Near the end of November, Adam L. Penenberg scrawled out a doozy of an Apple FUD-fest for Fast Company.
We covered it here: FUD Alert: Fast Company publishes Apple hit piece – November 27, 2007
Now, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber takes an enjoyable crack at dissecting Penenberg’s article with “Yet Another in the Ongoing Series Wherein I Examine a Piece of Supposedly Serious Apple Analysis From a Major Media Outlet and Dissect Its Inaccuracies, Fabrications, and Exaggerations Point-by-Point, Despite the Fact That No Matter How Egregious the Inaccuracies / Fabrications / Exaggerations, Such Pieces Inevitably Lead to Accusations That I’m Some Sort of Knee-Jerk Shill Who Rails Against Anything ‘Anti-Apple’ Simply for the Sake of Defending Apple, and if I Love Apple So Much Why Don’t I Just Marry Them? – December 19, 2007
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
I read the piece. John makes a lot of interesting points that these hacks just fail to take into consideration.
I think it’s the other way around. Apple is laying seige to all of these other companies.
HYPERBOLE ALERT!!!!
“Yet this is also a dangerous moment for Apple. In a way the company has never seen, the barbarians are massing at the gates.”
Funny, I seem to remember not so long ago that Apple was nearly out of business completely. So having people try to catch up with your market leading innovations are more dangerous than going completely out of business?
Sad to think that no matter how eloquent the evidence, those who don’t get it, still won’t.
Wow, what a title.
What is that saying? Something about the facts not mattering.
“Not the nature of the facts, but the seriousness of the charge, that matters”?
Kinda like mentioning in passing Obama’s ancient drug use? Or Satan and Jesus being squabbling siblings?
It’s the mud that sticks that matters. Be sure to wear your goggles on the net.
It was a horrible article by Fast Company. And a cover story! Mainstream journalism SUCKS!
“… the barbarians are massing at the gates.”
Truth with good reason. Arrogance at current levels WILL BE REJECTED by all but the totally blind.
@Steve Better…
He’s right. These kind of reports are growing and growing. New ones every day.
Where’s there smoke…
Examples galore such as new iMac disaster, premature, very premature Leopard, way too clever iPhone ‘rebates’ to early adopters, iMovie knife in the back, deliberate poor screen for iPod Touch, and on and on.
Biggest lie gets bigger: Boom! It just works.
Couldn’t finish the article. John Gruber is every bit as reactionary as MDN is, and as his critics make him out to be. Which doesn’t make him wrong, just a bit tiresome after a while.
About the “House of Jobs” and similar comments … AFAIK Fast Company has that right. Apple had the same talented engineers in house while Jobs was “away” and the product went down-hill. Oh, the hardware was fine, and so was the software, but the vision was lost. It was like seeing Apple emulate Dell, without the loss of quality. Jobs’ non-technical “vision” is what makes Apple great, rather than just “excellent”.
As for the original article … FUD doesn’t do it justice. <u>FUD</u> at least LOOKS like it does the trick. Un-be-freaking-believable! Still Gruber should have been able to home in on the salient points without wasting his time – and ours – dealing with things that are so inconsequential.
Dave
I disagree with DLMeyer. I thought Gruber’s point-by-point rebuttal was perfect. If you want less, read less, but it’s all there.
“A life well lived is the best revenge.”
“A stock purchased one year ago as a Christmas present for self (AAPL @ $78) is a knife in naysayers’ hearts.”
Screw ’em. ‘Nuff said.
DLMeyer – just a bit tiresome after a while.
I agree that John’s stylistic criticisms were a little much, but he makes a salient point – that the article is written in a “Hollywood Blockbuster” style. Which isn’t surprising if you read the author’s biography. You would then learn that while he is a journalism professor, he also has written investigative books, one of which is currently being turned into a Hollywood movie.
So Adam knows how to amp(ar) up a story, to add a little sizzle, and make it seem more like a big story. My problem (and I think John Gruber’s) is the gross level of ignorance shown by the author about his subject. It’s as though he only talked to a few analysts as clueless as he is, read a few fluff pieces about Apple from the mainstream press, and then proceeded to concoct his thesis using mumbo-jumbo with a little knowledge thrown in on top.
Actually, Gruber probably doesn’t go far enough in his refutations, because virtually every sentence in Adam’s piece is rife with bad suppositions, blatantly wrong facts, or wildly misleading statements of opinion from the author or his couple of analysts. Stylistically, it reads like a very polished, authoritative article. But factually speaking, it’s a shoot-from-the-hip load of beans, and as far as the thesis or “slant” of the article, it’s clearly trying too hard to be a clever investigative piece.
I wrote the author a long analysis of my own, giving him a level-headed (if windy) take on his writing, and suggesting that he either a) find a real story, there are several good nuggets buried in his piece waiting for a REAL exposé .. or b) to not try so hard to make something out of nothing, and at least do some factual research to back up the claims he makes.
This from a journalism professor… it’s pretty sad. Clearly the message to his students is that if you can get a best-selling book on the market and sign a Hollywood deal, you now have a lot more license to write authoritatively without regard to facts.
All I know is that the article made me laugh really hard.
“there’s a lot of stupidity packed into the 13 word sentence above”
is just hilarious.
Oh, WELL, isn’t THIS just WONDERful!!!!!
“Mohammed Now Second Most Popular Boys’ Name In Britain”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23428641-details/Mohammed+now+second+most+popular+boys'+name+in+Britain/article.do
Great, just GREAT! GD%@*#()($%^@@(!#! Muslims!!!!
“So Adam knows how to amp(ar) up a story . . .”
OUCH!
:-p
“This from a journalism professor . . .”
With apologies to George Bernard Shaw:
Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, coach gym.
Those who can’t teach or coach are promoted to administrator.
I disagree with DLMeyers opinions as well.
Gruber isn’t defending Apple as much as he is railing against piss-poor journalism and an organization that condones the practice.
What about his article is tiresome, Dave? Is it the author himself or his tireless effort to expose shamefully transparent articles that serve only to obfuscate Apple’s achievements?
You’re tiresome Dave, and I will no longer waste time reading you.
I agree with KenC. Thought it was perfect.
I think John’s dissection was great. I’ve read every sentence of the FC article, in some form or another, written by Dvorak or Enderle or George Ou or whichever troll on this board you’d like to name.
I mean come on, some of it is just plain offensively stupid.
“Einstein posited that a closed system would become stagnant over time.”
He also clung to the steady state universe while seeking his “Cosmological Constant”, which has since been proven utterly, totally wrong. Whipping out Einstein is like using Hitler – hoping that the name will trip the “Oh, that’s a smart guy/evil guy” switch in your reader’s head so they stop thinking about what you’re saying.
“Samsung already sells a touch-screen phone. So does Motorola. Sprint has a touch-screen phone that runs “thousands” of third-party applications”
So? I played with the LG Voyager the other day, and it’s a piece of shit. The touchscreen isn’t really even an ‘interface’. You don’t interact with it al all, you just mash the picture to launch an app. You can tell even in the TV ads for it – you never see anyone actually using it, they just mash a finger on it while telling you it has a touch screen.
Do any of the iPhone commercials have to *tell* you that it has a touch screen? Yeah, no.
Just count the “if”s and “may”s. It reads like an ad for homeopathy or herbal penis enlargement. You only write like that when you’re selling snake oil, and FC has one hooked every minute, no doubt.
-c
Huh? I didn’t know Fast Company was still being published!?!
“You’re tiresome Dave, and I will no longer waste time reading you.”
I miss the taglines – it made his posts easier to identify and avoid.
Christina Wiley – the voice of ChrissyOne’s Photography Page photo site
I enjoyed the pics of White Trash ’07. Nice work.
Well, its not really like the facts regarding Windows matter much on MDN.
What goes around comes around.
ChrissyOne,
Are you insinuating that the herbal stuff I just ordered won’t work?
My wife is NOT going to be happy!
toonie,
It’s not “the facts regarding Windows” that don’t matter to us. It’s simply Windows that doesn’t matter to us. We aren’t that way just to spite you guys. Really we aren’t.
@ Ampar
Thanks! Though with my friends… Sometimes I can’t tell what’s a costume and what’s not.
@ LorD1776
It only matters if you *BELIEVE!!!*
“Christina Wiley – the voice of ChrissyOne’s Photography Page photo site”.
I always knew you were a lesbian.
I’m close to someone who works for Fast Company. He/she (protect their identity…) said that, although some of the article is factual, it’s primary purpose was to generate controversay and thus interest in the magazine, the Fast Company website, and ultimately advertising. Also, Apple isn’t one of their advertisers so they wouldn’t p*** off a client that is spending money on them. He/she also said that Apple and Steve Jobs were an easy choice because Mac/Apple users tend to be rather passionate about their products and the company…i.e, easy targets… Then there are the Apple-haters who lap up anything anti-Apple. So bottom line, Fast Company is using anyone who bothered with the article. They don’t care if it’s hack journalism, it served its purpose.
@ ChrissyOne’s Chomp Chomp
Yeah, cause that was a big secret. ;P
C1: I think Chomp Chomp’s trying to call you to the carpet.
;-p
And I BELIEVE ! ! ! Oh Lord, grant me the privilege of overwhelming tumescence and traffic-stopping turgidity.
<i>[H]e makes a salient point – that the article is written in a “Hollywood Blockbuster” style<> and that is reason for his OTT rebuttal.
Yes the knives are out for Apple all over the place. They talk about ‘disruptive technology’ but few realize the scale of the disruption that is Apple is wreaking reaching far beyond the world of technology as it is understood by most.
@ChrissyOne
This is a different point of view on the universe, entertaining and well……
Thunderbolts of the Gods
@ Gandalf
Thanks for the link, I hadn’t seen it yet. Interesting, but at times a little on the sensational side.
“Every single time we think we have it all figured out…”
No responsible scientist should ever think like this. I hate it when science documentaries oversimplify to sound dramatic. But once that awful narrator finished, it got much better. Great stuff!
John Gruber: The voice of reason. I love that Einstein quote.
Penenberg is a moron, just like all of the artists of FUD. It’s a waste of time even reading this crap, and a bigger waste considering that Apple is poised to grab double-digit market share in terms of computing and has the majority of the MP3 market already.
fm
Uh, I got nuthin’
TowerTone: Mouth of the South
Multi-Touch on Apple’s iPhone & iTouch
are simply UNTOUCHABLE by any other competitor.
I have toyed with the others also. as ChrissyOne mentioned.
And BTW – c.j. wiley one very cool lady. Your posts are well taken.
Keep up the great photography and wonderful photo-manipulation work.
A.D. / Senior Designer at Wunderman (wcj)
C1, I’d swear my system was working properly … but … no “voice”?
Guys, I was not siding with Penenberg. All I was saying was that the Gruber went way overboard complaining about inconsequentials and picking at nits. For example … “house of Jobs”. This snipe – accurate, but still a snipe – hardly deserves a response. Apple – a successful Apple – has pretty much depended on having Jobs at the helm. You all know the history, tell me where I’m mistaken.
If I’m tiresome, don’t read my comments. My name is on the top. I don’t hide my identity behind fake names or change it to make a point. No pain for me.
Dave
Mmmmm – lesbians.
I DO believe, I DO believe, I DO believe in …..
No – my name is not Doug… not even close.
Which is something I would have advised you and everyone else to do. That is, to stay virtual about your identity. You don’t have to see it as a paranoia yet rather as simple privacy.
It’s everyones choice.
Nevertheless, wonderful seeing your work. Congrats!
Oh great. Couldn’t you have said that BEFORE I used my real name? My parents were gonzo for the Revolutionary period.
“No – my name is not Doug… not even close.”
Is it Melvin?
Surely it’s not Shirley.
Rumpelstiltskin? Rumpledforeskin? Am I close? Let me know ’cause I really don’t want to get too close.
Yes MDN is all fanboy sometimes. Gruber? Not at all. Gruber is one of top must reads for the occassional gem like this. It was a hit piece and he took it apart savagely, with humor and style. Just what the piece deserved.
Subsequently he’s noted that the author has actually done some important work.
I forget the issue, but it was reading a Gruber piece that I finally got it — old media is doomed to die. Because old media is, frankly, just not that good. It never was. It was once what we had to settle for.
Unfortunately none of this hit pieces have any traction in the market… can’t talk this damn stock down. I blinked and missed that dip into the $150s.
And the big Apple story is see coming isn’t even on anyone’s radar: mobile handheld OSX touchscreen device PLATFORM. Apple leverages the ipod to outflank Microsoft and become the Windows of handheld devices.
I sure wish I were a Cocoa programmer….
waaaay back up there DLMeyer said:
>Apple had the same talented engineers in house while Jobs was “away” and the product went down-hill.
that’s not even close to true! when Jobs got NeXT acquired by Apple, he brought over not only a huge _quantity_ of serious talent, but a whole different Unix-oid mindset… in fact, over the past decade the engineering overturn has been non-trivial if not tremendous, and while I hesitate to assert “almost none of the same talented engineers” are there (since almost-none is hard to quantify), I’d absolutely, whole heartedly assert it’s a whole lot closer to none-the-same than “the same.”
how can anyone look at the OS and think those are the same engineers? it’s just not even close to true… that’s just for starters, since someone asked…
AAAANYway… “what yet-another-steve said” about Gruber not being fanboy at all. disagree on old media dying (as in completely dead), but definitely totally agree that Gruber is not a fanboy. he can get on a good rant, mind you… often at Apple’s expense… yup, he can rant, but apparently so can all of us. ;^)