

Why the Apple phone will fail, and fail badly (2006) - stephenc_c_
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/23/iphone_will_fail/

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dottrap
There's an irony or perverse incentive here.

The more wrong the article is, the more likely it will be remembered and
pointed to through time. This means an article like this will continue to make
more ad revenue than a peer that was correct in its predictions.

Journalists and pundits are never punished for getting stuff wrong. (Look at
the 90% percent of them that didn't see the housing crash coming in 2008.)

The lesson seems to be to make the most outrageous and wrong claims possible
to be click-bait for both the short term and long haul.

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yalogin
The register is popular because of its sarcastic wit and tries to position
itself as s ring through the fog. This is just a writer confusing sarcasm and
ridiculing apple fans as analysis and opinion. The fact he calls people
discussing how much they love the packaging "sickening" tells everything we
need to know.

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smt88
You can go back and find posts that aggressively argue that any new technology
will succeed or fail.

Right now, you can find people saying that Tesla has a bright future or that
it's going down the toilet. Extreme viewpoints get clicks, especially when
they're contrary to popular opinion (like OP).

~~~
melling
Yeah, it's almost like it's a complete waste of time to even enter the debate.
Still we do it every day all over the Internet.

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PhantomGremlin
The article got a lot right, but also got a lot wrong. IMO here's what he (and
many other pundits) got the most wrong:

    
    
       Mobile phones are not complex to use because
       of bad interface design, they are complex to
       use because they are complex devices with
       a myriad of features.
    

No, it really _was_ "bad interface design". In spades.

