“I started this week thinking about Apple killing off Think Secret and actually threatening the income and family – during the Christmas season, mind you – of the highly visible Forbes reporter who pens the very popular Fake Steve Jobs blog. This changed the whole tone of my piece, which was to focus on products and now will question Steve Jobs’ sanity; I wonder if people on his staff are setting him up for the kind of coup that could get him removed, much like he removed his predecessors,” Rob Enderle blogs for IT Business Edge.
MacDailyNews Take: FSJ’s piece was a joke, admitted two full days before Enderle’s drivel was published. Enderle is just too stupid for words, but we’ll press on. Think Secret was “shut down” by its owner, not by Apple (although, for some reason, it’s still there with info published after they were “shut down”). The fact is, it was a settlement to which both parties agreed. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, said in his “shut down” statement, “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement.” Yup, Apple’s “rotting from the inside out,” as Enderle claims, because some guy from Forbes wrote a joke article and another guy is pleased. Enderlean to the max.
Enderle continues, “Journalists are part of the loyal Apple base and have been for some time. In fact, I would argue they may be the most powerful part of this base. Folks like Walt Mossberg have historically followed Apple almost blindly, praising everything the company brings to market.”
MacDailyNews Take: Walt Mossberg has more integrity in a single strand of his magnificent silver Van Dyke than Rob Enderle has in his whole body, including his itty-bitty, capable-only-of-involuntary actions fused ganglia.
Enderle continues, “Shutting down a blog because the site was protecting a source, and trying to pay off, and then blackmail, a highly visible senior journalist likely won’t sit well with this audience. They might start to wonder if they are next.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, you have a jokester that Apple did not go after and a guy who is pleased.
Enderle continues, “Apple is going to want positive coverage for the news that will likely start coming out about the options scandal, which is likely to come off the back burner as election time starts getting closer.”
MacDailyNews Take: If Enderle’s pinning his hopes on a revived “options scandal,” he’s due to be greatly disappointed and he’s even dopier than we previously imagined (which is actually an impossibility).
Completely out of his mind, yet wholly unperturbed, as are all good idiots, Enderle plods on, “In the fight with every high-tech company on the planet, it’ll need its greatest asset, journalist fans, to step up to its defense. But I’ll bet a lot of folks are now starting to look at Apple like it’s full of rotting zombie worms and that will make the help Apple needs much harder to come by.”
MacDailyNews Take: Rotting zombie worms? This idiot is a piece of work.
Enderle continues, “Rumor is that there are people on the Apple board who have had enough of Steve’s shenanigans and would like to distance the company from him once again.”
MacDailyNews Take: Rumors from whom, Rob? Your wife Mary? The voices in your head? Somebody on Apple’s board who’s strangely allergic to vast success, immense wealth, and the pure joy of being part of a team that creates memorable, market-changing, innovative technology?
Endergizer keeps on going, “However, going after fan sites in this way, coupled with the fallout from threatening a reporter’s family and income, could be enough to tip the balance, particularly if the company missed a quarter or two.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, it was a joke; admitted two days before you published, you simpleton.
He won’t quit, “You may want to hit the stores and see just how much unsold iPod and iPhone inventory there is this year. From what I can see, there is a lot of stuff sitting on shelves that isn’t moving. Not scientific by a long shot — but it does suggest that Apple may have an inventory problem next quarter.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hold, please… (laughing our asses off) … (still laughing) … (still) … Ahem, okay. We refer you to the following articles, each of which were followed by record profits topped only by successive quarters and/or years:
• Enderle’s infinite loop: ‘This year will be really nasty for Apple’ – January 22, 2007
• Enderle: ‘4th quarter will be Apple’s hardest since the first iPod Christmas’ – September 18, 2006
• Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘fourth quarter should be ugly for Apple’ – August 09, 2005
• Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘This year will be more difficult for Apple Computer’ and iMacs in earthquakes – January 24, 2005
Enderle continues, “So I wonder if somehow Steve Jobs is being tricked into making these decisions so that he can be easily removed when the options problem once again makes the front page.”
MacDailyNews Take: This is what happens when you try to generate wonder from a fused ganglia.
Enderle continues, “Harming others, particularly fans, and particulaly over the holidays just feels evil… This time, it is Apple that has strayed far over the line and I think it will hurt the company a lot as it tries to fight off the CES mob next year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple “just feels evil” because, again, some guy from Forbes wrote a joke article and because another guy is pleased. The “CES mob” will be completely overshadowed by Apple just like last year. They’re lucky that they’ll be trotting out their fake Macs, fake iPods, and fake iPhones a week ahead of Macworld Expo this time. At least they’ll get a few days of coverage.
Enderle continues, “There is clearly something rotten at Apple and we’ll know in a few months whether is it is a coup in the making. Until then, our hearts go out to Dan Lyons and his family, as nobody should have to deal with this any time – particularly not at Christmas.”
MacDailyNews Take: For crying out loud, Lyons’ piece was a joke, you cheesily-mustachioed moron.
Enderle continues, “Folks are clearly thinking differently about Apple in 2007, which is why I’m thinking Apple is rotting at the core.”
MacDailyNews Take: Enderle “thinking?” Impossible.
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ChrissyOne” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: He’s getting progressively worse. It’s really bad now. Just wait until Mac cracks 10% market share. His head’ll pop right off like a dandelion.
If I hadn’t seen Chrissy’s posts I would have never believed it… that Enderle actually believes what he writes. All this time I’ve thought that he’s just like Dvorak, saying something stupid about Apple just to get hits.
But it appears the truth is that he says something stupid about Apple because…. he’s just plain stupid.
ChrissyOne, which side are you on? Are you a person where there is no right or wrong and are on both sides?
I love the topics that Mac Daily News puts on the agenda, but the guys writing the stories cant keep their own opinion shut. This is not journalism, and besides the fact that I accept that MDN has a bias (loving macs, which I also do), I’m loosing respect for the MDN opinions in an increasing pace because of their childish commentaries.
Please don’t get me wrong, I agree with the journalists on almost every single point, but I wish their views where presented more tastefully so that what is stated on this site will get heard by more than just thirteen year olds.
– Prox
Enderlie has a disease. Very similar to the irrational disease of liberalism!
I’m not on anyone’s side, because no one is on my side. Sides are for football games, not government.
@ ChrissyOne:
Thank you. you’re my new hero @MDN
LOL… I wonder if Enderlebutt visits MDN?
ChrissyOne, to me, it is about morality, not what is political. Politicians are on everyones side and in my opinion are amoral. I will say it again. It is about right and wrong.
You admit to having a side. Help me to understand your side. I or others can’t be on your side if they do not know what it is or understand it. If football games are the only place that you can determine that sides exist, I think that you are a lost person. That would be a sad situation.
On the other hand, if I misunderstand you, be a good politician and make peace in this savage world.
Go play in your sandbox, Dave. Adults are trying to think.
TRYING is correct. Apparently it is not something that you can do yet.
@ChrissyOne:
You were doing well until the last two comments.
Dave is right, and I don’t get your beef with him.
…Quit while you’re ahead.
Enderle’s comments about iMacs and earthquakes are odd. Just the other day I’ve seen an iMac G5 behave in a fairly strong earthquake (see link), with my very eyes. The machine is still alibe and well, and so are we. Kudos to Jon Ive and Steve Jobs.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmdGcs6KFm_DqUd4KGFoJ9DpI45Q
So, Rob Enderle writes a story, MDN runs it without paying for it, we get to read it without clicking on Enderle’s story, and MDN sells more ads.
Cool!
HAAHAHAHAAHAHA…
So Dave is ‘right’? You think that represents a good point?
Yeah, honey, you really showed me. =P
@Me in LA
Kudos to ChrissyOne for trying to keep your ugly US politics out of this debate. Absolutes are almost always wrong. Taking sides is childish and stupid.
Let’s all (rightly) laugh at Enderle’s shitty journalism, and leave it at that.
C1…my Heroine…surfing the globe with her superethernetpowers, to stop evilbloggers like Lex Enderle worldwide…to protect us mortal surfers from their dastardly, corrupt deeds.
It seems a number of you object about commenting on anything Rob Enderle writes. First of all, why don’t you just skip over anything regarding him posted here on MDN. Some folk may not yet know who he is. They may mistake him for a respectable journalist. They need to know.
As for me, I do take your advice: I never click on the link to his trash. I much rather read about it here. I like MDN. So, it may serve Enderle right that his efforts are generating hits at MDN instead!
ChrissyOne, you’ve been far too nice and laid back on your exchange with Enderle. Did like it but would have preferred some more salt’n pepper to it.
Dave, you have a valid point from a law-perspective and as far as I understand, both Think Secret and Apple stuck to that same law. Since Enderle, ChrissyOne and anybody else here @ MDN are only giving opinions, not being involved in that case, what’s your point?
Go sue them if you think you have a case, or respect opinions of other people and talk with a reasonable tone.
Chrissy, I especially like the line “Right now, Apple has nothing like the Media Center PC and nothing like the Tablet PC.”
I won’t even try to get into the possible merits of the Media Center PC.
From experience, having an iMac sitting on a desk in the living room is brilliant. We did this as an afterthought when we downsized into a townhouse and needed to optimize space.
So far, the iMac has served up:
* Hawaiian Holiday music
* Photo slide shows for visitors (complete with remote control)
* Occasional TV shows on demand
* Any type of background music one can imagine
* A nifty iTunes visualizer or two
* Favorite recipes
* Messages, addresses, maps and reviews on the way out for the evening
And I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Having never played with a Media Center PC, I can’t imagine anything working better for this than a big-screen iMac. Just add Apple TV and it gets even better.
Sky
Enderle wrote: “You may want to hit the stores and see just how much unsold iPod and iPhone inventory there is this year. From what I can see, there is a lot of stuff sitting on shelves that isn’t moving. Not scientific by a long shot — but it does suggest that Apple may have an inventory problem next quarter.”
Well, I visited my local Target about 4 times in the 3 week holiday shopping season. At first, their locked shelf was loaded with iPods…guesstimating 120 shuffles, 100 nanos, 20 touches, 20 classics…stayed that way for a while…then on my last visit Christmas Eve…what remained…4 shuffles, 2 nanos, 0 touches, 6 classics.
@ChrissyOne,
You are God.
Seriously, your exchange here with Enderle was the best thing I have ever seen on this site, bar none. Earlier I noted how we should not bother wasting energy on Enderle because I believe he has become irrelevant. A journalist can be loaded with information but never bother to utilize that info correctly or appropriately. Enderle is one of the best examples of this type of writer.
And so after reading this exchange of emails, Enderle did a great job of infuriating me once again. He truly is lacking in the fairness department, and is one of those journalists that believes in what he says so strongly that no one else can be correct but him. What a shame.
One thing that I actually was surprised to see was his response to your prediction that 2008 will be a record year for Apple. He said, “It could well be, we’ll see. Strangely enough I hope so too.” Somehow I believe him in a way. But that doesn’t excuse him from this horrific, biased and blasphemous journalism with such pointed attacks at Apple and Jobs.
I like others on this board are forced to use Windows in our chosen professions. I am a Director of a Tech Consulting group, and until six months ago everyone gave me crap about carrying around a MacBook Pro. Now three of my staff members have bought MacBooks or MacBook Pros over the holidays, and I have committed to helping them get Boot Camp or Parallels up and running. But from the tone of at least one of them, they’ll be staying on the OS X side as much as possible. That says a mouthful. So when I see things like this happening in my profession, it diminishes the relevance of fools like Enderle, Dvorak, and others. At the end of the day we can smile knowing that Apple is exploding into a power unlike anything we have seen before and will continue for the foreseeable future.
Happy New Year,
Ferf
BTW, I can record TV shows on my iMac using eyeTV, a FAR superior experience than Media Center. And I have a Tablet PC my work gave me, and I never use it because it is TRASH.
Honey?
What are you, 80?
God.
Some poor little girl now has a following on MDN – YOU are a queen!
Typical – people like you want to give YOUR opinions, but don’t want to hear others.
Frankly, you need to get a life – or get laid.
Hey Me in LA,
It’s pretty sad when you have to resort to such horrid attacks such as “Frankly, you need to get a life – or get laid”. It makes my skin crawl when jerks like you make comments like this that go beyond personal. Maybe you need to just shut the fsck up.
“Microsoft reversed itself on the Gay rights thing; I covered it at the time. In that instance, however Microsoft was on the receiving end of power abuse.”
Um, wow. Just wow.
Enderele really believes that Microsoft was a *victim* of the Antioch Bible Church?? Microsoft ended up “backtracking” and pledging support for the bill after they had vetted the potential fallout of their position. It was simply a business decision made by a powerful corporation, and not a proud day for Microsoft. Some of their own employees might have been hurt if the fiscal plusses and minuses had tallied differently.
I also have no patience for Enderele’s comment about doing this courageous thing and speaking up against religious ideologs. This kind of lunatic argument is at the root of so many issues we’re all facing currently.