“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.
Roberto, Roberto? Are you okay? WTF did that mean?
HMCV… you’re killing me boy! Call Dr. Kervorkian! ROFLMFAO.
The as-yet-unborn… Hey bub, guess what, it’s the goddam 21st century.
MDN, you really are supported by Apple. Be honest. They do pay the costs of some of your expenses. There are <strike>four</strike> five of their ads on my screen right now! Now, you could quibble, you could insist that yours is an AD-supported site, but one of your largest – your largest? – purchasers of ads is Apple.
I think we agree, though, this is not what he meant.
Seriously, and On Topic:, he feels Apple – with or without the help os so-called surrogates – needs to spend a penny, or scribe a line, to combat their “strategy”? Renting tunes is not viable. Undercutting Apple’s pricing only works if your product is as good as theirs.
rsbell, when you “iCal” something, you are simply “making a note for future reference”. Something you can look back on to confirm it went as well, or badly, as it seems. Like all those “Apple is doomed, DOOMed” comments from the 90’s through early/mid 00s or the “Dell is doomed, DOOMed” comments MDN has been tossing back these last couple of years.
the dishonest are ever mistrusting…..
JRA… I couldn’t agree more.
No matter how much music the iTunes Store sells, I don’t think that the music labels have quite figured out that millions of people have NEVER purchased a song from the iTS and probably never will!
People already own zillions of CDs, have access to their friends’ music and to collections in libraries, etc., so they rip whatever they want and can choose to rip at sampling rates above the AM radio garbage that iTS sells.
I’ll rip mine lossless, thank you.
and yet with such a claim Enderle has still not disclosed that he is personally Dell funded… that he was paid by Dell.
MDN is finally getting under his skin!!
It seems to me he is already covering his ass for getting his “consulting” fee, by saying, “Oh Apple is bad and sneaky, so it might not work”.
Loser with a capital “L”.
MP3 players are so 2003. Maybe five years from now, Enderle will advise Dell to add phone capabilities.
No story here, just move along.
And no one from the MS side disparaged the iPhone, the iPod, MBA or any other Apple product? It’s the way of the world.
MDN – Since you are obviously in league with Apple, and also the NSA, CIA and the space aliens, might I suggest you ask them to let you know immediately the next time Rob takes his tinfoil hat off. A surge of about 4,000 volts sent through the aliens’ secret psychic network directly into the fillings in Rob’s teeth should shut him up about the conspiracy for awhile.
“Apple-funded sites seem to be aggressively trying to disparage this as-yet unborn product.”
How could ANYONE think MDN was “funded” by Apple?
Are you kidding me?? Just compare web sites’ designs – no WAY Stevie would allow a site he ponied up the cash for to look like this.
With all love…
JRA: 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.
No, that would not.
(1) If Apple licenses Fair Play to Dell, then Dell can open up its own iTunes store. If the contract specifically limits it to hardware, then iTunes store must support Dell’s hardware. That is, Apple can no longer control the ecosysem. It must deal with whatever inferior system thrown by Dell to consumers.
(2) The huge success of iTunes store is what puts the pressure on the labels to offer DRMless music. Why? Because labels don’t like how Apple is calling the shot now during negotiations. They can’t ignore Apple’s huge marketshare of paid download music nor does the business as usual. Labels offers DRMless music because they want to break Apple’s dominance by allowing others to offer music that is compatible with the number one digital player out there, iPod. The labels love DRM, but the control freaks simply can’t stand losing control.
If Apple licenses Fair Play, then any download company can sell tracks compatible with iPod. Therefore, removing the pressure on the labels to remove the DRM.
(3) The number one method of getting music into a digital player is to rip tracks off the CD. The number two is to use P2P networks to download music. They already prove that iPod wins it on design (hardware and software). Having an ecosystem of paid download store, hardware and software is a bonus. Another proof? Look up how successful iPod is even before Apple opens iTunes store in many countries.
I don’t think Apple needs to demonstrate anything, much less by doing something that may not be helpful. The proof is already out there.
How many in his group again? Was it four. If you ask him its “me, myself and I…ooops and my wife”.
He’s going to wake up any minute, muscle up to the bars, pry them apart with his little pecker, and “Vooom!”
Dell should just rebrand some iPods.
Oh wait! They already did that!
The incredible thing is Enderle will read every one of these comments, and assume that we are all paid to “astroturf” comment sites like he is.
When you are a lying, slime bucket, hit-whore, you assume everyone around you is a lying, slime bucket, hit-whore. Enderle will never see the light.
The idea that anyone at Apple even remotely pays attention to what Dell might have up its sleeve is laughable. I mean, what was it, something like 3 months, before anyone noticed the Dell DJ had been EOL’d.? I guess the Apple employee who was tasked with keeping an eye on Dell’s music playing business was sleeping on the job.
“Someone seems scared to death of this as-yet stillborn product,”
How childish is that? The Zune still isn’t beating SanDisk for market share, what chance does Dell seriously have? The market is saturated. Word of mouth is get an iPod. It’s reliable. It’s easy. It works.
I’m wondering when MS pulls the plug on Zune. 4 ,more years? Will MS come out with a touch Zune? Doesn’t Bill Gates always speak of laptops with touch screens? Shouldn’t they be developing a touch screen Zune?
@JRA
Is everyone forgetting that HP was selling iPods? Of course, in their infinite wisdom, they dropped the iPod just before it went into the Stratosphere! Good move there, HP!
@Mr Reeee
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Roberto is merely using words that do not conform to the convention of
“i” before “e” except after “c”.
Hey Rob, can I come to your Corporate Headquarters sometime? I’d like to see it. Wait, your wife needs to clean the living room because you got some free products from Microsoft and Dell……..oh, ok……..nevermind.
‘as-yet unborn’ says,
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” – Mother Teresa
Innocent babies grow up to be dead soldiers — Carlin.
Teenage soldiers — not allowed to have a beer at the end of a hard day of killing, I might add. Because it’s immoral for a teenager to drink.
It’s immoral for a teenage soldier to have sex with the women of the enemy, unless a baby is concieved. Then, it’s immoral to have an abortion.
Some folks enjoy reading and watching a fantasy, and they understand the very real boundaries. While others live in a fantasy, and their ‘morals’ will allow them to kill you, as to protect their divine POV.
To ‘Truth eats Darwin’, I say: You better not pout, you better not cry, you better not shout, I’m tellin’ you why…
@ Spark
> “No, no, he’s uh,…he’s resting.”
> Nah… he’s just pining.
Then why is Enderle nailed to his perch? He’s bleeding [brain-]demised!
O.K., so who’s going to play iPhone and Dullphone in the commercial?
What’s this about tinfoil hats?!!!!!
Does Apple make tinfoil hats?
Do they come with Leopard installed?
Where can I get one?
Or “eight”, MDN Magic Word
Never mind, I’ll wait for Snow Leopard . . .
It will be snappier.
Rob,
You’re a moron. But you are too stupid to realize that fact. MDN an “Apple-funded” site? Quit journalism because you are an idiot and you know NOTHING about this business. And you have the nerve to call MDN an Apple-funded site when you are working for Dell? What is YOUR definition of bias?
I wish the day would come when the entire tech world finally realizes you have your head so far up your ass you can see your tonsils. That way we wouldn’t have to waste time discussing anything about you anymore.