“Apple Inc.’s two most lucrative products are a study in contrasts. Its iPod dominates the digital-music device market with more than 70% of players sold in the U.S., while after decades the Macintosh has secured barely 5% of the personal computer market,” Michelle Quinn writes for The Los Angeles Times. “So which one is the iPhone, which hits stores Friday at 6 p.m., destined to emulate?”
MacDailyNews Take: FUD Writing Rule #1: Establish the hint of Apple weakness and fallibility by repeating an undefined “5%” figure for Mac market share while ignoring (and hoping that your audience is ignorant of) the fact that Apple’s Mac defined and continues to define the “personal computer.” Everyone’s using a Mac today, Michelle, whether it be the real thing or some upside-down and backwards knock-off like Windows.
Quinn continues, “That depends on whether early buyers like it enough to match the hype, whether Apple lowers the price soon and whether the company can quickly learn the ropes of the complicated cellphone industry.”
MacDailyNews Take: Quinn neglects to explain what Apple needs to learn about the oh-so-complicated cellphone industry that it will soon revolutionize. Perhaps she thinks Apple needs to learn how to overcharge for ringtones, music, and video content while offering phones with unintelligible user interfaces that seemingly refuse to allow users to access even basic features?
Quinn continues, “The stakes are high for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, which is counting on the iPhone to join the iPod and Mac as its third major business.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wait a second, Michelle. You went out of your way to report that “after decades the Macintosh has secured barely 5% of the personal computer market,” but all of a sudden it’s a “major business?” You’re diluting your FUD, Michelle. Tsk tsk.
Quinn continues, “The importance of Apple’s first phone is magnified by the slowing growth of iPod sales.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, you mean that iPod, or any other product in history, cannot sustain ramp up growth levels of 500% or more forever? Thanks for the newsflash, Michelle. Fact: quarterly iPod unit sales show continued increases year-over-year:
Q1:
• 2007 (ended 12/30/06): 21.066 million iPods
• 2006 (ended 12/31/05): 14.043 million iPods
• 2005 (ended 12/25/04): 04.580 million iPods
• 2004 (ended 12/27/03): 733,000 iPods
Q2:
• 2007 (ended 03/31/07): 10.549 million iPods
• 2006 (ended 04/01/06): 08.526 million iPods
• 2005 (ended 03/26/05): 05.311 million iPods
• 2004 (ended 03/27/04): 807,000 iPods
Q3:
• 2006 (ended 07/01/06): 08.111 million iPods
• 2005 (ended 07/13/05): 06.155 million iPod
• 2004 (ended 06/26/04): 860,000 iPods
Q4:
• 2006 (ended 09/30/06): 08.729 million iPods
• 2005 (ended 10/11/05): 06.451 million iPods
• 2004 (ended 09/25/04): 02.016 million iPods
Quinn continues, “But if the iPhone becomes a hit, it could do another thing the iPod does: bring people into Apple stores, where they might buy other products. The iPod’s popularity has led to more sales of Macintosh computers, something of a forgotten stepsister to the glamorous music players. Apple’s computer sales grew 36% in the fiscal second quarter compared with the same period in the previous year. The Mac business is expected to continue to grow, though not explosively, in the future. Apple has traditionally focused on the high end of the personal computer market, unwilling to battle PC kings such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.”
MacDailyNews Take: Quinn’s description of the Mac as a “forgotten stepsister” is her own, not Apple’s. Apple is not unwilling to do battle with PC box assemblers (Macs routinely beat comparable PCs in price), unlike Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and others, Apple is unwilling to make and market low-end junk.
Quinn continues, “The iPhone costs $499 for a 4-gigabyte model and $599 for an 8-gigabyte one. That’s a lot to pay, considering that many carriers give phones away with signed service contracts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, because you know, iPhone is just a phone; there’s no full browser or 3.5 inch screen with full color iPod, or anything else that makes it worth the price or more than what Apple’s charging.
Quinn continues, “Perhaps the biggest barrier to the iPhone is how well Apple learns the mobile phone industry. Unlike the music player business, the mobile handset field includes big, entrenched players such as Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc.”
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, Quinn neglects to explain what Apple supposedly needs to learn from companies who should be thoroughly embarrassed with their dinosaur-like product lineups in the face of the iPhone (they probably are, they just won’t say so publicly).
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
As if the LA Times doesn’t have enough problems, now they have to resort to Dvorakian-style Apple troll-bait? Sad.
sad, indeed.
Oh ignorance, thou name art Michelle Quinn…
Or perhaps Michelle Quinn is married to a second-rate local Microsoft salesman..?
All this bollocks about hi-stakes for Apple?
Apple is already outgrowing every other tech business and iPhone is just another piece of icing on a cake that has several more layers to go.. with other versions of iPhone, iSlate, iTablet, Micro-Mac and any number of other devices that will become essential.
So, according to the MDN Take, Michelle should be getting her pink slip any day now…
Yes, I see that reminding people that Apple has “barely 5% of the personal computer market” is a major sore point for mac fans. Hardly FUD though.
The price of the iPhone IS rather steep and when you factor in the full cost of over 2 grand for the full term of the contract, you begin to see the limited potential.
So, according to MDN, educating the average consumer out there is spreading FUD.
What does FUD stand for?
Didn’t she have a sister who wrote a hit piece about WWDC?
so the iPod s still sealing by the cargo ship load, ITMS is now the 3rd place music seller, Mac sales are growing faster than even many Mac faithful would have believed just 5 years ago, and Apple is staking a lot on the phone, are they?
i mean, if this iPhone doesn’t sell, the company will be gone in like a month or two, right?
MW: “special” which is about all you need to know about the education of most analysts.
jovial pc boy,
Yes, I see that reminding people that Apple Mac defined and continues to define the “personal computer” and that everyone’s using a Mac today, whether it be the real thing or some upside-down and backwards knock-off like Window, is a major sore point for jovial pc boys.
iPhone isn’t at all expensive when you realize that it’s really a tablet Mac, iPod, mobile phone, and more.
FUD = fear, uncertainty,doubt.
You guys crack me up.
“Apple defined and continues to define the ‘personal computer.'”
Right… The company with under 7% market share is defining the personal computer. And I’m to understand that Microsoft has done nothing worthwhile since it took over the PC market.
“You went out of your way to report that ‘after decades the Macintosh has secured barely 5% of the personal computer market,’ but all of a sudden it’s a ‘major business?'”
It’s still a major business for Apple you dimwit! She never denied that!
As for price, she’s not saying that the cheap phones are equal to the iPhone. She’s just saying that free phones do exist! You could even surmise that she’s suggesting that the iPhone is not worth the price compared to cheaper phones. Yes, it has tons of great features, but does that justify it’s exorbitant price? Maybe. Maybe not.
@ M@c:
FUD: fear uncertainty and doubt. it is the art of selling your wares by way of making people doubt the wares of others, rather than using your own goods strong points.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
Another piece of lazy, urban-legend journalism that stitches together tired, warmed-over cliches, and sprinkles in some statistics derived no doubt from secondary, superficial sources. Remove the connectors, and it is just a series of phrases that one can find sprinkled all over the place in stories critical of Apple and/or its products. There isn’t a hint of an original thought in there.
Plus, note the phrase “slowing growth” when she refers to the iPod. That means sales are “growing” – which is a good thing, no? – but are “slowing”, which is the word that is meant to lodge itself in the reader’s mind in connection with the product. Never mind that you have to make a double take to try and figure out exactly what she is saying.
FUD = F**KED UP DIATRIBE
5 %, 5%, 5% blah blah blah…. that number continues to climb… and what is the actual PC market when you remove all the non-home use like cash registers? The market share doesn’t matter that much….
As for this crap about the price of the iPhone… I didn’t realize cell phone carriers GIVE AWAY the latest and greatest technology. Did I miss that somewhere? And ALL phones have a monthly lock in fee for 2 years… WTF? Man these people are grasping.
It reminds me of GM saying they aren’t sure about the hybrid market but hope to have a prototype out by 2008 after Toyota sold a million units at a $6000 premium.
The convergence of the device is awesome, similar to Toyota totally revamping the electric car idea from GM’s original idea.
The competitors and the media can’t believe consumers want one that works easily. My #$%^&&% palm treo will be promoted to my daughter when iphones arrive in Canada.
Let me guess, Michelle still uses Windows 3.1 and sees no benefit to upgrading to Windows XP and she covers News.
Get her a new hair color from Revlon sometime soon.
Her VCR probably works great but she has never learned how to record a show.
OK Morning venting finished…
A Vista user for sure
Okay, take $200 off the cost of thePhone for the iPod nano bit – great value in anyones book)
That leaves, what, $299 for a phone, video player, with internet browser (and thats just scratching the surface). I would have paid $300 for a phone that lets me listen to just the voicemails I want to listen to (without the 15 others that came before it), and allowed me to sync all my contacts with a computer address bokk, ELEGANTLY. (sorry for shouting).
iPhone is amazing vallue.
Sounds like the reporter was right on the mark. Apple has no idea how to work in the cell market and will certainly crash. The skyrocketing price of the iPhone will be it’s ultimate demise. It is really funny reading the pseudo editorializing of this site and trying to tear down the hard cold truth about Apple.
Apple is a company desperately trying to stay alive by creating a new business unit. Face it – the macintosh is a horrible failure holding barely 5% of the market and the iPod losing sales to the rest of the market. If Apple is to survive the next 12 to 18 months they need a new market that will blast off. Too bad they have no idea how to compete against market powerhouses like Motorola and Nokia. This is the beginning of the end for Apple – too many mistakes and the iPhone will be right up there with the Newton. Too big, too expensive, too much functionality and complete incompatibility with the rest of the industry.
But stay lost and confused – Steve Jobs needs to pay for his yacht and idiots like the ones here that actually buy these products for the ultra-rich deserver to get stuck with junk they will have to throw out next year.
What does FUD stand for?
Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt
This is when an author inserts statistics into an article to support her case, but ignores everything else; in an effort to manipulate her readers into thinking a certain way. Balance and objectivity get thrown into Trash.
Here’s an example, that I’m sure you’ll see on June 30th: If Apple and AT&T do not sell every iPhone in stock on day one; the launch will be considered a failure, since this will prove that nobody wants one. Or… If the iPhone is sold out on day one, the launch will be considered a failure; since Apple can’t make enough to satisfy demand.
Writers who decide to go the FUD route can manipulate any situation and make it appear in a negative light. Regardless of what happens on June 29th, there will be articles claiming that it was a failure; since this is exactly the message such authors want to project. FUD is a powerful weapon; for those willing to resort to such tactics.
I love articles like these about the iPhone. It’s quite entertaining to see just how far journalists will go to denigrate the iPhone.
The iPhone just sits there quietly, smiles, and says, “Hi,” and these journalists are tripping all over each other to throw stones and spit at it. “How dare that thing be nice to us!! Kill it!!”
And….. I only have to carry around onedevice, not two (iPod and phone).
I mean, come on, where are the issues?
I quit reading the LA Times, I get the Sunday edition to get sale ads.
The paper is very bias and continues to leave out, distort, and overlook facts when writing articles. This is only one of many distorted articles. If it comes for the LA Times-take the opposite and you will normally be correct.
Sad, the ignorance that they employ just so they can sale ads!!!
The low of the low…
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AppleInvestor:
Not to change the topic, but if you want to complain about others spewing FUD, don’t do it yourself. GM has said that hybrids are not the future (and they’re probably correct). However, they do have several hybrid models in the market right now, for 2007! Yes, actual production models a year before you claimed they’d have prototypes. http://www.saturn.com
Sorry, had to call you on that one.
Easy everybody! It’s a new world. We here at Apple do not see this as FUD, but a challenge to overcome.
Word for MDN, relax. Wait until the iPhone. Remember the Mac should be dead already, but it’s not. Remember the iPod is to pricey, but we have 70% of that market. Just Relax…
The LA Slimes is sinking fast. Lower the lifeboats and make sure they have holes in them, also some a–holes.