be something special indeed.
I’d be more concerned if no one cared, which is the norm when a typical smart phone is released.
@ Dave
“Yes, the iPhone is a phone, but you’d have to be a complete moron with zero vision to look at it and say “it’s been done before.”
hear hear!!!
It’s been done before.
-m
MDN, for your sake and Steve Jack’s, pull this opinion piece. It’s embarassing for the both of you!
It’s STILL only got one button?
You know what? A FUD campaign does not concern me. I’m going to buy the Apple Phone (whatever it’s final name turns out to be) and that is the most I can do.
I learned a long time ago that when you try to tell people how great the Mac is and that it will be far less difficult to use than a PC, I am often met with eyeballs rolling up and the acusation of being a “cultist”. Whatever.
I bought the first iPod (5GB, $400) and never regretted it. I’d buy the iPhone today if it were on sale. And really, that’s enough for any one person to do. Let the Steve worry about FUD.
Hey Dave,
Unlocked phones can access other services than just voice and SMS!
Sorry – in Australia the practice of locked phones (i.e. tied to a specific network) is only relatively new (i.e. to the rest of the world where it has been practice from day one!)
You can still purchase unlocked phones from independent vendors and they do NOT have issues with sending MMS, accessing data networks etc.
I reckon that Motorola guy is just making excuses for the fact that handset makers have capitulated to the Networks and as a result they have assisted the networks in restricting consumer choice by locking them to their service.
Don’t get me wrong, this has been a good thing for consumers in some ways, and has driven the growth of the industry. If people had to pay FULL price for the freedom of unlocked phones, Apple wouldn’t be eyeing 1% of a billion unit market at the moment. But the time has come for a change in the model.
I’m hoping that Apple eventually do move beyond the Cingular deal.
My guess is they will work with Cingular to refine new services and products and a NEW way for device vendors (eg Apple, Nokia etc) to deal with the networks, i.e. the networks no longer have FINAL say on hardware features.
This also gives Apple time to have a stable network environment (i.e. they only have to factor in ONE network vendors requirements for now) to refine and develop their skills as telecommunications handset designers/manufacturers.
Then after two years I’d bet Apple will be saying to all the networks, OK you want our handsets, we do it OUR way!
This will be Jobs’ end game plan. To do to the telephony industry what he did to the PC and music industry, that is REDEFINE it.
Remember Jobs said in the Keynote, the iPod didn’t just change how we listened to music, it changed the whole music industry?!
But just like the iPod/iTunes was Mac only until it was refined through a few versions and then thrown open to Windows users, my money is on Jobs/Apple doing the same in the mobile phone space, Cingular only so Apple can learn the trade, then it’s open season for all on Apple’s own terms.
My 2 cents,
Luke
Its not all FUD, some is just justified and forward pushing critique. Without it we’ll never see next generation iPhone, that could be ok for me too! And that should have:
– 3G HSDPA or alternative
– GPS inside
– sliding qwerty keyboard for proper text input or other method to write documents snappier
– extra memory slot and external hard drive support (is it here allready?)
– external audio&video; input&output;
– support for 3rd party applications
– support for two SIM phone cards
Year 2009?
FUD is the crap going on over Cisco sueing Apple. You’d think it spells the end of the Apple producing a phone.
So what if Cisco wins and Apple has to rename it? Apple sticks will plummet? The world will end? Hardly. It’s just a name.
The FUD is the beatup of that story, trying to cause doubts about whether the iPhone wil come to be.
Now that’s FUD.
Well said, LukeinOz
Yu’re absolutely right – I read “comments” from (I’m guessing competitors typing furious from Vegas) where they ignore the actual specs and make up things with statements like – no bluetooth or wifi … or they make inane statements like – how is apple going to make money because unlike .mac, people will be broke after $599 … yea, I know, that makes no sense but hey, that’s Apple’s competition … or they ask Rob Glasser for a quote – wouldn’t that be like asking Donald TRump a question on hair care?
Or they go on and on about “missing features’ as if the iphone was a bridge or a sculpture in granite and once it’s done, that’s it – hello … it’s a LONG time between now and June – they could add almost anything – it’s almost all in the software – that is the only downside to having to wait – pinheads who spent $9,000 on rims for their 1998 Buick Regal complaining that no one will spend $600 for an ipod, pda, phone a mini-nano mac … as if … where is that damn pre order page?
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I gotta say that the Treo is a better phone. I can place a call to a contact out of a list of thousands in three seconds with one hand. The iPhone will involve a long scroll with far more attention required for the animated UI.
But the new widescreen video iPod may very well get me over to iPhone, where it’s all together in one device.
There are moments when advancements are undeniable and folks desire to play them down become very transparent. I can recall some saying of the 1984 Macintosh, “It doesn’t do anything you can’t do with a CLI. Why waste processor cycles on useless graphics.” The biggest thing for Apple is the iPhone will be in Cingular stores, not just Apple Stores where folk who are shopping will get to see it for themselves – and with this phone – seeing is believing.
Wait till the stripped-down version of OS X ends up in many different devices, including appliances.
Man, you ain’t seen nothing yet! The FUDs will come like a glacial avalanche.
iPhone? I want one now no matter what FUDs are out there. It really looks very slick. I might end up having a harem of impressed dates in the process. LOL!
I don’t doubt SteveJack will be proved correct. But the list of articles he includes are all positive. Examples, Steve. I know you don’t want to feed the trolls, but hey, there is validity to many above postings about the dearth of negativity regarding the iPhone. Indeed, it should be remembered that Wall Street and the tech reporting industry were in shock upon the product introduction, and at a complete loss to come up with said FUD negativity. Which is why AAPL skyrocketed upon the news and breaking the historic pattern of losing value following the keynote, as it has for the past couple of years or more. Sure there are glaring areas for growth and improvement. But as presented the iPhone doesn’t suck, and as folks seriously consider it’s features and usage the value only becomes more reasonable.
Sure, the negative FUD articles will come. I’m sure examples already exist. But they aren’t linked to in the editorial above. Maybe next time? Oh right, don’t feed the trolls.
Most of this talk is conjecture and nothing else.
Apple have given us <u>some</u> info re their “iPhone” – a product that is not due to hit the market until June.
My thoughts, also based on knowing nowt regarding Apple and their partners intention, but what they pitched to us the other day ain’t necessarily what they have up their sleeves, now, for the launch date or by the end of the year and beyond.
I am a television lighting Director and more often or not when dealing with Producers, Directors, talent and clients, my maxim is to under promise and then over deliver.
We know some stuff about Leopard, but they are keeping the best part of it a secret not only to stymy the opposition but also to make a bigger splash when released.
MDN MW – “increase” as in up the ante on delivery.
You want FUD? Look at Scoble:
http://scobleizer.com/2007/01/10/the-iphone-reality-distortion-field/
or Thurrott. It’s really interesting how Microsoft people are reacting: snide, carping, damning with faint praise. I think a lot of it is a simply psychological reaction to something they’re in awe of, but can’t have. The orchestrated (paid-for) astroturfng won’t kick off for a while.
THis so true – the mobile phone market is dominated by Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.
These companies have had the market sown up for too long and are VERY SCARED.
Apple is the ONLY company that could have done this, and make a phone, OS and network solution that will literally revolutionise the phone industry.
All the other companies in the phone market havent got the expertise, ability or creativity and innovational culture to create anything like the Apple iPhone.
I couldnt ever imagine Nokia spending nearly 3 years inventing a touch display for a start!
Going back to the ipod, Microsoft had a $10 billion yearly budget for R+D – and even they coud’nt even create this. Apple on the other hand has a annual R+D budget of $500 million – and just look at what ground breaking devices they create!
Imagine what Apple could do with a $10 billion R+D budget!!!
My advice to Nokia, Motorola and all the other mobile makers is GET OUT OF THE MARKET.
Apple is here to stay – they have seen and listened to everyone using phones and have made a ground breaking and industry turning product because of it.
Like what SJ said in the Keynote – the ‘killer app’ was always there right under their noses and they never even saw it.
The killer app is ‘making phone calls’ its as simple as that.
Most of these comments on “keyboard” difficulties come from people who may have had a max of 5 minutes to try out a completely new interface (except maybe David Pogue). How many people do you think would say writing an sms on an unfamiliar smartphone interface was easy after 5 minutes playing with it?
Sorry, but FUD has started already. Quotes:
Apple’s reasons for entering the handset market are clear. It’s facing stiff competition to the iPod from other consumer goods manufacturers, punting “me-too” products at more favorable prices.
Apple’s much-anticipated foray into mobile telephony won’t change the market to the U.S. company’s advantage. Mobile telephony is a more complex and mature market than the one for portable music players dominated by Apple’s iPod.
Apple hit gold with the iPod partly because of its clever, no-nonsense design. Apple has sought to emulate that with the iPhone’s touch screen, a technology that has proven more clunky than keypads in the past.
However advanced the iPhone’s touchpad is, the technology may yet be undone by customers’ sticky fingers particularly when the iPhone is billed as an all-round telephony, E-mail, internet and video device.
The iPhone may well shake up the status-quo in the mobile phone market, but it’s main achievement might be to force market leaders Nokia and Motorola, already under pressure from nearest rivals Samsung and Sony Ericsson, to overhaul their handset designs. We will see Apple’s rivals come back bigger and better.
Apple also faces tough decisions when it comes to partnering with mobile operators. In the U.S., it plans to sell iPhones through operator Cingular and its own Apple stores. But even taking into consideration Apple’s loyal fans and brand name, generating big sales of a single device backed by only one operator may be overambitious.
I do not know what you call these statements if not FUD.
They try to instill Fear that things will not work, uncertainty that however nice the technology is it won’t work, and doubts that the entire business model will work with mobile operators.
Seriously, is anyone truly believe that there will not be a smearing campaign soon about the iPhone, trashing it for missing features, describing technology shortcomings when no one had even tried one iPhone yet, or claiming that the interface lacks this and that when all they could refer to is what is shown in the demo?
What amuses me the most is the fact that whenever Apple innovate in any direction the FUD artists come out of the woodwork.
OK. I must admit I don’t spend hours every day looking for FUD articles about the products newly launched by other companies. For example Blackberry or Palm or a Windows Mobile device because I seriously doubt there are enough of them to make a dent but with Apple. It’s different.
It’s just my opinion but surely if someone keeps FUDding about Apple products and nobody else’s products then surely that person is in fear of something.
They either work for an Apple competitor and are in fear for their job security or they mistakenly invested in MSFT or DELL instead of AAPL and are skidding up their underpants.
It comes over as a kind of “your mum…” thing or a form of hi-tech penis envy
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Bill to Steve: “Yeah well yours may be bigger Steve but that doesn’t make it any better. Mine can pee a lot farther on a full bladder!!!”
Or maybe it’s the “cup half empty” people that do this.
Either way. Once the handsets are on the market and dudes are showing their mates how sexy it is it’s gonna kick ass.
The FUDmeisters will just look pretty silly in the end.
While I’m quite confident that there is plenty of demand for the iPhone, certainly enough for it to take 10% or more of the market in its first year of availability, I think that SJ may have used the 1% figure to temper expectations.
Why would he do so? Because there are likely to be some major supply issues for the flash RAM this phone uses. It was hard to get enough just for the shuffles and the nanos. Now, add another major product that needs 4 or 8 GB of flash per unit, and you’re looking at suppliers having to do a massive ramp-up.
-jcr
LukeinOz, you get it.
Let the absurd FUD roll. Just keep debunking that FUD as it pours off the lips and word processors of fools. All of this pro and con publicity will help Apple. Game over, man!
Normal Tire Kicking.
I see all this negative press as normal. Every writer is trying to find new angles and trying to make themselves look wise and tech savvy.
Dissing this product at this point does not condemn it.
All new products have to under go this media trial by fire. Look at the shit storm we all rained on Zune! However, obviously, there is already magnitudes more positive acceptance for iPhone. It’s already a clear hit with consumers and it isn’t even on store shelves yet. It will be a phenomenal success.
Far from pulling this piece, I give MDN my vote for saying it so clearly. There are already a good few cases. Just look at the BBC…it’s coverage of anything Apple is always couched in terms of jest and cynicism, always offering comments on why it might not be as good as you think.
They fall into the trap of always going for NEUTRALITY, feeling the need to seek out both sides even when it is 99 to 1. That’s the trouble with artificial, socially engineered political correctness.
Instead they should try just going for OBJECTIVITY and tell it as it is.
Yes, SteveJack is right about the FUD. Any article raising “concerns” about the iPhone is absolutely FUD.
It is funny to read some of the “legitimate opinions are not FUD!” replies here. Yes, they sure are- when NO ONE CAN HAVE REVIEWED THE THING YET!
And, true, proclaiming it as the greatest device ever created is premature also. But if the thing works, even 70% of it, like Apple says it does, the other smartphone makers are pretty much doomed.
After the keynote I said to a friend, “Wow, in a year phones with physical buttons are going to seem so goofy.”
His reply:
“They already do.”
> …then see if you can call SteveJack a conspiratorial crackpot – [Judge Bork].
I was invited: “You can call me conspiratorial. You can call me a crackpot,” he wrote, so I did. All in good fun, of course as evidenced by the qualifier in my next statement.
As for the CNet article, yeah, it sounds like they are trolling for ammunition for their fudpucking. But I sense the press – in the larger sense of the word – are showing increasing respect for Apple and disdain for Microsoft.
@Bert
“It’s really interesting how Microsoft people are reacting: snide, carping, damning with faint praise.”
What? What did some crackpot say about a conspiracy? You Mac morons should seek help. Seriously.
Since when are “Microsoft people” snide, carping, or damning with faint praise? I’ll tell you when: Never. Take a look in the mirror, Mac fanboys and girls. We might not support every little thing from Cupertino like you Apple lemmings but at least we’re honest. We Redmond supporters just tell it like it is. Simply read any comment on any blog or forum where awesome PC products are compared with crappy Apple products. What you’ll find from Microsoft supporters are typically pleasant, virtuous and respectful posts. You can count on it. If I could, I would have a different Windows supporter over for dinner each and every day. We just get it. It’s our kind, accommodating nature, I guess.
With that said, let me set the record straight: Apple copied the Zune to come up with their vaporware iPhone, and their Mac OS is derived from the best elements of Windows, only nowhere near as good. Truth hurts, but it’s truth. Zune beats iPhone, Windows beats Mac OS X. Again. Simple as that.
Your potential. Our passion.
Was it just me or was CNBC’s keynote day reporting trying too hard dredge up controversy? I recognize they’re a financial network, but every chance they had to mention the options backdating situation, they took it.
I’m not asking CNBC to gush over the iPhone. Just don’t try to reduce the day’s business events into a hockey fight for viewer interest. Ultimately it became transparent and comical.
The ApplePhone will stand on its own merits. It is so revolutionary it will shed FUD like water off a duck. That’s why they are soooo afraid. And we’re not talking Microshaft here, but companies that have some actual claim to innovation like Motorola, Nokia and Sony which are now seriously concerned about being left in the dust.
It sounds a little protectionist to me, but I have a feeling its not too far off the mark. Ultimately people, and by people I mean “opinion leaders”, self proclaimed and not, have this strange need to make sure that any real competition for MS is quelled before it can get a clean start. The iPod is a perfect demonstration of this reality, thankfully the iPod is also a demonstration that capitalism can win out over big business, corporate bossing tactics. I’m optomistic in the long run – In the short run, those of us who want to see a truly balanced market place better be prepared for a bit of storm between now and the release of the next OS – Its going to rain.
with Zune Tang leading the charge.
MW: “daily,” as in: “Zune Tang: your daily source for laughs”
I think this article appropriately reflects what ENGADGET has done in their podcast. I was really disappointed in the podcast.
They were contradicting themselves left and right. First saying it was a watershed moment, and then saying that there was no way that they would buy it because it wasn’t 3G. And then they went on to attack the interface and saying that the product was not anywhere near revolutionary because all of the technology existed before. Excuse me, but I think any product that will make the cell phone experience more enjoyable, usable, in a way never done before is quite revolutionary.
Lets face it. Yes, an iPod, Phone, and internet on cells has already existed, but how many people acutually use them. I would love to easily use these features on my phone, if I knew how. I read the books, and they do not help! I think from just seeing this on a keynote for a tiny bit of time that I could easily understand how to use it. I am Sorry Ryan and Kevin, but I don’t care if it takes a bit longer to load because it is not 3G. I like the idea that the actual REAL internet would be on my phone, an interesting new iPod interface, and having it sync to all of my contacts.
Seriously guys. I thought you would be excited about this. I may actually stop listening to your podcast because you are seriously starting to seem a bit arrogant, and like elitists. You are obviously not the majority, and for some reason not to fair and balanced, and the reason I am skeptical about treating blogs as respected members of the press, but rather you seem like the back alley way to find out new things. Not sure if you can trust the info because you might just be out to get a buck.
I would say you were really more leaniant on the zune in comparison. I thought some of the ideas of the zune were great, but apples new product is not just a replication of everything else that is out there.
The keynote even said they would be making 3G in the future. And you guys were acting like it was questionable that it might ever come out.
I am both a PC and a Mac user, and love serious tech that is obtainable by the masses. This product fits that mold. What good is technology if only a select few can use it. That is not the future, it is a camp for only the “super cool”. (more like superficial)
You have a staff of great writers, but I am seriously questioning the two at the top. I am curious what your connections are with big corporations, or if you have some sort fear that if everyone can use a technology then they won’t need you any more.
Love,
Me
so where are these supposed articles?
So pretty much what you are saying is that anyone who has any concerns about iPhone features is just spreading FUD. How dare anyone say anything negative about an Apple product right? Man I knew MacDailyNews was garbage but I was wondering how much further you guys were going to shove your heads up Apple’s ass.
I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO READ A BOOK.
I have never had to read an instruction book to make my computers work (okay, aside from PHP and UNIX manuals, lol) and I should not have to read one to make my phone work. If I have to read a book to work your phone, then your phone is a failure.
I can’t wait to post a video of my running over my Moto flip phone with my car… stay tuned!!!
-c
MW: ‘ones’ (got features, the other has uses)
Children, Children, Children!
I looked at the tech specs. I looked at the keynote. And, indeed, the phone runs OS X. It does not, however, run Mac OS X.
ChrissyOne, say it with me. Mmm-aaah-k Oh Ess Ten.
Go to Apple’s pages on Mac OS X. Look for it to be referred to as just “OS X.” It is never referred to that way. It’s referred to as Mac OS X.
By saying that it runs Mac OS X, you’re saying that any Mac OS X application should run on it. How’s the menu-bar gonna work?
So now we have the big question–what is NOT in OS X? For example, I saw no reference on his slides to Carbon. Forget the Photoshop port right there. How about ColorSync? How about OpenGL? Font management? Printing? Scripting?
LukeInOz: SLAMMED!
@ChrissyOne
I’m a little concerned with your obsession with destroying technology, recording it to video and sharing it for the world to see. What are you trying to say? Could it be the fact you are saddled with Apple’s frustrating near-mediocrity and it manifests itself in unhealthy behaviors? Are all of you Apple people like this?
Me? I’m a delighted Microsoft user. Everything just works. Imagine that, Apple lemmings. Redmond’s fluid, intuitive, well designed software lets me complete complex tasks without battling some hackneyed interface or OS insecurities or instabilities. It is as if no layer exists between me and the work I create. Pure productivity. I don’t have any problems, thanks to Microsoft. Maybe you should try it out. You’ll feel much better.
Your potential. Our passion.
Myth Three: The iPhone should be sold unlocked, not tied to Cingular service. “Shortly before the iPhone’s release, Dean Hall, a seven year software engineer for Motorola, explained in an email the limited usability of an unlocked phone: “When a phone is unlocked it loses its privileges on a provider’s data network. An unlocked phone can make GSM calls and send basic SMS. No MMS, no Internet, no iTS. Apple would either have to reverse engineer a method to gain access to the data network (unlikely as most data networks require SSL-level security to access) or it would have to offer something different.”
========
Well this is just moronic. I use nothing BUT unlocked phones and they surf the web along with all this other stuff just fine.
This FUD crap started even before the Stevenote, by MS directly. <http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006106203> [article posted after, but I read similar ones before]. Basically, if the iPhone is good at one thing, then it can’t possibly be good at another…
Course, that’s true for MS stuff in general.
See Howard Stern’s move to Sirius. Classic FUD campaign and it’s still going strong.
Peter – LOL!
You are RIGHT it is unlikely that the iPhone will run any full apps, but that will be due to hardware specs and hence lack of power to run those apps.
What you fail to see beyond your nose is the fact that the iPhone has a new UI technology. There is NOTHING stopping this UI with more powerful hardware to run what we know as Mac OS X.
You ask how the menu bar is going to work? if it can be mouse clicked, it can be pointed at with a finger!? As Steve said, the best pointing device ever is hanging off the end of our hands (or words to that effect).
So yes you are RIGHT, this product wont run photoshop, but that doesn’t mean the OS on the phone is not Mac OS X.
SEMANTICS.
Regarding me being slammed, whatever mate! That was related to the 5 odd posts in a matter of minutes that pointed out you were mistaken.
You posting a weak attempt to save face – that isn’t being slammed mate, but like everything you have posted here, it was weak in thinking.
Go back and read the thread buddy, I’ll take my feedback over yours any day of the weak, sorry I mean week!
Semantics is the tool of fools!
My 2 cents,
Luke
Oh and by the way, just because the Keynote and the tech specs don’t mention Carbon, etc doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Steve just said it runs OS X, he wasn’t going to then list all the components to satisfy the pedants like you.
By the way Steve did mention that the iPhone has Core Image, Core Video etc, and again within a few secs of deciding to search for some actual FACTS to back up my point I find this page on Apple’s web site (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/opengl/) which states the following:
“What’s more, OpenGL lets such droolworthy technologies as Core Image, Core Video, Exposé, Fast User Switching and Dashboard use your high-end video card to accelerate onscreen effects. In fact, without OpenGL, much of the advanced graphics you take for granted today on Mac OS X would simply be impossible.”
So if Open GL is what enables the graphics technologies in OS X, I’d be betting it is present in the OS X on the iPhone, but then again, I also am betting that it is OS X.
Just like Apple Inc. was Apple Computer Inc. Maybe OS X <b>was/<b> Mac OS X.
It is no longer just a computing platform device?
But now I am getting into semantics, and I don’t want to look foolish!
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My 2 cents,
Luke
oops please excuse poor html there.
Should have read:
Just like Apple Inc. was Apple Computer Inc. Maybe OS X was Mac OS X.
Dance, Luke, Dance!
“You ask how the menu bar is going to work? if it can be mouse clicked, it can be pointed at with a finger!?”
Good point. Of course, you’re going to have an issue with screen real-estate.
Hell, look at Safari. Where’s the menu bar? It’s a web-browser with the same name, not the same browser. I have no doubt that webkit is implemented, for example. And one of the beauties of Cocoa’s View-Model-Controller design is that to move between environments, you change your UI’s views and controller and the model (which is the hard part) just ports over. NeXT showed this quite successfully with WebObjects.
So your Mac application won’t run on the iPhone. But a properly designed Cocoa application will probably move to the iPhone merely by changing the Views and Controller.
“[…] just because the Keynote and the tech specs don’t mention Carbon, etc doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
Nor does it mean it is there. I’ll admit, neither of us are in the know here. Personally, though, I think it’s interesting that it is not included. I personally doubt the Carbon APIs are available, mostly because the vast majority of Apple’s development is in Cocoa. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing–Carbon mostly exists to protect third-party developers from having to completely rewrite their applications. If you’re writing new apps for a phone, why carry around the Carbon overhead?
“So if Open GL is what enables the graphics technologies in OS X, I’d be betting it is present in the OS X on the iPhone, but then again, I also am betting that it is OS X.”
Actually, I’d bet you’re right on this one. While all of those technologies can be done without OpenGL, it becomes less easy to move things between OS X and Mac OS X when you have different implementations (as well as the support headaches). Optimize OpenGL and everybody speeds up.
“Just like Apple Inc. was Apple Computer Inc. Maybe OS X was Mac OS X.”
Well, again, my theory on this is that OS X is a subset of Mac OS X. Certain things are not available in OS X that are available in Mac OS X. That’s been said by many people at Apple. What pieces are missing is the important question. Again, I’d bet that the Carbon APIs are missing. I’d bet that AppleScript is missing. Some chunks of Core Foundation are missing–mostly the ones that duplicate Cocoa functionality in Carbon. I’d bet alot of the printing architecture is missing.
Since the only place on Apple’s site that refers to OS X is in the iPhone section, I’d bet that Apple is trying to draw a differentiation. Thus, the iPhone does not run Mac OS X. It runs “OS X”–the subset.
Of course it is Mac OSX, If you are saying there is a differentation between Mac OSX and OSX, then you’re nuts..
OSX means Operating System Ten. If they arent using Mac OSX in iPhone, then it would be called iPhone OS1.
How do you know they’re wrong? They haven’t held an iPhone in their hands, sure, but neither have you. So what makes you right, instead of them?
@ Zune Tang
Actually this will be my first foray into technology-crushing in a great many years. I find blunt-force trauma less interesting from a technologists point of view than fire.
The real question is, Will It Burn?
And as we all know, with enough WD-40, *anything* will burn.
-c
MW: ‘cold’ (fusion built my hot-rod)
“You can call me conspiratorial. You can call me a crackpot. Call me whatever you like, but I will be proven right soon enough.”
… sounds a bit paranoid, no? Obviously, someone isn’t entirely comfortable defending yet another useless toy from Apple.
“…attacking everything from battery life, the type of battery, fingerprints on the screen, its Mac OS X operating system, and the type of network technology the first iPhone will employ”
All of the above is entirely fair game, and rightfully so. Apparently, you are already all too aware of the iPhone’s myriad flaws, so you figure if you take a more preemptive approach to your “defense”, you might actually fool people into thinking that the aforementioned problems are acceptable.
You IT types and nerds just don’t “get” the consumer market.
We don’t want your highest-tech, cutting-edge, most technically sophisticated, “corporate”, or IT-approved products or devices to do things the way you think we should. We don’t care about your price-for-features analyses or technical explanations about we should care about the IT-elegance of designs and capabilities.
We want the best “tools” to do what we want. We want simple, easy-to-learn, dependable, elegant, easy-to-use products that make us smile, and feel good to our eyes, hands and souls. We don’t mind paying more for something that is what we want.
This is why the iPhone will be a gigantic consumer success…because it lets us do what we want to do…not what you think we should want or what you think how we should do it.
already started, the new york newspaper today, had an “official review” of the iphone, claiming its internet (safari) wasnt all that. LOL all i do is laugh and smile, ahhh thier all screwed, lmao the iPhone is coming. =)
“They’ll claim the soft keyboard is difficult to use”
The only problem is that…it is. Stylish? Sure. Innovative? Meh. Awesome? I guess. Easier to use than a standard keypad? Nope.
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