“Apple could learn a thing or two about managing expectations,” Neil Cavuto opines for Fox News.
“The company announced its hotsy-totsy iPhone was going to revolutionize the world — bad when you start out using that word ‘revolutionize,’ by the way,” Cavuto writes. “That it would sell 10 million in the first year and half a million of those in the first couple of days —days!”
“Lo and behold, we’re told 146,000 iPhones were activated in the day and a half between the phone’s launch and the most recent quarter’s end,” Cavuto writes.
“Let me tell you something: Selling 146,000 items at a minimum of 500 bucks a pop ain’t shabby. In fact, it’s stunning. Never in corporate history, have so many electronic devices sold so quickly,” Cavuto writes.
Cavuto asks, “But then it didn’t meet that damn expectation, did it? It didn’t do what that overbearing braggart marketing department at Apple said it would do, did it?”
Cavuto writes, “Oh, if only these much smarter guys had talked to this admittedly not nearly so smart, anchor guy: Promise down, deliver up.”
Full article, under the title of “Common Sense,” no less here.
Neil Cavuto is “Managing Editor of Business News for FOX News Channel” which is akin to being “Chief Astrophysicist for The Weekly World News,” except that, unfortunately, Cavuto will probably still be employed next month.
First off, Cavuto did royally screw up and miraculously get one thing right: Apple CEO Steve Jobs did call the iPhone “revolutionary.” Jobs did so because it is, but you shouldn’t expect Cavuto to be able to recognize it so soon – he’ll probably be able to grasp it in about five years. Call us crazy, but we’ll take Steve Jobs’ crystal ball on technology over Neil Cavuto’s.
So, what did Cavuto get wrong? Only everything else:
• Apple never announced they “would sell 10 million in the first year.” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his Macworld Expo 2007 keynote address that Apple would set the goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008, the first full year on the market. (Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone Introduction: Jobs’ remarks on iPhone goals begin at 1:15:52 into the QuickTime video – by the way, Neil, that’s called a “source.”) On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 – 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008. (Apple’s Q3 07 Apple Quarterly Results Call: Oppenheimer’s remarks on iPhone goals begin at 6:05 into the QuickTime audio stream – by the way, Neil, that’s called “fact checking.”)
• Apple never announced that they would sell “half a million [iPhones] in the first couple of days.”
• Since there were no such expectations issued by “that overbearing braggart marketing department at Apple,” iPhone didn’t miss any “damn expectations” other than some wildly overreaching ones set by Wall Street analysts who may or may not have stood to benefit if Apple “failed” to meet their ginned up, ridiculous, unachievable numbers. Hint: Wall Street analysts are the ones about whom you’re actually complaining, Neil. Some free advice: An overbearing TV anchor’s totally misplaced criticism doled out under the title of “Common Sense” should be a skit on Saturday Night Live, not Fox News Channel – unless FNC’s looking for lighter fare.
• Yes, AT&T stated that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the day and a half, but Cavuto immediately mistakes “activations” for “sales.” Apple did not sell “146,000 items at a minimum of 500 bucks a pop,” they sold 270,000. Even less “shabby,” huh, Neil? (Source: Apple Inc. Q3 2007 Unaudited Summary Data issued along with the Q3 07 earnings results press release.) It’s not that confusing, Neil, but you did admit in your full piece that you were “an awful student,” which we actually believe – even though you said it.
• Apple has set just two iPhone goals: 1 million iPhone units sold by the end of the company’s Q4 07 quarter ending September 29, 2007 and 10 million iPhone units sold in 2008. We shall see if they hit those goals.
Neil, check your facts before you pontificate, lest you look the fool. It’s just “common sense.”
Contact info:
Neil Cavuto: cavuto@foxnews.com
Neo,
You blew it. You said he claimed they’d sell 1 million in the first few days. He said a half million.
First rule of slapping a journalist down for not getting their facts striaght.
GET YOURS STRAIGHT!
Sheesh.
And what’s with the user review. That’s been done out the wazoo. Your point gets lost in all the extraneious noise.
Just nail him for getting his facts wrong, and get out.
FSJ
FSJ:
What are you talking about? I didn’t say that!
Put your glasses on and READ IT!
Mary? Granny?
See? Even MDN begins to realize that Faux “News” Info Tainment (TM) is bullcrap!
Cavuto is proud of GW, too.
“Keepin’ us safe…fighten’ ’em over there, so we don’t have to fight ’em over here”.
Hee-HAW!
@ AJ
“I wish MDN would stop attacking people who criticise Apple with regards to the iPhone. I think some criticism is good, and valid, with the iPhone.”
If you read the MDN take, you will notice they are mostly attacking Cavuto’s lack of fact checking regarding sales goals and actual sales.
I suppose if he had said that the iPhone Runs on 2 AA batteries and runs windows 3.1 then that would have been OK with you then.
Fair and Balanced…
sure thing… we speak to all sides… don’t have to treat ’em equally, though.
Don’t have to question inaccuracies in sides we like… and can easily diminish the statements of those we don’t like…
and the funny thing… if we continue to call it:
Fair and Balanced…
Those without the eyes to see, will never see it…
MW: “fact” …it is a fact… tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth…
Does anyone actually, seriously, listen to what this guy, Cavuto, says? He’s a lightweight who tries to put on that Fox uniform (smug tone, “I know more than the subjects of my story”) but it’s a bit too big for him, and he comes off looking like a little boy fool. I can only imagine him on the same stage as Steve Jobs… a foolish tool and a genius. They’re not even in the same stratosphere, so who gives a damn what Cavuto, in his shallow shortsightedness “opines.” He’d be stuttering as Jobs outclassed him on virtually any subject, esp. concerning marketing, vision and innovation. I love that word, “opine,” (seriously kidding here, folks) as it so reminds me of O’Reilly and his blathering diarrhea of the mouth. Anyway, I’m done “opine”-ing…
Wasn’t Cavuto the moron who used the recent abortive bombing campaign here in the UK as an argument against state-provided medical care.
The logic went something like…
State-funded healthcare can’t pay as well as private healthcare (general practitioners in the UK are earning £100K/pa, so I don’t know what Neil considers a fair wage).
therefore
State-funded healthcare often has to get its medical professionals from outside the national system (you could equally argue that the privatisation of higher education prevents people from following their vocation, but what the hell?).
therefore
Given the number of well-trained medical professionals coming out of the Middle East through to South-East Asia and the bureaucracy of state-provided medical systems, it was inevitable that terrorists would use the cover provided by such systems for their nefarious activities.
and finally
Nothing like this ever happened in a private healthcare system.
So there you have it, Neil Cavuto – business genius and anti-terror expert.
Promise down, deliver up.
Advice on under-promising and over-delivering.
From the station that acts as the mouthpiece of the Laurel and Hardy Presidency.
No, really.
Neo… you are not “The One”.
Learn the difference between “advise” and “advice”. And, really, while it is okay; “revolutionizing” is very klunky…, try “revolutionary”.
Macs are expensive and not worth even half the value. You can buy a Windows notebook for a third of the price of a MacBook Pro and get twice the value. Apple lemmings getting ripped off are a normal occurrence.
> half a million of those in the first couple of days
Since there is exact no definition of the “first couple of days” (is that 2 days or 5 days?), Apple probably did sell half a million iPhones in the “first couple of days.” It sold 270,000 in the first 1.25 days, which is not even “a couple” of days.
“I wish MDN would stop attacking people who criticise Apple with regards to the iPhone. I think some criticism is good, and valid, with the iPhone.”
Not their style. Anyone who brings up any criticism of any Apple product is obviously a troll or a paid Microsoft FUD spreader….
Note to MDN. Cavuto has forgotten more about investing since he got up this morning than you will ever know. Fox is indeed Fair and Balanced, a difficult concept for those of you who just want to hear all Left wing, all the time MSNBC and CNN…..
This is great. After the Reagan quote and Rush Limbaugh link, I was beginning to thing this was a politically biased Mac site.
Fox News is no different than Air America … just a difference of opinion. The are a conservative Republican mouthpiece and everyone knows it … but at least Air America doesn’t attempt to deceive their audience into believing they’re anything but opinion.
Fair and Balanced? It’s literally like they decided to spit in the face of the public and knowingly and willfully misrepresented themselves in the interest of advertising dollars.
All of them are disgruntled has-beens. O’Reilly was on Inside Edition, John Gibson was a bush league staffer who once worked under Kieth Olbermann. Greta (who I still kind of like) sold her soul with a couple hundred K of plastic surgery. Colmes is a weak token, and Brit Hume was a network anchor who’s career took a dive in the 90’s.
The whole thing is just a sinister mess driven by the insolent logic of a nightmare. It stinks.
And I’ve liked Cavuto in the past … but I now that I know he’s a PC user, and anti-Apple … well, it all fits into a neat little bundle of contempt for the whole lot of them.
Excellent analysis MDN, and thank you for being truly “fair and balanced” when it comes to Apple
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@NEO:
Actually, yes, you did say it: “Apple nor AT&T ever said they would sell 1 million in the first 30 hours of sale.” — this implies that Cavuto had stated the 1 million figure.
Also, the tone of your letter was extremely aggressive and condescending. Quite likely, Mr. Cavuto didn’t read past the first couple paragraphs. Would have been much better to have simply pointed out the mistakes he made, then made your points in a mature, calm tone.
I have to say, you really did us Mac users a disservice, making us look bad. Note to Neil if you should read this: we’re not all like that, honest!
Faux News… we get that here in Oz…
I can get it on my cable system…
However…
I have my remote set to stun if I ever try to switch to it.
As a side note, I dated a woman once whose roommate (a flight attendant with Continental who is the sister of Crocodile Dundee’s sweetie) dated Bil O’Really (pun intented – that is what she called him)- when he was the host of Current Affair. She met him on a flight to Newark NJ. She was not too complimentary of him or his prowess – if you get my drift. So, I am sure he is overcompensating like King Farkward! Heeh…
MDN – lenght – somehting like what O’Really lacks…
“Cavuto has forgotten more about investing since he got up this morning than you will ever know.”
Bullshit. He’s a talking head (and an empty suit), not an investor. The average new hire at any wall street bank knows more than Cavuto does by the end of his orientation.
-jcr
frigtard
“…Chief Astrophysicist for The Weekly World News…”
Give me a break
Fox news is not fair and balanced. They just tell you what you want to hear.
I highly object to the politicization of issues such as this one. Whether the FUD is spewed by CNBC or Fox makes no difference. It seems that too many threads get hijacked by those trying to score partisan political points. This merely poisons the threads with useless posturing.
The fact is that journalists are largely a class of whores who are routinely manipulated by their bosses, sources and the need to be popular. And if you doubt that analysts and pundits are corrupt, just read:
“New study shows analysts getting favors”
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_6480750?nclick_check=1
I like Fox News Channel.
Your potential. Our passion.™
shoeman: Note to MDN. Cavuto has forgotten more about investing since he got up this morning than you will ever know. Fox is indeed Fair and Balanced, a difficult concept for those of you who just want to hear all Left wing, all the time MSNBC and CNN…
bravo! i give this a 9/10.
Since when did Americans start treating their news sources like they treat their political parties? In most of the rest of the democratic world the news is just the news … it’s not something you have to try to discredit depending on which channel it is on.
@marko:
“Fair and Balanced…
sure thing… we speak to all sides… don’t have to treat ’em equally, though. “
That’s better than “only interview one side (the left one) and then make up whatever the hell you want about the other and call it fact”. Which is what every single other mass media news organization in the United States does.
@ @Shoeman
“Fox news is not fair and balanced. They just tell you what you want to hear.”
And every other mass media news organization tells you what THEY want you to hear.
holy crap – did mdn just b*tchslap a fellow wingnut? i guess mac loyalty really does trump politics!
bravo!