“I’m baffled. As an industry observer and analyst who studies this industry and the companies within it, I am baffled by how Wall Street thinks about Apple,” Ben Bajarin writes for TIME Magazine.
“I do, however, have a theory. It’s called the reality distortion theory. The late Steve Jobs was said to have what was referred to as a reality distortion field, meaning that he sometimes had a view of things not always grounded in reality,” Bajarin writes. “My theory is that for the foreseeable future, there will always be a reality distortion field surrounding Apple. The only difference from then to now is that the so-called reality distortion field has moved outside out of Apple and now is alive and well with Wall Street analysts and the headline-seeking mainstream media.”
Bajarin writes, “Apple is the most profitable company, can’t make enough products to meet demand and is the most admired by its peers. Yet Wall Street and media fanatics are claiming Apple is doomed. The reality distortion field is in full effect.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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Steve’s reality distortion field is what I would call a future bending field in that he could see clearly 5 to 10 years out where the technology turning points would lie. His RDF was the result of his vision bending light unto itself that allowed him to peer into the future at warp speed whereas mere mortals could only see things at light speed and could not therefore travel into the future like Steve could.
I think the example in ‘The Matrix’ of the boy bending the spoon is sufficient to illustrate this theory. It wasn’t the spoon that bent, it was the warping of the space around it that caused the illusion of bending.
I think Tim lacks this vision tunnelling into the future which has shifted the prognosticators to self styled futurists in Wall Street churning out their brand of bullshit.
Wall Street developed its own “reality distortion field” a long time ago, so there is no need to attempt to conflate it with SJ’s RDF.
It would be more accurate to liken SJ’s RDF to the light side of the force and Wall Street’s RDF to the dark side of the force. As with nearly everything, intent matters.
YES, YES, YES!!! Finally someone who actually gets the big picture. An excellent article. The Wall Street Analysts have their heads so far up their butts that they are looking out their belly buttons.
The truth is that the core of people at Apple that did the hardware and software engineering that allowed Steve Jobs to resurrect Apple are no longer at Apple. Some are off doing other things like investing, others are running their own companies and still others are kicking back and enjoying the financial fruits of their labor- far from the police state of the Infinite Loop campus.
During the last year of Steve Jobs’ tenure the cracks started to really show at Apple and have continued unabated. Most of what Apple has and makes money on was done more than a few years ago and newer initiatives have fallen flat or have yet to deliver upon their promise.
The lean and hungry company with it’s back against the wall has become a company with more money than it can wisely spend that has ballooned in overhead and has not a lot to justify the expense. Maybe a Bozo purge is in order.
But at one point, Apple was the darling of Wall Street, wasn’t it? So what happened? The bandwagon effect is amazing. It takes one – just one – to start something, then two, then three, and before you know it, a whole bunch of the analysts and media types are peddling the same information (or misinformation).
If Apple never created another new product market, they would continue growing their size and cash faster then almost any crap company these turds are pushing.
Where and when will anyone (even from Apple) stand up and call bull shit what it is. Even the stupid shit like when they say “Apple needs to follow Samsung”. What? How does the innovative leader follow the copier that is following then. Idiots and the spineless champions.
Maybe Buffet would like to take Apple’s cash and some of theirs and buy Apple. Apple doesn’t want AAPL yet. Only the investors fighting the bears in the coliseum while Tim Cook and the board watch the decimation from their seats above.
All these theories seem like far-fetched struggles to explain the madness. But it all started with the iPhone 5 not having a bigger screen. Add to that: lame advertising and PR.
I think you are partially correct, but the real onslaught of negative articles resulted from the maps “debacle” which was a Google trumped up overblown media reaction to a few visual bugs. I’ve gotten more than one incorrect set of directions from Google maps, btw. Every article that mentions Apple maps refers to how horrible and what a debacle they are. I think they are great, much better designed than Google just lacking a few details like transit. Anyhow its been a down hill media spiral since then.
A pretty good article, especially near the end but I think that the reality distortion field is more akin to “Apple Leads Other Follow”.
What is happening to Apple now, will be happening to the other stocks…soon.
From the article “I see dysfunction and unhealthiness running rampant throughout the industry.”
He’s right, and eventually there will be consequences to that dysfunction, a major correction. Wall Street is like a bank, and it loves all the companies in debt to it and doesn’t like companies like Apple cause they can balance their own budget. Eventually though it will be time to make those mortgage payments, and when that time comes, and it will the houses of cards will come tumbling down, the houses of straw blown in a wolfish wind but the brick shit house that Jobs built will still be standing.
Mmmm kindergarten, powerful stuff.
Oh, crap. Not another bailout of a financial sector impending! May each dollar of their bonuses turn into a thousand fleas infesting their armpits.
Yesterday I traveled through two U.S. airports and one in London. I saw tens of thousands of people in the terminals, many of them with smart phones, tablets, and laptops. Not most of them, not almost all of them, but every last single device had an Apple logo on it. I saw exactly zero Android, ms, bb, or any other make of device, and I looked carefully. The day before I went into the brand new police station in my home city to register my new alarm. There is now an iMac on every desk in that place. The only vestige of the old Dells they used to have were the mouse pads, and they told me they were thrilled with the new Macs.
How is this a failing company?
At this point all it is provissionally is a failing stock
Yet they scream, that the real market is in the mountains of Kenya, or the jungles of South America, or the inner city where people on food stamps will line up if the iPhone had a bigger screen and was cheeper. Apple can’t make these devices fast enough at the price and size they are now. But, if Apple did a buy one $49.99 iPhone and get one FREE they can get real market share. Then go chapter 10 but have real market share for a while.
Idiots!
“The late Steve Jobs was said to have what was referred to as a reality distortion field, meaning that he sometimes had a view of things not always grounded in reality.”
Almost every time I see a writer refer to the RDF they get it wrong. The RDF came from within Apple, as Apple engineers would confer with Steve saying that so-n-so couldn’t be done and then go on listing all the reasons why it couldn’t. By the end of the meeting not only were the engineers ignoring all those “valid” reasons for NO but were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it could be done and will be done. Steve warped their sense of reality from “couldn’t” to “can”.
It’s my belief that Steve Jobs and the entire Apple executive team realized there would be a “Steve Jobs death penalty” against the company’s reputation, management decisions and PPS (price per share) and planned accordingly, with such activity occurring for up to 2 years post death. Tim Cook was chosen to be the titular head and thus the whipping boy all the while doing what he does best, supply chain. Does no one else find it unusual that the executive team, Jony Ives, and Brd of Directors have been eerily silent, save for the occasional comment? Dream planning, whiteboarding, round tables, test hardware & software is still moving forward as we speak, just as in “Jobs vision” days. This all makes perfect sense when trying to resolve the nonsensical Wall Street attitudes when considering top quality hardware & software, products outselling demand, record breaking tech profits, etc., etc. This penalty period will run its course, the Apple rep will recover, PPS will recover and Apple corporate will again be geniuses. Don’t ya know they are all working hard and laughing their asses off at the Wall Street soap opera currently showing at your local media outlet.