Besides its ads, Apple says very little, confident numbers will do the talking. This no longer works as others have seized the opportunity to drive the narrative.
The day before Samsung’s big Galaxy S4 announcement, Apple’s VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, sat down for an interview with Reuters and promptly committed what Daring Fireball’s John Gruber calls an unforced error:
“…the news we are hearing this week [is] that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old,” [Schiller] said, “Customers will have to wait to get an update.”
Not so, as Gruber quickly corrects:
But it ends up the S4 is — to Samsung’s credit — shipping with Android 4.2.2, the latest available version. Not sure why Schiller would speculate on something like this based solely on rumors.
To Samsung’s delight, we can be sure, the interview received wide coverage in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, just hours before the S4 was unveiled, complete with the month-old Android operating system.
This didn’t go over well. Even before the “year old Android version” was exposed as unfounded conjecture, reactions to Schiller’s trash talk were uniformly negative. Apple was accused of being on the defensive.
But, the true-believers ask, isn’t this something of a double-standard? What about the trash talk Samsung ads that depicted the iPhone as old-fashioned and its users as either cult sheep or doddering golden agers, weren’t they also a form of defensiveness? Why were Samsung’s mean-spirited ads seen as fun and creative, while Schiller’s slight misstep is called “defensive”?
Yes, Apple is held to a (well earned) different standard. Once a challenger with an uncertain future, Apple has become The Man. Years ago, it could productively poke fun at Microsoft in the great I’m a Mac, You’re a PC campaign (the full series of ads is here), but the days of taking potshots at the incumbent are over. Because of its position at the top, Apple should have the grace to not trash its competitors, especially when the digs are humorless and further weakened by error.
Schiller’s faux pas will soon be forgotten — it was a minor infraction, a five yard penalty — but it stoked my enduring frustration with a different sort of Apple-speak characteristic: The way Apple execs abuse words such as “incredible“, “great“, “best“ when they’re discussing the company’s products and business.
My accusation of language molestation needs examples. Citing a page from W. Edwards Deming’s gospel, In God We Trust, Everyone Else Brings Data, I downloaded a handful of Apple earnings calls, such as this one, courtesy of Seeking Alpha, and began to dig.
[Speaking of language faux pas, Deming’s saying was shamelessly and badly appropriated — without attribution — by Google’s Eric Schmidt in a talk at MIT.)
Looking just for the words that emanated from the horses’ mouths, I stripped the intros and outros and the question parts of the Q&As, and pasted into Pages (which has, sadly, lain fallow since January 2009). Pages has a handy Search function (in the Edit > Find submenu) that compiles a list of all occurrences of a word in a document; here’s what I found… .
- Across the five earnings statements, some form of the word “incredible” appears 7, 9, 9, 11 and 9 times. The Search function offers a handy snippet display so you can check the context in which the word was used:
- “Tremendous”, in its various forms, appears 12 times.
- Amazing: 8
- Strong: 58
- Thrilled: 13
- Maniacally focused: 2
- All told, “great” appears 70 times. A bit more than half are pathetic superlatives (“great products”, “great progress”, “we feel great about…”), some are innocuous (“greater visibility”), but there’s an interesting twist: The snippet display showed that six were part of the phrase “Greater China”:
“Greater” or not, China is mentioned 71 times, much more than any other country or region I checked (Korea = 1, Japan = 6, Europe = 12).
(In the interest of warding off accusations of a near-obsessive waste of energy, I used a command line program to generate some of these numbers. Android? give me a second…4. Google=0, Facebook=4, Samsung=2.)
Now let’s try some “sad” words:
- Disappoint: 0
- Weak: 7. Six of these were part of “weak dollar”; the other was “weak PC market”. By contrast, only five or six of the 58 “strongs” referred to the dollar; the rest were along the lines of “strong iPad sales”.
- Bad: 0
- Fail: 0
The dissection can go on and on, but let’s end it with a comparison between “more“ and “less“ . Eliminating instances of less as a suffix (“wireless”), the result shows a remarkable unbalance: “more” wins each of the five sessions with a consistently lopsided score: 28 to 3…more or less.
But, you’ll object, what’s wrong with being positive?
Nothing, but this isn’t about optimism, it’s about hyperbole and the abuse of language. Saying “incredible” too many times leads to incredulity. Saying “maniacally focused” at all is out of place and gauche in an earnings call. One doesn’t brag about one’s performance in the boudoir; let happy partners sing your praise.
When words become empty, the listener loses faith in the speaker. Apple has lost control of the narrative; the company has let others define its story. This is a war of words and Apple is proving to be inept at verbal warfare.
In another of his sharply worded analyses titled Ceding the Crown, John Gruber makes the same point, although from a different angle:
The desire for the “Oh, how the mighty Apple has fallen” narrative is so strong that the narrative is simply being stated as fact, evidence to the contrary be damned. It’s reported as true simply because they want it to be true. They’re declaring “The King is dead; long live the King” not because the king has actually died or abdicated the throne, but because they’re bored with the king and want to write a new coronation story.
I agree with the perception, but blaming the media rarely produces results, we shouldn’t point our criticism in the wrong direction. The media have their priorities, which more often than not veer in the direction of entertainment passed as fair and balanced information (see Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman). If Apple won’t feed them an interesting, captivating story, they’ll find it elsewhere, even in rumors and senseless hand-wringing.
Attacking competitors, pointing to their weaknesses, and trumpeting one’s achievements is better done by hired media assassins. A company, directly or through a PR firm, engages oft-quoted consultants who provide the required third-party stats, barbs, and encomiums. This isn’t theorizing, I once was a director at a company, one of many, that used such an arrangement to good effect.
A brief anecdote: When Microsoft was Microsoft, Waggener Edstrom, the company’s PR powerhouse, was an exemplary propagandist. I distinctly remember a journalist from a white-shoe East Coast business publication coming to my office more than twenty years ago, asking very pointed questions. I asked my own questions in return and realized that the individual didn’t quite know the meaning of certain terms that he was throwing around. A bit of hectoring and cajoling, and the individual finally admitted that the questions were talking points provided by the Seattle PR firm. A few years later, I got a comminatory phone call from one of the firm’s founders. My offense? I had made an unflattering quip about Microsoft when it was having legal troubles with Apple (the IP battle that was later settled as part of the 1997 “investment” in Apple and Steve Jobs). PR firms have long memories and sharp knives.
The approach may seem cynical, but it’s convenient and effective. The PR firm maintains a net (and that’s the right word) of relationships with the media and their pilot fish. If it has the talent of a Waggener Edstrom, it provides sound strategic advice, position papers, talking points, and freeze-dried one-liners.
Furthermore, a PR firm has the power of providing access. I once asked a journalist friend how his respected newspaper could have allowed one of its writers to publish a fellacious piece that described, in dulcet tones, a worldwide Microsoft R&D tour by the company’s missus dominicus. “Access, Jean-Louis, access. That’s the price you pay to get the next Ballmer interview…”
Today, look at the truly admirable job Frank Shaw does for Microsoft. Always on Twitter, frequently writing learned and assertive pieces for the company’s official blog. By the way, where’s Apple’s blog?
The popular notion is that Apple rose to the top without these tools and tactics, but that’s not entirely true. Dear Leader was a one-man propagandastaffel, maintaining his own small network of trusted friends in the media. Jobs also managed to get exemptions from good-behavior rules, exemptions that seem to have expired with him…
Before leaving us, Jobs famously admonished “left-behind” Apple execs to think for themselves instead of trying to guess what he would have done. Perhaps it’s time for senior execs to rethink the kind of control they want to exercise on what others say about Apple. Either stay the old course and try to let the numbers do the talking, or go out and really fight the war of words. Last week’s misstep didn’t belong to either approach.
One last word: In the two trading days bracketing the Samsung S4 launch Schiller clumsily attempted to trash, Apple shares respectively gained 1%, followed by a 2.58% jump the day after the intro. Schiller could have said nothing before the launch and, today, let others point to early criticism of the S4′s apparent featuritis.
Related columns:
- War in the Valley: Apple vs. Google TweetIt was long overdue: Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO) finally resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Usually, these resignations are handled in the smoothest of ways: Thanks for the distinguished service and the like. This time, Steve Jobs issued a pointed statement: “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome [...]...
- The Next Apple TV: iWatch Tweet Rumors don’t actual Apple products make, see the perennial Apple TV — and the latest iWatch rumors. This is an opportunity to step back, look at Apple’s one and only love –personal computers — and use this thought to sift through rumors. Every week brings new rumors of soon-to-be-released Apple products. The mythical Apple [...]...
- The Apple Licensing Myth TweetLegends die hard. In the pre-Web days, they got printed and reprinted, told and retold and so became official, like spinach being good for you because it held the iron your red cells needed. After decades of the disgusting veggie inflicted upon young kids – I remember, a scientist went back to the bench and [...]...
- Losing The Plot Tweet It’s a beautiful sight when, year after year, a company stays true to its original idea. But when a business loses the plot, we witness a sorry spectacle, an expensive slide into mediocrity. Every wayward company is wayward in its own way: Accountants masquerading as product planners; wannabe visionary execs jealousy trying to prove [...]...
- Apple: Q2 Thoughts TweetThere was a time when clever individuals could sustain themselves by exploiting people’s ignorance and anxiety. Augurs studied the flight of birds to explain the will of the gods; haruspices practiced divination by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals. For fear of bursting into uncontrollable laughter, so the joke goes, the fortune tellers studiously avoided [...]...
64 Comments
Just wanted to point out that Apple doesn’t have a product called “iMap” hence it doesn’t show up in your search.
I’ll be the Bad Guy here. In a post about words, it’s amusing to see the non-word “fellacious.” As for Apple using superlatives, well, generally they’ve been right to do so. Now that Android is seemingly “catching up,” people think they should tone it down. But where, for instance, is iBooks Author for Android? As for pilot fish, it seems these days that ReadWrite should be rebranded to ReadWriteHateApple — they seem to be leading the charge. Just go look at how many anti-Apple, pro-Android (at the expense of Apple) pieces have appeared in just the past month.
@ Asustosh: Shame on me, thnaks for pointing out the mistake!
@ Mike Cane: Thanks for asking whether “fellacious” is a real word.
I’ve used it to convey a combination of fallacy with a form of oral gratification.
In the MN refrained from providing links to its _actual_ usage, here’s one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fellacious
Perhaps I ought to refrain from such combinations of cryptic and graphic humor.
@ Mike Cane: Regarding the second part of your comment: You’re right. That’s why I hope Apple will become better at waging the War of Words.
Google announced Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) at the Google I/O conference on 27 June 2012. So when galaxy SIV will ship in end of April / beginning of May, it will technically run an OS dating back to June 2012, almost 1 year ago. When google will announce the new android version (Key Lime Pie?) during google io mid of May, suddenly the most recent galaxy will seem a bit outdated.
I don’t think mr Schiller would make silly speculations… this does seem to fit the man…
Apple , unlike android manufacturers, make it sure a new iPhone coincides with a new major IOS release…. that’s the beauty of controlling hardware and software, an advantage that seems to be forgotten by bloggers those days…
Another example is Tim Cook’s use of the phrase “the mother of all X”,
which he tends to do at least once a year in a conference call. It is
decade-old meme, that was popularized by a dictator. Why should
Apple associate itself with such a phrase?
Agree on both points:
1. Apple needs to more proactively define the narrative.
2. Stop with the over the top use of superlatives in Apple product launches and quarterly earnings reports. TC in particular needs to tone it down. You can lead in the direction you want them to go but they need to stop short of self anointing as the best, greatest, magical, incredible. That really doesn’t play well and feeds right into the Apple arrogance myth. No one wants to be force fed what their opinion should be, analysts and media in particular.
Nothing wrong with saying “we worked really hard on this product, we tried to fill a void we felt existed at the high end of the market for this type of product and we are pretty pleased with what we have come up with and we really hope our customers like it as much as we do.” Confident not cocky. Let the reporters, analysts and customers deal with the superlatives. Much more milage coming from them anyway.
As an aside, I admire Tim Cook quite a lot and think he is probably one of the brightest and hardest working CEO’s out there but the public gushing makes me cringe.
Apple needs another “snake oil anchor” for its next presentation than Tim Cook who repeat too much the same superlative.
Excellent history of the relationship between company PR and the media, and well-timed, too. Thanks!
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I wonder about the analysis of over-use of superlatives, though. In the post-Jobs era, Apple’s PR is well-served by showing continuity of the founder’s drive towards excellence, and it seems continuity of superlatives would be part of that. Certainly, if Cook adopted a tone more like, “well, the iPad mini is really just the same as the big iPad but a bit more portable,” alarms would ring all around the globe.
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Newspapers have to sell every day of the week and bloggers worry when their page views fall off in very short order; the way that SAI/BI has grabbed the flag and now leads on the “Apple is doomed” meme, is perhaps the best proof of how PR battles are fought with sticks and stones, and over nothing of interest outside of geekdom. Yes, the WSJ and NYT gratuitously pick up the stories, but even those premiere outlets are understood by readers to reflect ambulance chasing.
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The fact that the War of Words is superficial is perhaps seen best in contrasting the range of news that hit last week about Apple’s supposed #1 competitor, Google. Samsung’s embarragasm of non-Android features not-coincidentally followed the sudden “reassignment” of Mr. Rubin. Google’s Legal Department made Yet Another Meaningless Propagandistic Proposal best understood as a broadside against others’ attempts to enforce IP against Google, while justifying its own as self-defense. And Google showed through further limitations on its Reader service and support interfaces, that it is redoubling its efforts to assure profitability, not breadth of service. These moves are all more narrowly targeted but likewise speak volumes about Google’s need to re-focus its efforts, and the very modest successes they’ve had — in the case of Android, for YEARS.
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So eventually, the war of words is more a thermometer reading of companies’ perceptions of its health, than a very good measure of where the companies are going.
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PS: “fellatious” shows up some other places online and maybe that written form better captures your oral joke.
You seem to be dancing around the fact that the recent spate of articles about Apple’s perceived failings versus Samsung were clearly the product of Samsung’s marketing push leading up to its S4 announcement. What surprised me, though, is how it all landed with a thud at the actual event. You can, apparently, pay journalists at respected publications to write pretty much whatever you want, but putting on a good show is much more difficult.
Apple had a fans who would defend Apple for last 40 years.
Now Samsung and others have hired an Army of Trolls
who bad mouth use the following words.
“I love Apple products, I am fan of Steve Jobs, but”
This is all over the web. Now Apple fans nor Apple itself
can fight back against paid articles or shenanigans of CCTV
asking Celebrities to bad mouth Apple.
Even this faux pas won’t help Apple because they have no way
to say we are innocent little girl every one else being mean to us.
@Jean-Louis Gassée You know, I was wondering about the oral part of it but I figured you generally write G-rated so you couldn’t possibly have meant *that*. Gasp! Shock horror! Thanks for the clarification. Now it’s *really * amusing.
Yet another example of linkbait. I’m sure there are places in the world where Android dominates but not in Vancouver BC. The vast majority of phones that I see on the skytrain are different iterations of the iPhone.
The war of words is irrelevant. Here is a little bit of reality for you folks.
1. Apple has a dominant position in the smartphone market as far a profits are concerned.
2. Apple reports “sales” rather than just “shipped”. When something is reported by Apple as sold, it is sold a consumer.
3. Every new iPhone (regardless of model) ships with the latest version of iOS or can be easily upgraded to the latest version.
4. iOS 6.x has the largest install base of any smartphone on the planet.
If you are trying to decide whether to write software for the latest iOS or Android where you have to have the latest and greatest features in the OS, the choice is dead easy. Android is way too fragmented and few phones even sold today are going to be running the latest stable release of Android so you have to either compromise and use the lowest common denominator to target the maximum Total Addressable Market or chose the latest Android phone release and setting for a really small market.
With iOS, you don’t have to compromise. If you target the latest iOS then you are targeting the majority of the market.
@ Ari: You’re right on the facts. What I’m critical of is the way Apple lets others define it and show it as losing its footing. It’s the War of Words I’m converned about, the poor way in which Apple plays uts hand.
@ All: As it turns out, Philip Elmer-DeWitt penned a 2009 piece titled “Boiling Apple down to its adjectives” see http://j.mp/15UMVKs.
@ Laurent: I think 4.2.1 vs. 4.2.2 or the like isn’t the minor version difference Phil Sciller was criticizing when he used the words “nearly a year old”. In any event, in his prominent industry position, he shouldn’t have taken shots at an unannounced product. A) Let others do it and, B) Be patient. As it turns out not all reviews are enthusiastic. And, C) As a veteran of marketing wars, Phil Schiller ought to remember Word of Mouth is the most potent marketing weapon.
Yep. Dan Lyings has become the Android mouth organ. He has made a career of trying to be the worm in the Apple. In fact, he is just a simple parasite.
Lately, it’s become unfashionable to be an Apple fan. Leo Laporte surely liked Apple better when it was in the dumps. Andy Ihnatko dumped on Apple back in the nineties and today chides Apple fans as idiots. And they host MacBreak Weekly. Gives a new meaning to MacBreak.
In both cases, the letting go sees self serving. Remember Woody Allen’s joke that we shouldn’t knock bisexuality cus’ it doubles your chance for a date on Saturday night.
@ Steve: Nice (willful) typo
@Steve Lately said: “Lately, it’s become unfashionable to be an Apple fan”
That’s because Apple used to be innovators, now they’re just playing catch up. Great marketing and wordings can’t hide that fact very long. As people are getting used to using smartphones, they want to do more. Apple is not leading the pack anymore. Their closed system by definition will be their downfall. “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
JLG,
You’ve written some great lines, but this may be my favorite:
“In the interest of warding off accusations of a near-obsessive waste of energy…”
@ Walt French: Thanks, always a pleasure to read your comments on this and other (such as Asymco) sites.
You’re right about fellatious/fellacious, I hesitated between fallacy and… oral gratification.
Allow me to disagree (just a bit) re. superficiality: words matter, they shape thought and they reveal…
In any event, I’m riled because I see opportunities lost. Arrogance, ignorance, incompetence? What’s this Apple University heade by a Yale scholar for?
“Apple is Losing The War – Of Words”
Good headline. “Apple lose”, “Apple Fail”, Apple Done”, “Apple Gone”. These are the words that drive the TECH internet. These are the sweet words that bring the hater click$. The driving motor of the TECH Internet.
I presume you’re familiar with Orwell’s _Politics and the English Language_? http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/politics-and-the-english-language.htm
In any case, this was a particularly well-considered post. Thank you.
-Bill
whyd you only analyze apple…
Apple has used the superlatives for as long as I can remember. Unless there is a good reason not to, they should continue. One article, even by JLG rather than a WSJ or NYT hack makes no difference to anyone on the subject.
The reference to MacBreak Weekly is interesting, because I would argue that they are no more a representation of the Mac (or Apple) tribe than say, The New Yorker is.
Amusing. Android is “catching up”? Well, go back a year and that would have been correct. Though Samsung alone doesnt beat Apple products in sheer number of users, Android over all makers for phones DOES and separately ALSO does for tablets. Add to that the fact that Google Play Store now has more apps than the Apple App Store and you can see which way the tide has already turned. Oh, to be sure, Apple could turn that all around again by bringing out something wonderful like Iphone was when it first came out or Ipad was when it first came out but have you seen what Samsung has done on spec and it WORKS previewed at recent shows? Originally called OLED the name has changed but it is the next best thing when it hits the markets and rumour places that happening late 2013 though I am not going to put good money on that. A phone or pad or TV that you can roll into a cylinder or fold into a “wallet” that gives you HD video? That was science fiction only a few years back. It is reality now.
If Apple cannot beat Samsung to the market with a similar product or even better, do something BETTER than that, they are going the way of the old dinosaur, Microsoft. Plenty of money still to spend but on an ever shrinking income. My idea for you to kill Samsung off with a new brilliant idea, Apple? The holy grail of non-invasive telecommunication (eg, not an implant) – the use ANYWHERE under ANY light holographic projector that will fit in a pocket and still be useable. Sure – science fiction is all that is to the general public but go back to 1980 – mobile phones in your hand or in your purse that give you communication to most of the inhabited planet AND access to all the public knowledge you can handle? That was science fiction, too! 33 years into the future, will today’s holographic science fiction prop be that year’s “taken for granted” device?
Greg.
I agree with Walt French, the [over?]use of superlatives shows continuity and transcends Steve Jobs. And consumers need to dream (“amazing” is sexier than “$40 billions”).
Granted, Schiller made a faux pas, probably caused by few Apple fanboys (do we know where he got his wrong info from?), but that’s just a human mistake, not worth the polemic you may be unconsciously feeding.
War of words or a war of BS. Words don’t make great product, but Apple does.
No – Apple USED to make a GREAT product. It continues to make yesterday’s hero these days. That isnt to say it is bad, just showing its age lines.
The whole truth is that Google with Android is to Apple what Apple used to be to Microsoft. Apple is the old heavy hitter with a great record in its past but not so much in the future while Google’s Android is the rising star. Helped along by Samsung for one, who have taken over the role of “innovative” from Apple, Android is on a “cant lose” path when compared to Apple. That isnt to say that 5 years from now someone else wont take that title but for 2013, Samsung is the innovator building that reputation on the back of Google’s Android.
Agreer Apple’s PR is missing the point but if they remains true to their history and come up with some ground breaking new products with robust supply chain, their dominance with cult following is going to last very long – http://dearsrk.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/is-the-threat-of-apples-demise-real/
The person or thing that is getting most attention in a situation or activity.
Supervisor, Trainer, Author, Researcher
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You Apple fans are weird I mean really freakin weird. Samsung releases a phone and your whole world is turned upside down. What the hell is wrong with you people? Is apples positon as biggest smartphone maker really so important to you that you show your azz everytime a competing product is released? You people seriously need to live your lives and stop living it through apple it’s just bizzare the effet that company has on these losers.
@ ashback: You’re right, I dissect Apple more often than other companies. That said, please peruse past Monday Notes. I discuss Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, HP, Dell, RIM/Blackberry, AT&T, Verizon. Even Sprint…
Hi Jean-Louis,
What is the game? Some time ago I’ve been watching this and I wonder what is the goal? Someone (beyond the competence) has to have some kind of interest and benefit to all this, and I’m sure that money is the main. What are the ethical and legal implications of this game? Is this as a flaw in the system?
Maxz
@ All: On third thought, it now looks like the uptick in Apple shares, about 5%, isn’t at all a reaction to the S4 launch but to noise about a soon-to-be announced large(r) dividend.
That said, if the S4 had been viewed as a definite iPhone killer, AAPL might have suffered.
@JLG, perhaps this should go to MacObserver’s post titled, “Why 90% of everything you read about Apple is crap,” but the discussion there is utterly polluted so I turn to your concerns.
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In 2005, PLOS ran an essay titled, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.” (Ioannidis JPA (2005) PLoS Med 2(8): e124. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124)
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Without the least suggestion of ill will, Ioannidis identified how our efforts to understand the world fall short. Methinks the same is even more true for the less careful, less disinterested and more easily corrupted press that you & I read.
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Many good things came from that author’s work, but I can only see two lessons appropriate to the more rough-and-tumble world you describe:
1. Be skeptical. Subject everything you read to doubts about the author’s intent, biases & abilities; judge why the article appeared in the time/location it did. Use indications such as the long-term insights conferred by source of such stories as a way of picking apart how much a story matters. E.g., if Business Insider or Mr. Lyon is running with a theme, it could be true in a limited sense but not helpful in understanding anything other than their opportunism.
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2. Look for an asymmetric response to polluted communications channels. In the medical research context, it’s to create a model of what distinguishes strong, repeatable research from results that will be contradicted with enough time. Here, I think the only remedy for Apple is to stay focused on what it actually does best: identifying consumer needs and developing innovative solutions for them*. Amping up the shouting, as you say, is futile, and Apple is quite fortunate that the Samsung Unboxed date was so bad as to overpower the negative impact of Schiller’s gaffe; it’s not clear that the company really knows how to wage Google-class propaganda/PR campaigns—maybe nobody can stomach what it would take.
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* Yes, as your iPad story indicates, you & I may not really be the customers Apple is pursuing.
Jean-Louis,
Your comment about the S4 being the possible “Apple Killer”. You should see the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in action. It ALREADY does SO much more than any current Iphone on the market (March 19th, 2013) that if you consider the Iphone killed on that basis, it’s already “killed”. Now add the fact that the Google play store is larger than Apple App store and you can see that any app to make iPhone appear better also appears on Android.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was released last year and is better than any iPhone. The S4 actually doesnt add a heck of a lot more to the world than the Note 2 already has.
I guess it is all how you define the iPhone to be “killed” but the facts that still remain facts are:
1) The Galaxy Note 2 is faster than any iPhone as of today and does a whole lot more than any iPhone. Dont believe me. Go find comparisons on YouTube etc.
2) While the overall single company in the mobile phone and pad department is definitely Apple, the combined companies releasing phones and pads using Android actually beat Apple in either of those areas.
3) Android Play store has more apps than Apple App store.
What I see is a once GREAT innovator who started whole markets and has been roundly “copied” (as in makes it look like and act like without bringing into contention anything illegal) because of the innovations has decided to rest on its laurels and little by little is being dragged away from the top of the heap. Sure it has some space left to go before that happens but it is heading that way right now and has been for some few months at least. Apple probably have the rest of 2013 to save itself from slipping out of first place. If they bring out another killer idea, it is safe for now. If they bring out another iPhone much like any other iPhone or an iPad much like any other iPad, they lose. Apple simply cannot fathom a USB port in the iPad as being useful to date yet it is very much in use by me on my Asus Transformer Prime TF201 model. That is one little gripe a lot of people have that makes them want to look at the opposition.
So what does Apple have going for it? Its IOS is a LOT easier to use for every day citizens without any interest in learning much about the device other than how to use it. Android isnt hard to use per se but Apple is easier on the senses to figure out and then to set up for people with enough interest to do that then settle back and use it. That and its current market share, albeit shrinking, are what keeps it the top company in the field for now but it is definitely on the decline. Nevertheless, it is still my “in the field” feeling that when people who dont own a smart phone or pad decide to buy either, iPhone or iPad come up in their minds before anything else. That could easily change by smart marketing from Samsung et al.
Basically, this year it is better to sit back and “watch the skies”. If Apple make a great leap this year they stay in place. If they bring our yesterday’s hero in a new and lovely colour which is almost the feeling with iPhone 4 and 5 and iPad 2 and onwards, they lose. Time was when people used to queue for latest Windows releases. They have been known to queue for days for latest Apple releases (of either description). Now they are queueing for latest Samsung releases and the queue for the latest iPhone was noticeably smaller. If nothing else, those queues starting at Samsung (outside of Korea where they have been doing it before recently) and being less at new Apple releases says something that needs to be taken note of by Apple. However, will Apple innovate its way out of this or sue Samsung because Apple had release day queues before Samsung did?
Greg.
@Greg, I’ll note that you have chosen references that exist to exalt the Note2, not to dispassionately assess it.
.
Advocacy (whether for self-justification or commercial benefit) is one of the ways that we volunteer to fool ourselves most predictably. Ideally, review sites offset that tendency, at least a bit, but we all “know” sites that will predictably say good things about Brand X, so aren’t to be trusted as much as our own experience set.
.
Which gets us back to the same problem. Anyway, I did a quick scan thru Google and found,
.
“Browsing speed can be compared by JavaScript rendering performance in the SunSpider test, where a low number is better. Here the Samsung Galaxy Note II scored an average of 1022ms, a very good score. By comparison, the Galaxy S III scored 1447ms in the same test, and the iPhone 5 903ms.”
.
That is, the Note II was about 13% slower on browsing—in a test that predates the Android/Apple rivalry. The same PC Advisor posting cited a faster GeekBench score, but while I know what browsing complex websites means to my use, I have no idea what beneficial effects a good GeekBench score confers, other than bragging rights. So in at least one very important way, “The Galaxy Note 2 is faster than any iPhone as of today…” —your claim—is just bunk.
.
I think that’s a fair response to a post where Gassée set out to differentiate perceptions from reality, but you made some claims about reality quite independently of the concern for how we get news, and our oftentimes very selective rejection of stuff we don’t want to hear.
Walt,
I referred anyone wishing to look up anything to do with comparisons on the Galaxy Note 2 versus iPhone (at least 2 model iPhones have been used in comparison) to YouTube where tests have been done. On the other hand, if you wish, you can go to the search engine of your choise – I prefer Bing because I like to get back results I ask for and not Google where I can get back results I didnt ask for – and you can look them up for yourself.
What is it wrong with today’s society where, when wishing to disprove something someone says, they expect the person having said something to also provide links to everything. Eg, I say “I like red” so I have to supply links to prove that? Why dont you take the time to extend yourself to proving or disproving on YouTube, what I said and then you can provide links to ME. After all, I made the contention and you have chosen to throw a bad light on it so it is up to YOU to disprove.
I can say all that above or I can say:
“I’ll note that you have chosen to supply no references that may exist to disprove my ‘exaltation’ the Note2, not to dispassionately assess my point.”.
If you disagree with what I say, you are more than welcome to do that but if you wish me to provide links to sites to prove that your contention is wrong, you are driving the car backwards!
What I read of this was over analytical garbage. You are right, this off hand comment by Schiller will be forgotten in a second, but I can never forget about the time I lost falling asleep reading this article. Please can we write about something interesting and useful?
“When words become empty, the listener loses faith in the speaker.” Correct, my friend, sadly the speaker is you and I can’t help but feel this is a little biased toward “The Man.” Both sides (all sides?) throw stones at one another and if you think the tech giants are losing face because of simple off hand comments then you need to take a hard look at more glaring examples. You claim Apple is going the way of Microsoft… can you honestly say this and compare Schiller’s comment to Steve Ballmer’s loud mouth and consistent bashing of Apple and their products? Now, there you have a story about words. Ballmer is an idiot, never before has the face of a company done so poorly as an ambassador to the consumer. His behaviour and his comments reflect poorly on his company because they are overtly negative and attempt to incite some type of response. Phil Schiller? C’mon he’s kind of a goof and couldn’t on his worse day even come close to kind of childish banter Ballmer spews from his giant egg head.
You want to write an article about words – do your research and find words that actually influence the consumer – the purchasing public – on the matter.
I was reminded reading this of the ‘incredible, amazing’ video of way back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw
(Hope this wasn’t refereed to in the long text and missed by speed-read me
When I saw “Apple has lost control of he narrative” I had expected something different to what actually followed.
In my mind every few years Jobs would pop up with his, Apple’s, take on the future direction and focus of IT. Sometimes wishful thinking. Sometimes insightful prophecy. What usually followed were products both hardware and software that attempted to fulfil the Jobs vision, not always successfully as we well know.
In his last years and since his passing on the vision statement has been woefully lacking. We get things like ‘Apple TV is a hobby we are very interested in’ which leaves much to be desired as a vision for consumption of interactive media, combined with household automation. it is left to others to speculate on the Apple vision based on the tsunami of patent applications that Apple has filed.
I doubt that Ives is a visionary. Rather he is a great interpreter of ‘vision’. If this is correct then Apple doesn’t have a narrator at all as Cook and Schiller are nuts and bolts fixers, good at making cost efficient deals.
Maybe a Rubin, or a Sinofsky, can fit the bill. But Cook clearly needs someone who can make the industry, the commentators, the analysts, the media sit up and wonder where Apple is taking the grand ideas. That would be taking control of the narrative?
@ Tony Crooks: You’re right, a war, any war, military or commercial, needs a Chief Ideologue and, then, a platoon of storytellers. Jobs, by instinct supplemented by painful experience, was the ideologue. Bezos for Amazon. Warren Buffet, Tony Hsieh at Zappos, Zuckerberg…
Perhaps the best term for the “language molestation” would be Apperbole.
Steve could get away with it, but Cap’n Cook and Co. can’t.
@ Don O’Shea: Apperbole. Splendid, I’m jealous
Good point about the endless repetition of superlatives.
It’s bugged me for a while. Somehow, Apple fans seem delighted to see “super cuts” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BETSuT2RNLs
Yuck.
Now that Apple has competition, I applaud it for hitting harder at the opposition.
Apple’s marketing has been superb. But it did not previously have a target.
Now is the time for another Get a Mac-style campaign to strike at the opposition. Hit hard and then hit harder.
JLG – a serious terminological error, and from a Frenchman too.
A fellacious piece actually refers to an untalented fellatrice.
Good article though and Apple needs to find its mojo again.
@ chano: This was an attempt (not so successful) to combine fallacy, bad writing, and paid-for, overly flattering article, often called “oral gratification” by other journos…
Well – Schiller might be absolutely clueless on how to wage a propaganda war; but at least he tried, right. He jumped right in, which is just the way he is. He never has been afraid of embarrassment.
I think you’re spot on in your analysis; I also think Jobs may have scoffed at the very idea that they’d need a propaganda team at Apple – it’s normal for the propaganda team to say that there is no propaganda team; maybe the other Apple execs fell for it. Jobs was pretty convincing after all. It’s not even that he lied – it’s just the way he was; he was a propaganda team, he couldn’t help it.
The thing I disagree with here is that Apple is The Man.
We are told that market share is what makes you The Man, and Apple’s share price should fall because they don’t have overwhelming market share. Can’t have it both ways. Apple leads in profit share, sure, but they also led the PC industry in profit share for years and it never really counted. They led the PC industry in profits during the Get a Mac campaign also.
Samsung has 20 years more phone market experience than Apple. Samsung sells in double the locations as Apple. Samsung manufactures phone components. Apple is the upstart challenger in phones. iPhone is the disruptive upstart challenger in the phone market, not the incumbent.
The iPad is also an upstart challenger. It is Apple’s first low-end PC and first tablet PC — both 20+ year old markets that Apple has been a part of for only 3 years since 2010.
Apple doesn’t participate in Generic. They may always be seen as the upstart because they chart their own path, they don’t move with the herd. There are articles being written in major papers today calling Samsung a disruptor, painting Apple as a stodgy old grey beard, one step short of crediting Samsung for inventing the iPhone.
So I say: bring it, Apple. Let Samsung and BlackBerry and Nokia and others with decades more experience in phones have it with both marketing barrels. Users need to know they get much more done with an iPhone with much less tech and training overhead. Same story as ever.
@ Hamranhansenhansen: You’re right: “Users need to know they get much more done with an iPhone with much less tech and training overhead. Same story as ever.” That’s sound marketing. My point is it can/must be done without looking defensive. And the harshest messages, as well as the strongest praise, must come through third parties, “arranged” or not.
Apple and Public Relations-The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost
BY ADMIN ON MARCH 18, 2013 ·
Http://leonardSipes.Com and Http://MyLifeAudio.Com
As I sit here I notice that my Apple stock keeps falling.
As I listen to my tech podcasts I hear hosts lambast Apple as a company that has lost its edge. One went so far as to recently proclaim, “Die Apple, die.”
Listening to a variety of podcasts and reading tech-related journalists I’ve come to find that they’ve been punished by Apple in the past for negative views or caustic comments.
As a result, they were not invited to Apple events. They don’t get interviews with Apple executives. They don’t get access to new products before they hit the street.
Apple is legendary as to product secrets (necessary for the industry) and not answering questions. They are not transparent.
When Steve Jobs was alive his nasty replies and e-mails to detractors were legendary.
And now there is a backlash. More and more I hear instances of Apple bashing.
There are repercussions for bad or perceived arrogant behavior.
Apple confused many of us in PR:
I type this on my MacBook Pro. While commuting to D.C. I listen to my iPod touch (one of the great inventions of our time) and talk to my wife on her iPhone. We both agree that our next desktop will be a Mac. We made these decisions based on the legendary reliability, simplicity and outstanding service offered by Apple.
But when I teach public relations and answer PR questions I encounter people who considered Apple a marketing mastermind.
People make the mistake of seeing successful people or concepts and think they can and should emulate them. Without context, that’s a very big mistake.
The rules of engagement:
The media has rules of engagement. They know that some politicians will stretch the truth to the breaking point (but that’s what some politicians do). Reporters don’t go for the jugular; they expect a level of opinion-based information.
There are people and organizations get passes by the media; let’s just admit that Apple got favorable consideration in the past. Media celebrated the genius of Apple.
When Steve Jobs was alive Apple didn’t do focus groups. In fact, one commentator stated that the day Apple does focus groups; Apple would cease to be Apple.
Really? You don’t listen to your customers? You create products or services based solely on your perception as to what people want?
Let’s apply that principle to our Presidents. “I know what the people want,” states President X. “Just let me decide. Please shut up and stay out-of-the-way.”
“Hell, the people don’t know what they want anyway.”
Steve Jobs was so paranoid of media that he handpicked favorite mainstream reporters and barred anyone from Apple events that dared to say anything negative. He avoided most tech reporters.
Flat-out wrong:
But anyone claiming Jobs or Apple to be a marketing genius is flat-out wrong. He did a lot of things that would get just about anyone else fired or his company or agency pilloried by the press.
There are politicians who stretch the truth. There are sports and entertainment figures who can say the silliest things. All escape harsh media repercussions because, quite frankly, the expectations are low.
When your child spends the day playing with his iPad and your husband spends his evening editing family video on a Mac and when your iPhone gets you to your destination (not so much lately) you as a mainstream reporter tend to give Apple a pass.
Now all that seems to becoming to an end.
But for the rest of us:
But for the rest of us, we had dammed better listen to our customers and take the time to interact with them respectfully.
We must respect the press and treat all fairly. It’s professional death not to.
We live in a world where media and social media define who we are.
Steve Jobs and Apple have a huge impact on our lives and we should be endlessly grateful for their contributions.
But for those representing government, associations, nonprofits and companies, the PR legacy of Apple should not be emulated.
One day when you stumble, your legacy will catch up to you. You may not like the results.
Best, Len.
If you like this article, please comment, share or follow. Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/LeonardSipes
http://elliotjaystocks.com
@JLG – Pardon the off-topic question, but David Boies was on Meet the Press this AM. With as much remove as there’s been since the antitrust case, I’m reminded to ask you:
How much time would you say we’ve “lost” due to strong-arm tactics some companies — one, at least — took to prevent OEMs from bundling more modern OSs like Be with the hardware of the day 15-20 years ago?
Next / OSX has worked out well; hypotheses indicate we’d be further along, still, if there was more pressure to advance, especially in the wider ecosystem.
Hey! I just saw one other message in one other blog that appeared
like this. How do you know all this stuff?
That’s one cool post.
>Because of its position at the top,
Im sorry but where is Apple first in mobile biz?
Most used OS?
Most popular phone?
The first we know is a landslide because of sheer numbers of companies vs one but Im sure I read that Samsung sold about 220 million smartphones in total vs about 137 million for Apples.
“Years ago, it could productively poke fun at Microsoft in the great I’m a Mac, You’re a PC campaign, but the days of taking potshots at the incumbent are over.
Nope, insulting potential customers was never a good idea and those ads were some of the worst for building new customers. I know I stayed away from Macs for years because of them. It was clear that Apple didn’t want me, a PC user, using their computers… so I didn’t.
Worst. Advertisement. Ever.
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