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Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

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21–30 of 342 posts

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#21

Lot of nitpicks and to be expected framing/number fudging by Steve, but straight up misquoting the Samsung rep was very odd. That had been widely corrected, so either Apple did not research their presentation (unlikely) or just knowingly lied (yuck).

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

How much stupidity do you think is involved when billions of dollars are on the line?

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#22
Somebody rebutted the points in one of the comments: none of the dual-core are really shipping over 100 000 a month (threshold for volume considering iPad ships 1,000,000 per month); Samsung admitted miscalculating their end-sales; iPad 2 has some intense minitiarisation, which as with other 'features/improvements' doesn't come free; Apple bore the entire cost of developing the OS themselves; Kindles, Nooks etc. aren't tablets. Not sure if his/her points were sound, just reporting them.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#23
post #17

Since when is it not okay for a company the emphasize the pluses over the competition and leave out what's not so good. This is common practice. If you want a full comparison, you have to do it yourself or use independent tests. I always rely on my own tests, if possible. Mr. Job's keynotes are rhetorically first class and most people can't wait to get hands on the products after they have seen the show. This is no r…

Just emphasizing is not a big deal. Giving numbers that are outright wrong is a problem.

This is common practice.

"Everyone does that" is no excuse.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#24
post #8

Completely agree. I'm not exactly an apple fanboy, but I do love my iPad, and there isn't yet a competitor's device I'd want to replace it with (although I'm hoping BlackBerry's will change that). If he had come out and given all the ways that the iPad 2 is better than the iPad, I'd have been impressed. But spending half the time criticising competitors just came across as the kind of tacky tactic that really shouldn…

I agree that it seems negative and I'd rather he didn't do it, but I can see why he does. There are plenty of even less accurate commentators who are prepared to make analyses of the situation that are unfavorable to Apple. Most people don't take the time to critically analyze the 'news' they hear and are actually influenced by this stuff. Apple needs to at least state their viewpoint so that it is out there alongside the criticism, and maybe it's better for it to come in this form than in their marketing materials.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#25
post #8

Completely agree. I'm not exactly an apple fanboy, but I do love my iPad, and there isn't yet a competitor's device I'd want to replace it with (although I'm hoping BlackBerry's will change that). If he had come out and given all the ways that the iPad 2 is better than the iPad, I'd have been impressed. But spending half the time criticising competitors just came across as the kind of tacky tactic that really shouldn…

I actually see his assertiveness as a sign of how much Jobs respects the potential of his competitors and the ruthlessness with which the market will walk away from his company's products if he doesn't sell, and just how much obligation he has to employees who sacrifice so much to make it look like magic.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#26
post #5

I'm curious if specs in mobile devices have become less important when the device is only supposed to do more or less what it's advertised to doand what the user bought it to do, and not much else. Apple advertises all the apps that work on the iOS line of devices, but these apps are (should be) designed to fit "inside the box" of functionality on the device. Android seems to take a different philosophical approach w…

I'm not sure I buy it, or at least that reasoning doesn't match Apple's apparent position on this. For example, at the iPhone 4 launch, the retinal display was the big topic. It would seem hard for them to then turn around and say that the better resolution of the XOOM is irrelevant.

This is the first product version launch I can remember where Apple wasn't on the leading edge in terms of specs. If they launched months after the XOOM and are as far behind spec-wise as the article suggests, that seems like a big win for the XOOM (even though specs obviously probably aren't the most important factor for most potential customers).

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a large one, I'd imagine. The Nook and Kindle are a pretty far cry from the iPad in terms of capability. To me it seems like it's a very close parallel to a smart phone vs. a feature phone.

So you're saying the iPad has sold more than 90% of all devices that are like iPads? Seems verging on tautological to me.

I'm pretty sure there's room for a distinction between iPad-style media/web tablets and the simpler "reader" type ones like the Kindle and Nook.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#28

Lot of nitpicks and to be expected framing/number fudging by Steve, but straight up misquoting the Samsung rep was very odd. That had been widely corrected, so either Apple did not research their presentation (unlikely) or just knowingly lied (yuck).

Apple's misquote was probably more truthful than the actual quote.

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#29
post #23
post #17

Since when is it not okay for a company the emphasize the pluses over the competition and leave out what's not so good. This is common practice. If you want a full comparison, you have to do it yourself or use independent tests. I always rely on my own tests, if possible. Mr. Job's keynotes are rhetorically first class and most people can't wait to get hands on the products after they have seen the show. This is no r…

Just emphasizing is not a big deal. Giving numbers that are outright wrong is a problem. This is common practice. "Everyone does that" is no excuse.

Which numbers were outright wrong?

Re: Steve Jobs' reality distortion takes its toll on truth

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ESL was the real culprit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_w0mcDayI

How did anyone get "small" from that? Sounded pretty clear to me. I'm a native English speaker, and do not speak or understand any other languages.

I can sort of see it. Smooth is a bit of a strange word choice. And in context she was trying to say sales were OK but not blockbuster, so small was primed in the listener's head. Especially in a blink and you'll miss it sale call. Of course, reporters should have double checked the recording, but that is understandably difficult to do in the current fast paced tech news landscape.
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