
Apple is losing the war of words - mitmads
http://www.mondaynote.com/2013/03/17/apple-is-losing-the-war-of-words/
======
cageface
Apple isn't losing a war of words, it's getting its ass kicked in software.
Just about everybody agrees that Android is now evolving faster than iOS. Many
of their recent app releases have been mediocre or downright bad, and they
still haven't really figured out how to run robust and reliable cloud
services. Crucial new iOS APIs like AutoLayout are an absolute design-by-
committee trainwreck.

Their hardware is still excellent if perhaps too conservative but I'm bearish
on Apple mainly because I just don't see any evidence of the kind of software
engineering discipline that's necessary to compete with Google.

~~~
rimantas

      > Just about everybody agrees that Android is now evolving
      > faster than iOS
    

I don't. But with some selective picking you can argue anything you want.

    
    
      > Many of their recent app releases have been mediocre or downright bad,
    

Like? Maps,and… maps? And even maps are OK.

    
    
      > and they still haven't really figured out how to run robust and
      > reliable cloud services
    

iCloud works just fine.

    
    
      > Crucial new iOS APIs like AutoLayout are an absolute
      > design-by-committee trainwreck
    

Since when AutoLayout is crucial? And what makes it trainwreck?

    
    
      > but I'm bearish on Apple mainly because I just don't see any evidence
      > of the kind of software engineering discipline that's necessary to compete with Google
    

You just hate Apple, I was able to guess the author of the comment without
looking at the name. And Apple competes with Google just fine.

~~~
cageface
I actually really like Apple's hardware and their core frameworks + Cocoa are
mostly excellent. But I see bad policies and bad management steering the
company in exactly the wrong direction so I speak up about it instead of
dogmatically defending them at every turn.

------
moizk
Bullshit.

In Google's Q4 2012:

Amazing: 8

Strong: 10

Thrilled: 1

Focused: 9

Great: 32

China: 6

"Sad Words"

Disappoint: 0

Weak: 0

Bad: 2 (in context, they said, "not bad")

Fail: 0

[http://seekingalpha.com/article/1126031-google-s-ceo-
discuss...](http://seekingalpha.com/article/1126031-google-s-ceo-
discusses-q4-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single)

The entire point of an earning call is to reassure the shareholders and raise
the markets confidence in a companies' potential.

It would be very strange if a company spent the majority of their earnings
calls pointing out their failures and avoiding talking about their success.

~~~
ruswick
He specifically accounts for this by stating that Apple is and ought to be
held to a higher standard because they were previously the overwhelming
hegemon in the industry. I don't necessarily agree with him, but the fact that
Google also uses exclusively positive languages does not by itself invalidate
his point. What he is attempting to point out is that Apple, who is now
ostensibly under siege and on the defensive (which, although probably true, is
being overrepresented and exaggerated by the media) seems illegitimate and or
disingenuous when they remain so overwhelmingly positive: the whole world
"knows" that they're screwed and their language seems like a facade. Google
and Samsung, on the other hand, are the new dominant companies and thus are
justified in using such language.

~~~
erichocean
Google is exactly "the overwhelming hegemon in the industry" that is "search".

If you think that's enough of a reason to constraint Apple, surely it should
also be enough to constrain Google by the same logic.

------
blinkingled
_Attacking competitors, pointing to their weaknesses, and trumpeting one’s
achievements is better done by hired media assassins._

If you read Gruber's blog it is very hard to dispel that this is mostly what
he does.

~~~
dombili
Really? I think he's mostly being fair and he can be very critical of Apple
from time to time. Most recent example of this that comes to mind is his
latest podcast (may be the one before that, not sure). The whole podcast is
about Apple's mistakes/problems.

MG Siegler on the hand...

~~~
ghshephard
...just wrote a column saying the (edit: not Galaxy, just plain Nexus, thanks
acchow) Nexus was a phone he would be fine using on a regular basis.

<http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/08/nexus-4-review-finally/>

~~~
acchow
That article never once mentions the Galaxy Nexus. You must have your phones
mixed up.

------
jrockway
The point about Apple being "the Man" is interesting. Reading comments here,
it seems that everyone hates every company these days, often irrationally. Are
there any companies that anyone likes, or has the written word devolved to
only be able to share negative opinions?

~~~
josteink
I dislike and refuse to support any Apple product because they want to take
away my option to choose what I want in a free market. Their frivolous,
anticompetitive and innovation-stiffling lawsuits have cost them all
credibility as a real tech company. They are now no better than a patent
troll.

They have absolutely zero cool.

That and I don't appreciate locked in ecosystems. Plus iOS has been a daft,
stale platform for the last 3 years or more.

~~~
rimantas
Your comment is a perfect example of irrational hate based on flawed
arguments.

~~~
josteink
Irrational how? I value freedom. Apple wants to take my freedom away.

If the argument is flawed, you have yet to provide a single example to show
that.

------
philwelch
You have to laugh a little at Jean-Louis Gassée, of all people, criticizing
how Apple is running their business.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Your logical fallacy is: Ad Hominem. <https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-
hominem>

~~~
fusiongyro
Doesn't there have to be a logical argument for there to be a logical fallacy?

Can't speak for Phil, but I did come here simply to point out that the article
comes off a little strange with JLG trying to sound like an outsider while
talking about a company he worked at for over a decade, and in an executive
capacity. It was twenty years ago, and by bringing it up I don't mean to imply
a problem with what he's saying (I agree with it), I just wonder if he is a
household name and this is considered common knowledge, or if anyone else
thought it was an interesting omission.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> Doesn't there have to be a logical argument for there to be a logical
> fallacy?

Well no. In fact they're opposites.

~~~
fusiongyro
You're exhaustingly unpleasant to converse with.

------
thisrod
"a _fellacious_ piece that described, in dulcet tones ..."

More likely freudian slip than inspired coinage, but it's a word English could
use.

~~~
philwelch
It makes more sense reading it as intentional.

------
JumpCrisscross
Earnings calls and earnings press releases have an optimistic bias. Technology
companies tend to be more zealous still. The experiment in the blog, while
illustrative, could have been made more rigorous with a control.

A 2006 paper out of the St. Louis Fed investigated "whether managers use[d]
optimistic and pessimistic language in earnings press releases" between 1988
and 2003 "and whether the market respond[ed] to" this variation [1]. It found
an optimistic bias, with optimistic words appearing nearly three times as
frequently as pessimistic words.

Given that "levels of optimistic and pessimistic language used by managers in
earnings press releases reliably predict future firm performance" and the
"significant market response" to this variation, investors believe "that
managers credibly communicate information to investors via optimistic and
pessimistic language usage". But the market is Bayesian; "managers have
reputations" that investors use as their baseline.

[1] <http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2006/2006-005.pdf>

------
orbitur
Slightly related:

I think the "You'll love the iPhone..." campaign Apple _just_ launched is a
little tacky, and un-Apple-like. It reads like one of their Valentine's Day or
Back to School ads... except there's no holiday or event to back it up.

Except, of course, it coincides with the S4 reveal. Even if unintentional,
it's poorly timed.

------
zipop
Gassée: still bitter after all these years.

~~~
cygwin98
I always wonder though what if Jean-Louis Gassée and his BeOS won the deal
(instead of Jobs and NeXT) in late 90's, what kind of Apple computer would
have become? No doubt he is very capable, though I wouldn't bet on him myself.

~~~
MaysonL
Suppose that instead Microsoft had ended up buying NeXT...

~~~
fusiongyro
OPENSTEP Enterprise ran on Windows NT. It's an interesting thought experiment.

------
mitmads
Did you guys notice the author of the article? He has a strong connection with
Apple/Jobs - [https://www.smalldemons.com/persons/business_leaders/Jean-
Lo...](https://www.smalldemons.com/persons/business_leaders/Jean-
Louis_Gass%C3%A9e/see_all/Mentioned_In__1__Books)

------
sippndipp
Good article, good analysis of how the words are used in the press releases.
Thus I won't agree with the intro. Google I/O is coming up and will probably
bring up an update to the Android system. If this happens - the Galaxy S4 will
have to wait.

------
ChuckMcM
About the only thing I agree with in the article is that Schiller going on the
record of criticizing Samsung the day before their announcement was an error.
It seems to me that the day before the cards are set, just let hand play out
and _then_ go and update your messaging.

------
jsz0
Apple has done very well so what else are they going to say on the earnings
calls? They could consult a thesaurus and come up with some less commonly used
words but that comes off as snobby and unnecessary.

------
drivebyacct2
Phil Schiller needs to shut up about Android. "Desperate" doesn't come close
to describing what he's sounded like in the last week alone.

