“Last week I thought it would be interesting — given that both the Wall Street Journal and TechNewsWorld had covered my professional relationship with Dell regarding its new MP3 service — to chat about what it would take to beat Apple. But in my analysis I left out one important thing: Apple is tricky. Already there are rumors of a redesigned iPod nano that would position well against this new Dell offering, and the Apple-funded sites seem to be aggressively trying to disparage this as-yet unborn product. Someone seems scared to death of this as-yet unborn product,” Rob ‘Microsoft Wrote the First Mac OS’ Endlerle scribbles for TechNewsWorld.
MacDailyNews Take: Enderle also conveniently left out that he even had a “professional relationship” with Dell. Whoops. It’s called “disclosure,” Rob.
Now, the link that Enderle uses above is to MacDailyNews (“Apple-funded sites seem to be aggressively trying to disparage this as-yet unborn product.”) We are not an “Apple-funded site.” (We wish. If you want to fund us, Apple, email webmaster@macdailynews.com immediately!) We’re a totally independent website. We are, like many websites, tech and otherwise, merely an Apple Store affiliate which means we run ads for Apple products and receive a standard commission (at no extra cost to you) if you buy after clicking one of our ads. We are also affiliates for the online stores of Adobe, HP (printers), Best Buy, Mac Mall, and many others. As with those companies, we receive no direct funds from Apple.
As our mission statement says, in part, “Why do we do this? Because long ago we received the most important advice a computer user can ever receive, ‘Get a Mac.’ We want to help spread that valuable advice.” Rob “Quote For Hire” Enderle would be the last person on earth to understand our motivation as it has nothing to do with cash payments. Finally, to be perfectly clear, as we state on our site here, “MacDailyNews/iPodDailyNews never receives compensation for any article posted on the websites. We cover only products that interest us and products that our readers request be covered. We do, from time to time, request and receive products for review purposes. The receipt of such products does not guarantee a review will be conducted, much less a good review.”
We cover this Dell story for its comedic value and also because it’s newsworthy that Dell’s decision-making process is so screwed up as to hire Rob Enderle as a consultant.
Enderle continues, “Since we talked last week about how Dell might create a successful service, let’s talk this week about the lengths Apple might go to in order to stop them.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple could do nothing to iPod+iTunes for the next decade and Dell still wouldn’t come anywhere near SanDisk, much less Apple. Endlere is attempting to elevate Dell’s trial balloon from its status as a deflated joke. It isn’t working.
Enderle continues, “Apple has a set of top reporters that it feeds products to and who give it favorable reviews. Simply by spending time with them, Jobs can likely get them thinking negatively about Dell’s new product and be primed to disparage it as soon as it actually launches (though I doubt some will wait that long). I’d be surprised if many aren’t already primed to go negative on this product even though it isn’t finished yet.”
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael C.” for the heads up.]
Robbie, you hit-whore, everyone’s primed to “go negative” on a Dell music player/service because Dell has already proven to be a laughable failure in such matters in the past; even worse than most of the other iPod/iTunes roadkill. It’s obviously going to be way too little, way, way, way too late. Zune redux. Anyone with even half a brain can predict it, which explains why Rob Enderle thinks a Dell-branded music offering would be a great idea.
I thought Enderle was dead….
Hmmm.
oh dear… first he doesn’t understand Apple and its business, now it seems his understanding of MDN is lacking.
“hit whore” – such a classic…
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I would welcome some serious competition to iPhod/iTunes. Healthy competition benefits end users with better products and services. Apple needs a little of that right now, not that Dell will be where it comes from.
Bring it on. If it’s better, I’ll buy it.
“I thought Enderle was dead….”
No, no, he’s uh,…he’s resting.
Apple’s got product. Dell’s got gas from Enderle’s exit.
Rob End-it-all sounds good to me!
We have always had to fight off these PC loving baboons. They don’t know that they’re talking about and probably never will. GET A MAC!!!
Do people/companies actually PAY for this guy’s advice???
“many aren’t already primed to go negative on this product even though it isn’t finished yet.”
A show of hands, anyone else think most of Dell’s products aren’t finished yet?
Me too.
“Enderle: Apple-funded sites already aggressively disparaging Dell’s as-yet un-stillborn MP3 player”
There, fixed it.
All better…
iCaled. I am going to wait and see what the consumer’s reaction to this service and/or product is going to be. When it tanks, I will be expecting Enderle to blame Apple. Conspiracy theories rock!
“Someone seems scared to death of this as-yet stillborn product,”
who wouldn’t be? if anyone wants to see the horror they should watch ‘the brood’!! enderle and dell are going to look like the mother that gives her nearly (it dies a few minutes later) stillborn child a few licks before they both kick the bucket!!
@Radius: I see things “iCal-ed” all the time.
What does this mean?! I understand you’re putting it in iCal, but how and why? All day event? And so it can searched for at a later date?
Sorry to be an idiot in an Enderle thread!
Underware is the last person I would pay for advice on anything Apple related. He gets it all wrong every time! There have been countless stories of how Apple is going under by this joke, so called expert. Predictions of glory about Vista, and iPod killers. Nothing he’s ever written has come true. Vista is a total, absolute failure on every measure. There has been no player that has come close to the iPod, and no service that can match iTunes, not even Amazon.
The more he writes, the more he puts himself in a big dark black hole as the biggest joke on the internet. Please, just kill your blog Underware, because no one believes you period!
Would it be so bad if someone ran a story on Enderle and nobody responded?
It appears that Enderle isn’t getting the hits he needs at his site, so he’s counting the hits at other sites to boost his numbers and justify himself.
Would it be so bad if no one EVER ran another story on Enderle?
Their weird foreign leisure weight, either neither seize nor forfeit height.
Unborn… Still-born… okay anyone who is still anti-abortion I think we’ve found the definitive counter-argument TWICE in one article.
I wonder how the Supreme Court feels about carrying out a 150th trimester abortion? We can prove the child (Enderle) will not lead a normal life.
“No, no, he’s uh,…he’s resting.”
Nah… he’s just pining.
Think before you click indeed. What a maroon!
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” – Mother Teresa
No. No. No. Benderly has it all wrong.
Because Dell products are so stylish, so innovative, so wonderfully made… from the XPS to the InPrison line… we don’t discriminate, we disparage EVERYTHING from Dell.
Just think back on that wonderfully successful mp3 player Mr. Mikey’s Company released a few years ago. Do you think they’ll do any better?
Oh and another thing. Enderle and MacNews World seem REALLY PROUD of how many links they can throw into a single paragraph.
If it’s being disparaged, it’s because Dell already has a track record of craptastic music players. It’s not like we don’t know what they are already going to do.
Actually, I wish Apple would license FairPlay to companies like Dell. By opening up the market, it would (1) strengthen the iTunes store, (2) I believe put more pressure on labels to offer DRM free music, and (3) would further demonstrate that the iPod is a success because of design – not just because of compatibility with iTunes.
But it will never happen. So wishful thinking. While I like Apples strangle hold on PC’s to assure quality – I think they could open up a little for personal media players and other technologies.