Daring Fireball: When All You Have Is an ‘Apple Is Doomed Without Steve Jobs’ Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail
I’m not sure what’s worse, the content of this piece by Sam Gustin for Time magazine, or the pun in the headline, “Google Hits ‘Glass’ Pedal as Apple Returns to Earth”:
In short, Apple expectations are returning to Earth. “Apple has had a tremendous run from 2001 until the end of last year,” says Kessler. “People want the company to invent a new category. In the past, they’ve done that so frequently and successfully that when they don’t seem to do it as much or as profoundly, questions arise.”
The iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007, iPad (which many critics pooh-poohed as “just a big iPhone”) in 2010. So, so frequently — it’s a wonder how we ever kept up with Apple’s new category inventions.
Meanwhile, Google is hot. For example, Google’s new Chromebook Pixel laptop is garnering positive reviews. (“Thank you, Google. For obsoleting my MacBook,” as one CNET writer put it.)
That would be the aforelinked Brooke Crothers, a CNet opinion columnist. Here’s the official CNet hardware review of the Pixel by Seth Rosenblatt, where it garnered a meager rating of “OK” and this bottom line:
The bottom line: Despite impressive hardware specs and solid industrial design, the Chromebook Pixel’s high price and cloud OS limitations make it impossible to recommend for the vast majority of users.
I really don’t understand all of this negative press about Apple. It seems that tech writers are so eager to write the best “Apple is Doomed” article that none of them care whether they can back up the assertion with data and facts anymore. Thanks to all of these articles and a difficult time in the 1990’s, even Wall Street is buying into the fantasy that Apple is dead in the water. Meanwhile, Apple devices continue to sell like hotcakes and Apple’s profits continue to soar.
