“Since it launched last September, Apple Inc.’s News app has attracted more than 100 publishing partners world-wide hoping to capitalize on the growing consumption of news on mobile devices,” Jack Marshall and Steven Perlberg report for The Wall Street Journal. “There is one major problem: Neither media companies nor Apple know how many people are reading.”
“The company mistakenly has been underestimating the number of readers using the News app since its launch, and passing that inaccurate information on to publishers,” Marshall and Perlberg report. “Publishers don’t pay to post their content to the News app, but getting an accurate tally of users is important because it can affect their ability to sell advertising and to manage their resources accordingly.”
“Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified,” Marshall and Perlberg report. “‘We’re in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality,’ he said. ‘We don’t know what the right number is…’ Mr. Cue said he was surprised by the extent to which publishers call on Apple to handle ad sales. He said Apple has accelerated the development of its iAd network and expects to launch a self-service ad-buying platform in the next two months to help increase ad spending. Despite the setbacks, publishers remain hopeful about the potential of the service and say Apple has been responsive to their feedback.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mistakes happen, but, recently, there have been far too many happening at Apple Inc.
May 2016 be far, far better than 2015! One thing for Apple employees to keep in mind in ’16:
Execution matters. Pretty videos only go so far.
We expect a lot. So, deliver a lot. Not like 2015. Don’t deliver yet another thing that “holds great promise.” Certainly do not deliver important products with no stock at launch or for months afterwards (“Tim Cook, operations genius” – oh, really now?). Don’t deliver half-baked UIs, either. Pretend that Steve is staring/glaring over your shoulder.
Knock our socks off, Apple!
No pressure.