Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category

On Apple Analysts and Their ‘Research’

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

Financial analysts are a funny thing in the Apple rumor world.

With increasing media coverage of everything Apple, as well as the impressive growth of their stock, it seems financial analysts are covering Apple in increasing detail and frequency.

I won’t claim to know the business side of these analyst publications, but they have become a frequent topic in the Mac rumor world since analyst reports frequently predict Apple’s future plans.

However, from a rumor-analysis standpoint, these analyst reports tend to offer very little new information and introduce a fair amount of confusion.

My major problem with analyst reports is that they never cite their sources and intermix speculation into their predictions. It then becomes impossible to determine the original source of the information and its credibility. Frequently it seems they are simply reciting information that has already been reported on the internet. This may not be important to financial customers (admittedly, their target audience) but from a predictive standpoint, makes their information next to useless.

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Engadget’s ‘iPhone and Leopard Delay’ Rumor

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007

Engadget published a report today claiming that Apple was delaying Leopard until Jan 2008 and the iPhone until October.

We hesitatingly republished this report with some caveats.

As it turns out, the report was wrong, but I don’t necessarily blame Engadget. The circumstances surrounding this rumor were unusual, to say the least. Someone actually managed to spoof an email to Apple staffers through an official Apple email distribution list. As a result, it must have seemed quite legitimate.
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Thoughts on the iPhone: More to Come

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

This may seem a little late to weigh in on the iPhone, but this blog didn’t exist when it was announced, so I’m finally going to put down my perspective on the iPhone.

As background, I’ve been an Apple enthusiast since the mid 80′s and run a popular Mac rumor site (MacRumors.com). I think what also gives me a different perspective is that I was a fan of the now discontinued Newton — Apple’s first PDA.

I was at the keynote, and the reaction to the iPhone in the audience was jaw-dropping awe. For those rumor-mongers out there, it was as if Apple had answered every dream-scenario possible in one single device announcement.

Did anyone really expect to see multi-touch technology incorporated in the iPhone? I didn’t.

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Thread 500. First reactions to the iPod.

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

One of the advantages of having a site that has been around for 7 years is that we have an archive of user reactions to various releases over the years.

In October of 2001, Apple announced they were holding a special press conference to announce a “breakthrough digital device.”

This coming Tuesday, Apple invites you to the unveiling of a breakthrough digital device, (Hint: it’s not a Mac).

The Mac web was abuzz with rumors of what Apple might be coming out with and on October 23, 2001, Apple released the iPod.

By chance, it was the 500th thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500) on the forum, so many MacRumors users now refer to it simply as “thread 500″. The reaction to the iPod was strong, and not generally positive.

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