Oh yeah, that's one of the all-time great bits of self-ownage.
Tech journalists make bad calls all the time, but few tech writers have made such a blisteringly bad call as seasoned columnist John C. Dvorak, who famously predicted back in 2007 that “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone [because it is just] going to be another phone in a crowded market.”
D’oh. $150 billion in revenue later, the iPhone is the biggest success Apple has ever had, and revolutionized pretty much every single aspect of the smartphone and even telecom business. That’s quite the missed prediction, even by tech journalist standards.
So what does Dvorak have to say to explain himself? Was it just a brain fart, or what? Five years later, Dvorak has explained why he said the iPhone would be a dud, and his excuse is fascinating: he claims he got it wrong because of a conspiracy against tech journalists like him who were too honest about Apple for their own good.
RIM had a complete internal panic when Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, a former employee revealed this weekend. The BlackBerry maker is now known to have held multiple all-hands meetings on January 10 that year, a day after the iPhone was on stage, and to have made outlandish claims about its features. Apple was effectively accused of lying as it was supposedly impossible that a device could have such a large touchscreen but still get a usable lifespan away from a power outlet.
how come, with its huge market share, with the (well promoted) 10 billionth Android Market app download and the millions and millions of Android users, that there's so little actual *money* for Android app developers? Yes, I know Google doesn't like to share, but still, not even a few pennies for developers?
I mean, there's almost no money in the Android app business.
Right after (Schmidt's speech) an entrepreneur walked up to me with his app, which looked like Instagram. He wondered why the press doesn’t cover apps not designed on iOS. I said “come with me.”
We walked around the street at LeWeb. First person I ran into was Ayelet Noff. She is one of Israel’s top community connector types. Runs a blog called “Blonde 2.0.” But that doesn’t really explain her role in the tech scene.
“What kind of phone do you use?” “iPhone.”
Next up? Cathy Brooks, who does the same thing in SF? “iPhone.”
This continued with person after person until we got about 10 people. I think we saw one Android phone, nine iPhones, and no WP7s. This was a crowd of European entrepreneurs and tech passionates.
“Had enough yet?” I asked the entrepreneur.
This matches what I have seen at conference after conference.
It's a self-sustaining cycle. People who have money and are happy to spend it gravitate to the platform that has the coolest apps. The coolest apps get made for the platform from which developers can make the most money. Apple ensures that the developers can write the coolest apps by supporting old hardware for YEARS after obsolescence, and maintaining a system whereby most users upgrade to the latest version of iOS within days of release. What's ICS userbase now - has it made double figures yet? Hell, it's already an OLD version of Android.
Until Android stops being a fragmentation fuckfest, it's always going to be the platform of choice for poor people, hackers, and freeloaders. That's not a market that matters to a business. Therefore, while Apple has a minority share of the overall phone market, it totally dominates the segment of that market that counts. People who have and spend money.
Apple: 50+% of the phone industry by revenue, 80+% of the phone industry by profit, and the tablet industry? hell, let's just call a spade a spade and call it the iPad industry.
Yep, Android's winning all right.
Look, I'm a Linux nerd from way back. I love what Linux and open source have done for the world. But saying that Android has won ANYTHING is just crazy talk. Thanks to Google, Android is just another tool to enable phone manufacturers and telcos to fuck me in the ass.
I fail to see the relevance. This is not a political problem. The Lord will cure these people. If they cause an epidemic, killing millions, that's obviously just His will.
Apple will happily kill off a profitable dominant product if there's an opportunity to expand into new territory with a new product.
Microsoft will happily kill off opportunities to expand into new territories with new products in order to protect a protect a profitable dominant product.
Butt out. Persons decide how and why and when human society will change, adapt, and evolve. Google the company is not a person. It has no standing and has no voice in this debate. Its employees, yes. Its owners, yes. But Google the company should stick to selling ads and STFU.
50%+ of the phone industry's revenue, 80%+ of the phone industry's profit, near-total dominance of the tablet industry, and with their retail stores the most profitable retail floor space in the world... I'd say Apple's competing pretty well.
Slashdot Mirror
Those figures are worldwide. E.g. http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-tale-of-two-disruptions/
Apple has 0% of global dumbphone market share and something like 23% of global smartphone market share. Those are "sheer numbers" figures.
Apple also has about 80+% of profit share from the entire phone industry worldwide.
Sheer numbers don't mean shit.
Oh yeah, that's one of the all-time great bits of self-ownage.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/wrong-dvorak-blames-getting-screwed-over-apple
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/27/rim.thought.apple.was.lying.on.iphone.in.2007/
Android will in the end be the winner in sheer numbers.
You seem to have missed the fact that Apple doesn't give a shit about sheer numbers.
Apple has almost 100% of the market that counts - people who spend money. See: http://brianshall.com/content/are-android-users-simply-cheap
So developers develop for the platform where they can make money. That's iOS. See: http://scobleizer.com/2011/12/12/viral-coefficients-store-feature-branding-influencers-cool-apps-on-ios-first/
It's a self-sustaining cycle. People who have money and are happy to spend it gravitate to the platform that has the coolest apps. The coolest apps get made for the platform from which developers can make the most money. Apple ensures that the developers can write the coolest apps by supporting old hardware for YEARS after obsolescence, and maintaining a system whereby most users upgrade to the latest version of iOS within days of release. What's ICS userbase now - has it made double figures yet? Hell, it's already an OLD version of Android.
Until Android stops being a fragmentation fuckfest, it's always going to be the platform of choice for poor people, hackers, and freeloaders. That's not a market that matters to a business. Therefore, while Apple has a minority share of the overall phone market, it totally dominates the segment of that market that counts. People who have and spend money.
Android has already won.
Apple: 50+% of the phone industry by revenue, 80+% of the phone industry by profit, and the tablet industry? hell, let's just call a spade a spade and call it the iPad industry.
Yep, Android's winning all right.
Look, I'm a Linux nerd from way back. I love what Linux and open source have done for the world. But saying that Android has won ANYTHING is just crazy talk. Thanks to Google, Android is just another tool to enable phone manufacturers and telcos to fuck me in the ass.
I fail to see the relevance. This is not a political problem. The Lord will cure these people. If they cause an epidemic, killing millions, that's obviously just His will.
Apple will happily kill off a profitable dominant product if there's an opportunity to expand into new territory with a new product.
Microsoft will happily kill off opportunities to expand into new territories with new products in order to protect a protect a profitable dominant product.
Now picture the chaos resulting from every hard disk and backup tape within the pulse radius being wiped.
the US looks sane compared to Iran.
Number of times the USA has used nuclear weapons against civilians: 2
Number of times Iran has used nuclear weapons against civilians: 0
Comparing a man-made nuclear bomb to a gamma-ray burst [wikipedia.org] seems kind of like comparing one pixel on your monitor to the Sun.
Inverse-square law motherfucker, do you speak it?
**NEWSFLASH**
A country that is subjugated by religious fundamentalism commits all manner of evil acts and promotes despicable bigotry and hatred.
More news at 11 !!
And now for news OUTSIDE the USA...
Just wait until a US political leader announces that he or she is an atheist, then watch how quickly that person gets erased from political life.
But those crazy religious people over there in Oogaboogastan are totally worse than our crazy religious people. Totally.
Butt out. Persons decide how and why and when human society will change, adapt, and evolve. Google the company is not a person. It has no standing and has no voice in this debate. Its employees, yes. Its owners, yes. But Google the company should stick to selling ads and STFU.
80% of the profits in the phone industry now go to Apple. If that's "getting undermined" I'd hate to see "laughing all the way to the bank".
By "one of the biggest companies in tech" I presume you mean "the largest publicly-traded company in the world"
What does this graph tell you?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2TFMKwo394o/T8uuMgO0rxI/AAAAAAAAB7g/Ki-zwVPMegc/s400/PowerOutages.jpg
What you describe is also known as a "post-USA" world.
50%+ of the phone industry's revenue, 80%+ of the phone industry's profit, near-total dominance of the tablet industry, and with their retail stores the most profitable retail floor space in the world... I'd say Apple's competing pretty well.
Big difference: Christianity doesn't require you to pay money before they will reveal all of the church doctrines.
Christianity requires you to pay money to go to heaven. How is that different?
Anyone who doesn't hold that criminal enterprise in contempt is just not paying attention.
Religion, criminal enterprise, has there ever been a difference? For any of them?
You think Google is innovating with the goggles?
I'd hate to see how long it takes you to tie your shoelaces.
What tard moderated that Informative?