The Apple Polishers – Explaining the press corps’ crush on Steve Jobs and company. By Jack Shafer
I don’t hate Apple. I don’t even hate Apple-lovers. I do, however, possess deep odium for the legions of Apple polishers in the press corps who salute every shiny gadget the company parades through downtown Cupertino as if they were members of the Supreme Soviet viewing the latest ICBMs at the May Day parade.
The Apple polishers buffed and shined this morning in response to yesterday’s Steve Jobs-led introduction of the new video iPod. The headlines captured their usual adoration for the computer company: “Apple Scores One Against Microsoft In Video Battle” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer); “Video iPod Premieres in Apple’s Latest Showcase of Dazzling New Gadgets” (San Francisco Chronicle); “iPod Evolves from Sound to Sight”) (Detroit Free Press); “The Video iPod: It Rocks” (Fortune); “Apple Seeds New Markets With Video Version of iPod” (Globe and Mail).
I couldn’t agree more with this article. These writers should be ashamed of themselves.
John you should know by now that unless you’re 100% in favor of Apple the Apple-heads will be 100% against you. Even the smallest hesitation in praising Apple will get death threats. These guys aren’t concerned with shame, they’re too concerned with their lives!
Hang on a minute dude. I respect your opinion greatly, In fact I only bother listening to the clique-fest which is TWiT if you’re on it because the other guys are even more cliquey then Adam Curry. BUT. Isn’t it about time Apple fans HAD something to shout about, after all those years in the wilderness? Having to sit back and wait for Apple to get their act together and realise we’d all be better off using Intel chips was painful.
Similarly, there’s no way I’m going to sit back and make out that the iPod Video isn’t as cool as it is, just so I don’t get accused of crowing about it.
I too am a little skeptical of the whole Apple bandwagon. Apple has done amazing job with its branding and the loyalty that accompanies that. But its actual innovation in providing a digital lifestyle is actually a little stifling if one takes a hard look at the precedent they are trying to setup.
While it has been difficult I have resisted the urge to splurge on an iPod simply because in 5 years when high bandwidths are widely accessible there won’t be a need for storage anymore…like cellphones (only better) we’ll have everything we need available to us (hopefully in one device and with a choice of services).
When I saw the new ipod, I was impressed, but mostly with the fact that it is going to be the first portable format with legitimate downloads of television content. Being able to download episodes of “Lost” and “Housewives” the day after they air is going to be a big selling point, even if it is only those two shows- right now. If Apple can convince other channels to hook up with their program, and nobody gets greedy, it could be a win-win-win situation: Apple would be the only company to offer a video player with that type of content available and for that low of a price, the television execs would see incresed sales of both the individual shows and the DVDs (most likely), and of course we consumers get something that should have been offered to us already.
I am just a little disappointed however by the design on the new pod. If they really wanted to make the big buck, they would have formatted it horizontally, with a larger, wider screen, and the click wheel off the side, along the lines of other video-players and the PSP. And perhaps, if they were to put a bigger battery in for a longer play time, they could have compensated for the thickness by making it taper at the edges like the new iMac. The headphone and firewire ports could have stayed where they were, and when you weren’t watching video, the screen could switch to a vertical display so that it could be held like other iPods. That would be a far more appealing product.
I, for one, am a bit outraged at the new iPod. not so much the RELEASE of the ipod…but the REPLACEMENT in the ipod line-up. there is no more audio-only high-capacity digital music player…now if i want a brand new ipod over 4gigs, i’m going to have to get one with video capabilities i’ll probably never use. nobody seems to be talking about THAT.
I admit I’m writing this on a Mac, but I never understood the iPod fanaticism. If you want a lot of responses in a forum thread just mention iPod and the sparks will fly. Few people want to admit that it’s as much as a fashion accessory as a music/video player.
It is easy to complain about something.. how about offering suggestions for improvement… I think that apple releasing a video ipod is news… What should the headline for the article read…
I agree that some of the examples were bad…
“Apple Scores One Against Microsoft In Video Battle” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer); “Video iPod Premieres in Apple’s Latest Showcase of Dazzling New Gadgets” (San Francisco Chronicle);
but what is wrong with:
“iPod Evolves from Sound to Sight”) (Detroit Free Press); “The Video iPod: It Rocks” (Fortune); “Apple Seeds New Markets With Video Version of iPod” (Globe and Mail).
sure it rocks might be a little over the top, but perhaps they were looking for a catch headline…
How much of the headlines are also driven more by google news than trying to play the apple favorite? Do you really think all the writes are bad in the above articles.. seems to be jumping the gun… Apple does have quite a bit of marketshare in the digital audio portable music player category… If anyone thinks that the video ipod won’t be a big hit… they probably should not buy or sell stocks..
Nice touch that they lead-off with links to the “iPod-ready” version of the story. 🙂
Being a Mac user since the original 128k does keep me with agreeing with the disgust at so much of the media acting like Steve’s lap-dogs.
One thing I disagree with is:
“But reality distortion doesn’t account for how Apple has captured 74 percent of a market it didn’t invent with a device it didn’t engineer single-handedly. It was Apple’s good luck to develop and improve its player during the period that Sony, the previous king of portable entertainment, acted like a music company eager to discourage the spread of MP3s rather than a hardware company keen on developing the replacement for the Walkman.”
From the wikipedia entry on iTunes history:
“iTunes was developed from SoundJam MP, a popular commercial MP3 application distributed by the Macintosh software company Casady & Greene. Apple purchased the rights to the SoundJam MP software and hired the three programmers who created SoundJam. The first release of iTunes was very similar to SoundJam MP with the addition of CD burning and a makeover of the user interface. Apple has added a number of significant features in subsequent versions of iTunes”
Apple’s success in obtaining 74% of the market is not due to the iPod, or iTunes, or iTMS – it is the combination of all three which competitors have yet to match – and why all “iPod killers” have failed. They have only attacked one head of the three-headed beast.
Call it blind loyalism, but what Apple is bringing to the table that NO other player has is a business model and a way to deliver content that even my grandmother could figure out. The $1.99 iTunes price is perfect for TV shows and it puts money immediately into the pockets of the content developers. Think about it – how do you get a video into an iRiver? Either RIP a DVD (not easy for the layperson) or download it illegally (again, not something the layperson is going to figure out) or get whatever free video content is out there – which is not much.
Why do you think Apple waited this long on releasing the player? They needed the content backing, or at least a start, and offering ABC shows will just be the start for all the other studios to jump on board.
It’s kinda ironic that the article can be downloaded as a iPod-ready podcast…
I dunno…I mean, yeah, there is a LOT of that dreamy-eyed talk about Apple, and some of it comes from these “authors”…but there is a qualitative difference across the board with Apple’s “Dazzling Gadgets” when it comes to the larger gizmo world. Apple routinely and consistenty delivers things that, even when they are not technologically that far ahead, captivate those who try them. Apple has an almost Willie Wonka power over people. That is something earned by Apple designers and Apple’s team of interface builders and these writers are doing what writers do. They are writing for the audience…THEIR audience in this case. They are capturing that generalized thing that Apple can claim as its own and celebrating it with those who enjoy that phenomenon.
I don’t hold it against the hardcore Apple fans (they SHOULD go nuts) and I don’t hold it against the writers who are covering this much the way one covers any other popularized event. In the end, there ARE legions of writers lined up to hate Apple or to show that some other device is superior. Those writers and the apple-polishing ones are not trying to write the same kind of articles. Not to borrow a sentiment, but…get over it.
As for those who just hate Apple…I never got that. Who cares what someone else adores or even just uses. In the case of Apple especially, it really doesn’t have much to do with the price of tea in China.
Give it a rest. There’s nothing wrong with any of those headlines.
“Apple Scores One Against Microsoft In Video Battle” – Is Apple’s gadget superior? If writer thinks so, headline is justified.
“Video iPod Premieres in Apple’s Latest Showcase of Dazzling New Gadgets” – I can only assume the complaint is against “Dazzling.” The definition of dazzling is “To dim the vision of, especially to blind with intense light.” Sounds right to me.
“iPod Evolves from Sound to Sight” – I can’t even imagine what you find wrong with this one. It’s a simple statement of fact.
“The Video iPod: It Rocks” – Simple opinion. They seem to like the product.
“Apple Seeds New Markets With Video Version of iPod” – Has Apple moved into new markets? The answer is a resounding yes.
In short, you both have allowed some sort of hate-on to cause you to see red in headlines that are pretty simple. Shame on you both.
would you be ashamed of: “iPod Mania About to Begin”
It is kind of tiring to hear that the latest Apple gadget gets these kind of headlines when their market share for portable products isn’t really that big, although it is bigger than their computer market share.
Yes, they have 80% of the portable market. But the market is so new that it only represents 15% of potential buyers.
I live in Chicago and I am not a Cub fan for this same reason. I can not get on the band wagon just because it is cool.
Mike
The two lines above the actual article explain it all:
“Download the iPod-ready audio version of this story here, or sign up to get all of Slate’s free daily podcasts.”
Why does Apple get so much attention? Because they’ve positioned themselves as a part of our culture, instead of just another hardware or software vendor.
They maximize on every possible point of customer interaction, which is what sets them apart from the competition. From their boxes to their product release events.. they pay attention to every last detail. Although I don’ t own an iPod (or any MP3 player), I’ll take a company that worries about details over one that doesn’t any day of the week.
The Tao of Dvorak: When readership is down, write a column questioning Apple.
You sir are a master.
(And to be on topic, why would I watch anything, from Desperate Housewives to Monday Night Football, on an iPod when I can watch it in HDTV? The Video iPod is one step in the wrong direction down the technology everywhere path.)
I had one of those small TVs in the eightys. Watching a 2.5×3 screen sounds more cool then it looks.
You just have to realise the fact that Apple doesn’t have users, it has fans. Some of those fans are journalists.
When Apple launched the “Think Different” advertising campaign a few years ago the next issue of every Apple magazine in the UK appeared on the shelves with the same picture filling the front page (ie. Apple’s advert) and the words “Think Different” in big white letters underneath.
The most disturbing aspect of the whole business seems to be the assumption on the part of the marketeers that just damned near everyone in the whole world will refuse to budge out of the house without either a mini audio or a mini video player direct jacked into their brains. Will it one day be seen as sensory deprivation for one to make his/her way through the world without full a/v connectivity and/or communications?
Entertainment is cool, but it is not the Holy Grail. I do not want the jetliner pilot passing over my neighborhood engrossed in some lame ass tv show whilest thundering down the final approach to a landing.
I dont have and wont likely have a iPod, I live in one of those countries where iTunes store does not service. Yet everytime that Steve Jobs annouces a new one … its just cool / inspiring to see the progress of the gadget … but then you hear about it a million times in the media and how great it is a million times, it really grows old … I think Dvorak really should give in and buy one of them iPods, he may end up an iPod polisher as well.
Whoa, Paul T. said something true& that made sense??? WTF? Recently, Bush admitted a mistake! What’s the world coming to?
Apple apologists & Bush apologists. Two dumb peas in an iPod!