“Asked, at the OPA Forum for the Future conference in London, what the company thinks of the Apple iPhone, Motorola European marketing director Simon Thompson huffed: ‘We thought it looked very pretty and white. iPhone, iPhone, iPhone! I’m just bored of this darned question. Look, there will be a billion phones sold next year – on a good year, there will be 10 million iPhones,'” Robert Andrews reports for MocoNews.
Andrews reports that Thompson further stated, “More and more consumers are after a more multimedia experience – that’s the basic reality. There are a billion phones sold every year; there are 150 million PCs; the PC tendency is not upwards, the phone tendency is upwards. New, developing markets will expect the power of a PC in their hands very soon – in a ‘phone’, not a ‘device.'”
Full article here.
Not only does the impending roadkill not know even the color of the steamroller bearing down on it, it also doesn’t understand that what it just described as desired by more and more consumers is “iPhone, iPhone, iPhone!” Looks like some of these bozos won’t even know what hit them.
Simon Thompson, and others like him, really should sit down, take a deep breath, relax, and ask themselves, “Is it really smart to come off as ignorant and unprepared in order to project a confidence that lacks basis in reality?”
Obviously, Motorola et al. do not have time to get out of the way, but do their executives really want to look like they were deer caught in the headlights after the bloody fact? We’d respect them if they just admitted the truth for once: their products are highly-confusing messes and they’re embarrassed after seeing Apple’s iPhone. Of course, we’ll never get that level of truth, but this “very pretty and white” stuff is exactly the wrong way to go; Thompson’s sprinting toward Apple’s oncoming grill!
What do we predict for Motorola? In the immortal word of Mr. T: “Pain.”
Related articles:
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
Motorola warns investors of ‘rocky’ road ahead – February 21, 2007
Intel CEO Otellini praises Apple iPhone, OS X; says Windows can’t cut it in mobile space – March 06, 2007
Which company is most at risk from Apple’s looming iPhone onslaught? – March 04, 2007
Why Apple’s iPhone is a radical, disruptive product – March 01, 2007
Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple ‘buy’ – says market is underestimating iPhone demand – March 01, 2007
Apple’s 10 million iPhone sales target for 2008 would surpass most other smart phone sales – March 01, 2007
Apple preps 3G iPhone model for Europe – February 25, 2007
The once-mighty Palm Inc. doomed to decline and failure – thanks to Apple’s iPhone – February 23, 2007
Palm CEO can’t stop talking about Apple iPhone – February 19, 2007
Microsoft caught off-guard, beaten badly by Apple’s iPhone innovations – February 13, 2007
Palm CEO: ‘We don’t want to follow design fads’; Nokia CEO challenges Apple over iPhone – February 13, 2007
RIM co-CEO doesn’t see threat from Apple’s iPhone – February 12, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
How Verizon blew the Apple iPhone deal – January 29, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) – January 18, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
Apple ‘iPhone’ could cause Nokia, Palm, Motorola, and RIM to really start to sweat – December 07, 2006
informed,
You are full of shit.
The iPod Hi-Fi is the best solution, for a small room, on the planet. It was designed for a small room and it does that job very, very well. Have you even heard the Hi-Fi in the proper environment? It beats anything else on the market.
Did it sell in the millions? Maybe not.
Did it work as advertised? Hell yes.
@”@ “how soon we forget”…”
Very well said!
Breaker, breaker…, dd and Towertone, I suspect there are increasingly large numbers out there who don’t even know what a CB radio is anymore! Even if they do, they will wrongly believe they’ve been replaced by cell phones. They are still a critical communication link for many people, especially on the road where they offer open local group communication. There may be alternatives of which I am currently unaware and am willing to be enlightened, but they I suspect they continue to provide communications that other methods cannot. For me, I miss having one in my vehicle since moving to a vehicle with limited installation options.
From Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
…
BLACK KNIGHT
Had enough?
ARTHUR
You stupid bastard. You haven’t got any arms left.
BLACK KNIGHT
Course I have.
ARTHUR
Look!
BLACK KNIGHT
What! Just a flesh wound.
(kicks ARTHUR)
…
It’s the same psychology being displayed by the Moto exec. iPhone has its competitors in denial. But without access to OS X and the multi-touch patents, they don’t have a prayer.
From another movie, “Aliens,” “Game over man, game over.”
Here’s the sitch:
It’s not so much that the iPhone will put the other players out to pasture, but, rather, these companies have seen the very near future of handheld devices and have realized that they’ve been peddling 1999 technologies for too long. The kicker? No skunkworks labs creating amazing stuff for the future. And too many of them relying on 20th century M$ tinker-tech and no way out.
Apple had been developing OS X for multiple processors AND multiple form factors for years. They weren’t so much AHEAD of the curve — they changed the velocity of the curve.
@ Big Al
The nearly featureless “Hi-Fi” “beats anything else on the market.”
Thanks for proving my point.
I’m sorry, you’re right, your choice of computer and OS does make you a better person if you chose the right one. What was I thinking with my “sanctimonious” attitude.
Thank you for helping me see the light.
I’m not judging anyone, just saying it’s a matter of how you treat people. You can approach the person who got the virus and lost their hard drive and laugh in their face for buying a PC…or you can say “try a Mac, you don’t have to worry about that stuff”.
I’m just saying not everything has to be an “in your face” attitude. At the end of the day,you can do what you want. But there’s no denying there are people on this forum (not necessarily you “@ how soon we forget”) who genuinely think they are better people than PC users because of their choice to get a Mac. I see your point “@how soon” and I see how I came across as being the true “elitist”. i’m just saying that that attitude drives people away and gives Mac users everywhere a bad name as people who look down their nose at the PC crowd.
In the end, I’m glad I use a Mac and not a PC and I’ll still display the Apple on my back windshield
@how soon we forget,
Mac user, eh? Hanger-on is more like it. Apple is going out of business. Macs are lame toys. You’d get laughed out of my office if you brought one of those in. Besides, there’s no good games for Mac. They’re not compatible. Everybody uses Windows. There’s no software for Macs. Didn’t Bill Gates make the first Mac?
You made the wrong choice. I mean, yeah, Macs are shiny, I guess. But you can’t do any work with them.
*Get it?
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@informed
Are you informed? Sales data on Apple Hi-Fi please.
I found this to start with:
…NPD Group, that master of all retail store data…
(Apple) Hi-Fi does have this going for it: It’s second only to Bose in revenue share, with 14.5%. Together, Bose and Apple are pulling in half the money consumers are spending on iPod speakers.
http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2006/09/the_first_of_ma.html
Sounds like a successful product to me!
informed,
I have an iPod Hi-Fi and I love it, the sound is great.
I read an article last month on Gizmodo that Target stores were selling off all of their iPod Hi-Fi’s for $87 (why 87?). I didn’t believe it but went to Target to see.
It was true so I got two(one for a friend). For $87 I absolutely love it. It’s the coolest looking thing in my modernist bedroom. BUT, I would have felt very very cheated for $400 though.
@Jerry T: $87 is an excellent price.
@sydneyStephen: market percentage data shows I’m wrong how again? And revenue share compared with the equally overpriced Bose is supposed to prove what? Note that Apple no longer bothers to feature this product anywhere on their own online store iPod page–one must search to find it. While that may not constitute “proof” of Apple’s utter flop, it certainly doesn’t imply that the “Hi-Fi” is a breakout success.
I’m not going to regurgitate all the old data and arguments, but suffice it to say with a $29 mini-dock and $200 you can equal or surpass the audio quality of the iPod “Hi-Fi” (in TRUE stereo, no less), have a far more versatile small-room stereo, and end up with nearly $125 leftover to spend on more music. Less-expensive alternatives are readily available (including powered studio monitors for professional and hobbyist recording). These alternatives may not have a built-in dock, but lacking that single feature hardly justifies the price difference.
So Apple didn’t “reinvent” home stereo, and the marketing hype was not delivered upon. Furthermore, the “Hi-Fi” hardly “beats anything else on the market,” unless you limit the “market” to glorified plastic boomboxes costing twice their value.
If someone still insists on buying the Apple glorified plastic boombox just so they can proudly admire the Apple logo, seek closeouts deals like the very fortunate Jerry T did.
Well, again, you don’t get it.
I never said that choosing a Mac made me a “better person”, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone at all make that assertion. But what you’re doing, which is what lazy minds do, is you’re taking one thing, and making it mean another. I said that choosing a Mac is not only a better decision, but a more moral one. I was speaking about THAT PARTICULAR DECISION. Get it? One thing. Just…one. You’re the one that’s making that statement out to be some sort of global statement about me supposedly thinking I’m better than PC users. You’re reading WAY too much into all this. It’s a Mac news site for cryin’ out loud. What sort of attitude to do truly expect. There’re gonna people that are enthusiastic about Macs and that hate PC’s. And sometimes we are simply confounded that anyone would willingly choose to use a PC – simply by default, not because they actually compared it to a Mac. It’s natural and quite normal that there’s going to be some venting.
As far as me getting in anyone’s face is concerned, I don’t do it. When I laugh, I laugh to myself, not to them. Nor do I tell them to get a Mac. I’m not one of those people that tries to convert anyone. I stopped caring a long time ago.
And as far as the “in-your-face” stuff is concerned, I’ve had more in-your-face crap from PC users than I’ve ever seen PC users get from Mac people. We’re not the ones with the bad attitude. They are. And I’m tired of them spouting their oh so precious Mac vs. PC mythologies. Fuck ’em all.
@ a bunch of you
I bought my son a HiFi at 50% off at Target (wasn’t as lucky as Jerry T) and he likes it better than the Bose. I was surprised at the output. Not as clear as my Kenwood/Bose home sytem, but great for an iPod (at that price)
About the ‘Mac superiority complex’, in most of the forums I go to, reguardless of the subject, many act just as elite as they do here, be it about cars, audio equipment, news, food, music, or whatever.
I use a Mac, and I make fun of people who don’t for humor. I’m not a better person for my computer, car, or clothes. I’m normal as most. I just have a better computer.
@Windows Fanboy
“You’d get laughed out of my office if you brought one of those in. Besides, there’s no good games for Mac.”
lol…. and your office is in a preschool somewhere?
absolutly hilarious take. Thanks for being the perfect example of what a true blue, winfanboi is. Clueless, arrogant, and just plain silly.
TowerTone,
I saw it at 50% off at Target around the end of Dec. and almost bought it then as I got an iPod video for Christmas…I’m glad I waited.
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“Is it really smart to come off as ignorant and unprepared in order to project a confidence that lacks basis in reality?”
Like I said before, it’s inconceivable that the heads of major corporations (Balmer and Gates for eg.) are as ignorant of their competition as they are coming across.
But it is entirely apparent their commentary is driven by frustration on two fronts. Frustration at being blindsided by such a futuristic device from a current non-competitor, and frustrated by the fact that their offerings have not and could not penetrate the public mindset as quickly as Apple’s iPhone has…