To the casual, untrained eye it might seem that the Macalope has an easy job, what with the surfeit of side-splittingly funny things people keep saying about Apple. But therein lies the problem.
The Macalope was all set to go to town, because once again Rob Enderle was opening his mouth about Apple. Oh, not on Rob; he’s just practicing the oldest profession. No, it’s outfits like The Toronto Star (tip o’ the antlers to Edward Thome), which quote him just as an “analyst,” and Digital Trends, which publish his “commentary,” that are the problem.
But then someone who shall remain nameless lit a bag of PCWorld “analysis” on fire and left it right on the Macalope’s doorstep.
(He’ll remain nameless in order to protect him from any potential reader backlash, but the Macalope will note that his name rhymes with “Rex Steedman.” Wait, that’s too obvious. Let’s just say his initials are L.F. And here’s a link to all the pieces he’s written.)
Yes, you can blame this unnamed provocateur for republishing Howard Baldwin’s musing entitled “Will Apple’s continued success be followed with another failure?”
See? What’s a mythical beast to do? Sometimes you have to take the bait.
Baldwin starts by laying down his serious street cred.
I worked for Macworld in the late 90s and interviewed the late Steve Jobs when he was at NeXT…
You know, if you have a good point, no one cares that you interviewed Steve Jobs.
Which is, of course, why Baldwin mentioned Jobs’s name.
From iMac to iPod to iPhone to iPad, Apple can seemingly do no wrong.
Ah-ha! Having now constructed his strawman of Apple flawlessness, Baldwin will light him on fire!
Or can it?
WHOOSH!
Throughout its history, Apple has cycled multiple times from outcast to success, from success to arrogance, from arrogance to abyss, and from abyss back to bet-the-company success. Let’s recap.
Oh, let’s not. Seriously, we’ve heard this before and it’s pointless.
But evidence of arrogance anew is already gathering, like a dark cloud.
Over… Mordor.
Even the company’s new chairman, Arthur D. Levinson, has publicly criticized the company’s predilection for hubris.
Actually, if you read what Levinson said it seems pretty obvious that his criticism of “Apple” was thinly-veiled criticism of Steve Jobs. Does anyone really think Apple’s supposed arrogance is going to rise in the wake of Steve Jobs’s death?
Here are just a couple of recent examples of Apple making life difficult for its core constituencies:
Baldwin lists sandboxing for OS X and the pricing structure for iBooks Author textbooks.
That’s it.
Not to say that those aren’t both real issues for some people, but this tea is awfully weak, considering there is a veritable tempest in Baldwin’s teapot.
Hoopla over the possibility of $600-per-share stock prices notwithstanding, I wonder if Apple’s success is leading it toward another abyss.
The aggravating thing about predictions like this is that Baldwin will claim he was proven right even if the next Apple “abyss” comes shortly after intelligent shrimp rule the Earth.
(Note: Apple’s stock closed down a bit Monday at $532.20 per share.)
More updates on Apple’s share price free-fall as this breaking story unfolds!
I can hear the words of George Santayana about history repeating itself echoing in my ears.
You should have your ears checked, because it’s actually “the past,” not “history.” The funny thing is, the Macalope could pull a hundred quotes from “the past” 15 years where pundits claimed that Apple couldn’t do X because it had never done it before.
And yet they keep trotting out the same argument, despite the fact that reality keeps slapping them in the face.
Somebody sure isn’t learning from the past, but it ain’t Apple.
[Editors’ Note: In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]