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Stop the Noiz

No Flops, so Mac Critics Now Exclaim that Apple Isn't Successful Enough

Frank Fox - 2008.03.13 - Tip Jar

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The Mac critic has been forced to eat crow many times.

John Dvorak, a big time Mac critic, had this to say about the original iPod: "I suspect that once people figure out that it's an overpriced toy, they'll come to their senses."

Either he was really bad about predictions, or it was just wishful thinking at the time. Of course, now that he's seen the light about Apple and has bought an iMac for his wife, this shows how open and free thinking he has become. Dvorak and Rob Enderle, another popularly hated critic, have eased off the Mac bashing only slight, but they still follow two simple rules:

Nice only when wanting to complain about Microsoft. for example, Dvorak thinks that Microsoft will not be able to beat Apple on iPod design. No duh - I'm glad we have him ready to alert us to this breaking news. Here is the example from Enderle, where he complains that Apple takes its customers for granted, but then goes on to bash Microsoft for preventing HP, Dell, and Lenovo from taking advantage of this.
And it is always a game of twist the knife in any perceived weakness of Apple, even if it's off topic. (Enderle is nice about the MacBook Air as a marketing tool. It is okay for testing the water, but he gives no credit for its good design or fairly strong specifications for a lightweight computer.)

These jerks are just waiting for a misstep. E.g., Apple releases the MacBook Air (MBA) without DVD, and there is ol' Dvorak to complain about how disappointing the MBA is. This is like the queue for a flood of bad reviews complaining about the low specifications . These opinions are so predictable and centered on their personal wants that they can't see there is a world out there with different needs.

Other shining examples of the many big screw up that Apple has made that somehow didn't stop their products from selling.

iPods don't have FM radio.
iPods don't have satellite radio.
iPod shuffle has no screen.
Only a glossy screen for the MacBook.
Limited expandability of MacBooks.
Limited expandability of Mac mini.
Don't like video cards in any new Mac product.
No FireWire 800 connector for MacBook.
iPhone doesn't support Flash.
Too many screws. (I'm not making this up!)
Don't like Fast User Switching - or a dozen other new features in any of the OS X releases.
Lack of user replaceable battery.

Always complaining that the prices are too high for the specs. (Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't complain if Apple lowered its prices, but this is a business choice they make that effects how many they will sell.) But somehow all of us Mac users don't want to listen to these geniuses, and we go ahead and buy these machines in huge numbers. It must be that we are all mindless followers of some cult who can't seem to calculate the value and benefits for ourselves.

If you can't tell, I'm more than a little sick of hearing this junk. Worse is that I know these bozos are just waiting for a chance to shout, "I told you so".

Their recent favorite is Apple's stock price.

forget the fact that the whole economy is going into recession. forget the fact that Apple just had its biggest quarter ever. Apple is to blame, not because their products aren't continuing to sell in record numbers, or that Apple isn't the number 2 music retailer, or Apple isn't still confident they can sell 10 million iPhones.

Apple is to blame because being this successful isn't enough.

It's a tough deal, and no one likes to loose money on his or her investments. Still, I take this latest "I told you so" with a grain of salt, just like all the other negative reviews. To me Apple looks like it is still on a roll, and when this recession is over, these narrow-minded folks are going to look like fools again.

Disclaimer: This individual does own Apple stock as well as Apple computers.

Recent Stop the Noiz Columns

Apple's Tablet an End Run Beyond Netbooks, 11.20. Whatever Apple has planned will leverage existing technologies while going beyond what its competitors can offer.
Psystar Joins Ranks of Dumb Criminals, 11.16. The judge has ruled, and Psystar has been found guilty of illegally using Mac OS X on its computers.
My Windows 7 Launch Party, 10.23. "The final surprise was that things started to slow down during my demo. I had XP Mode running, several open windows, and a half dozen other apps running."
Windows 7: Bait for Windows XP and Vista Users, 10.19. While Win 7 is competing with OS X in features, it's target audience is Windows users, not Mac users.
More in the Stop the Noiz index.

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