“Analysts beholden to Microsoft are deeply concerned about the threat posed by Apple’s troublesome new iPhone: it’s far too much money, does nothing new at all, it’s missing all kinds of essential features, and it’s doomed to fail even by such minor details as its name,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted.
Eran writes, “Further, they are quick to point out, the iPhone is all just vaporware anyway. At least it is until June, at which time it is certain to whimper into an unappreciative market, just like Sculley’s 1994 Newton or Steve Job’s last bomb, the PowerMac G4 Cube.”
Eran writes, “Or, alternatively, the iPhone may storm the market like a plundering pirate fleet, killing off all competition and everything else we hold dear: 3G liberties, the freedom to write our own phone apps, and the desperate plight of developers, developers, developers. Oh the humanity!”
The iPhone has caused more reason to fear and doubt the uncertainty of Apple’s survival since the iPod,” Eran writes.
Full article, including Eran’s “Five Phases of Media Coverage” as they pertain to Apple and Microsoft, the Zune joke, Greenpeace, and much more here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related article:
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
RoughlyDrafted.com is a great place to read Apple analysis.
Please, MDN, stop posting this Roughly Drafted fanboy junk. It just makes this site look even more like a koolaid-drinking mac zealot-fest, destroying the last pretension of objectivity. It has been proven time and time again that Daniel Eran will stop at nothing, not specious arguments or even twisting facts or outright lies, to try and make Apple look good at the expense of Microsoft. One wonders just what Microsoft did to Eran in his childhood to cause this behaviour.
Ha… the ‘plundering pirate fleet’ is now Mac, iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, Leopard, Xserve and a few more on the way…!
Microfrot has Zune, Vista, Microfrot CE and XBox… more like a fleet of third world rustbuckets on their way to the knackers yard…
You are truly idiotic if you come to MDN expecting “objectivity”. That phrase died with Dan Rather and the faked National Guard service memos.
With that said, Roughlydrafted is bull.
Flannigan you have to be trolling, go back to Digging MS articles…
RDM is a great resource for telling it as it is.
RoughlyDrafted is incredibly insightful and well-researched, not to mention spot-on. Other than the statements containing obvious opinion, what examples do you have of twisted facts or outright lies? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
If by “as it is” you mean “as he sees it,” then yes.
to Flannigan.
While I believe MDN is not necessarily adverse to running Apple critical stories (and then destroying them with, oftentimes, sensible logic) the do tend to remove posts from those whose criticism is strongly supported by facts, logic, and reality.
Steve Jobs is not a genius. He is a master huckster supported by very desirable and highly over-hyped and over-priced products.
The iPhone sets a new level for all this and, until consumers start using it, the jury will be out on whether it transforms the world – as MDN has suggested.
Roughly Drafted is quality analysis.
He writes the way I feel.
With so much regular negative FUD surrounding Apple and their products on the net it’s a breath of fresh air to have someone battling for our side. Anyone on here who says any different is obviously on the wrong site. Go and read Paul Thurrott’s bull or Dvorak’s drivel instead. You will read what you want to read on their sites.
Bye Bye Windoh’s fanboys!!!
>Dan Rather and the faked National Guard service memos.
Doesn’t participation in this list require a minimum of 512Mb RAM?
Our Mr. President faked National Guard service — and that’s a fact.
But no, no one expects objectivity here at MDN — that’s why it’s so fun!
Steve Jobs a ‘huckster’ hey?
MDN ‘removes posts’ because they don’t fit. Really?
iPhone not as good as EVERYONE who’s touched it has said?
I smell T R O L L s
If you believe the iPhone isn’t already a major hit, you are deluding yourselves.
You know, just last night I was reading about how Roughly Drafted got booted from Digg, and how Dan Eran was a raving lunatic who would say and do anything to support his crazy paranoid notions.
Now I’ve read one or two of his pieces, and I didn’t remember him sounding like a raving MacLoon. In fact, he sounded every bit as sane as, say, John Gruber. A fan, a writer who will use a little hyperbole now and again, but entertaining and informative. So I thought I’d see what I missed in my first random sample.
So I went to his website, and I read five or six random pieces from the last 3 months.
You know what? They were well-written, thorough, seemingly painstakingly researched, and (in my opinion, at least) very insightful. I’ve been using Macs since 1990 and there was stuff in there about the OS wars of the mid-to-late-90’s that I didn’t know. And I thought I was a fan.
But what I didn’t see was raving lunacy, paranoia, invented facts, etc. Maybe it’s the cheesy graphics that turn people off (they certainly detract from the site overall) – but certainly they’re no more puerile than the ones used here on MDN, are they? They’re just more work to make. MDN just takes the worst pictures they can find, Daniel obviously enjoys Photoshop.
Maybe someone can help me figure out why the guy is so maligned? I seem to be missing everyone’s point here.
RoughlyDrafted is an EXCELLENT read. For those trolls (Flannigan), please KMA!
A lot of work went into that article: interesting, insightful and entertaining. But what really cracked me up was the pikkie of the doggie pooping on the zune. Which brings to mind…the mirror-reverse of “zune” spelling “anus” and Janus [pronounced “y’anus” in Copenhagen]. Perhaps the dog was making microsoft.
Can you give us evidence of the “outright lies” that you refer to written by Daniel Eran?
The RDM images are part of the fun. Not surprising there are thousands of Microsoft zealots about like Flannigan ready to bad mouth him.
Daniel Eran is essential reading for any Mac fan and for anyone interested in technology. His analyses are enlightening.
RoughlyDrafted is for ultra-Mac zealots who have installed a shrine to Jobs in the middle of their homes, name their children after Apple products, and have committed every MacExpo keynote to memory.
I find Dan Eran to be an intelligent, thoughtful, and witty writer, and usually pretty much dead on. I thought this latest piece was absolutely brilliant! Almost sounded like something Colbert would have done.
Anyone who would criticize him is obviously suffering from Stockholm’s Syndrome (not to mention a missing sense of humor).
Um . . . it’s ‘averse’ which means being opposed to, rather than ‘adverse’ which means unfavorable. Yeah. Mac users are smarter.
I thought the article was dead on.
Worst headline. Ever.
Here’s the reality of the situation, and perhaps MDN can correct the page with something a little more accurate:
Those beholden to Apple are deeply concerned about Microsoft’s latest threat: Zune
Hay Apple lemmings, the Zune isn’t vaporware like your little phone with features just about everyone else has had for years. It’s for real and it’s groundbreaking interface, huge screen and points system for use at the Zune Marketplace are taking the MP3 player world by storm. Don’t give me that BS about the Zune’s rankings at Amazon. Real music enthusiasts and technically astute gadget aficionados don’t shop there. They go to Office Max or Circuit City, and that’s where Zunes are flying off the shelves.
Cupertino fears the day Redmond adds phone capability and Windows Mobile to the already awesome Zune. Cupertino, start your copiers.
Your potential. Our passion.
Oh and by the way – THANK YOU MDN FOR POSTING THE ARTICLE. And Flanigan, you can suck it.
“or Steve Job’s last bomb, the PowerMac G4 Cube.”
Grrrrrr…..repeat after me, “the Cube was not a failure”, “the Cube was not a failure”….
Failures don’t sit on my desk and work flawlessly for 6 1/2 years!
That was a GREAT article.
Apple will always be the “renegade,” even when it controls the defacto standard for digital players and media. That’s why it attracts such a loyal following, whereas Microsoft is treated like “big brother” even when it is not.
Hey guys. Any of you agree with me that the term “reality distortion field” really should refer to Microsoft’s imposed perception on their users that the typical computer experience should require tons of third party security software and allow for regular crashes rather than Steve Jobs ability to eggagerate the coolness of a product into peoples minds creating a desire that is overblown?
When ever I watch SJ’s Keynotes I am usually excited and impressed by what he shows us and have never been disappointed in an Apple product or thought it was over hyped. Surely if he had a reality distortion field I would be dissapointed once I bought the products. Wouldn’t I?
If you listen to the noise the Windows trolls make squirting on about how crap they think Apple’s new iPhone will be and how great anything coming out of the Redmond campus is I really think they have a distorted view of computing in General.
Clem was right about Stockholm Syndrome but there is definitely a chunk of cognitive dissonance thrown in too eh!!