Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cult of Mac, Apple
Wired on the Apple media backlash
Leander Kahney takes on all the recent Apple hating in this column today at Wired.com. He asserts that Apple, as a company, gets a lot of attention from the media at large for a number of reasons. Apple is seen as the 'thought leader,' where its hardware goes other PC makers usually follow.The downside to all this attention? When things go bad, and they always will at some point, everyone knows about it thanks to sites like TUAW (and others on the MacWeb). This has an 'echo chamber' effect where it seems like every MacBook turns yellow the second you touch it and your iPod is bound to get you struck by lightning.
Leander thinks that things get blown out of proportion, and I agree.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Splashman said 8:11PM on 7-11-2006
I link to the stories so Scott doesn't have to.
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71357-0.html?tw=wn_index_6
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Scott McNulty said 8:15PM on 7-11-2006
I did have a 'Read' link to the story but I added one to the body of the post for good measure.
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Greyson said 9:34PM on 7-11-2006
Hehehe, not only is the news following apple a lot more exciting and idea changing, it's generally more positive. Consider the influx of negative stories if the media followed alternative systems just as closely.
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Gandhi said 11:16PM on 7-11-2006
It could also be an issue of what one is used to hearing in the news. One is used to Microsoft being associated with bad news most of the time - be it antitrust case or malware/virus vulnerabilities. When I hear about another MS vulnerability, I just yawn and go on about my business while MS or antivirus companies scramble to put out a solution. I am used to it with MS.
Apple in the recent past has not been associated with such bad news, and so when somthing negative does occur, it makes people take notice.
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Mac Diva said 1:44AM on 7-12-2006
Actually, Dell's two burning laptops were the buzz during the last month. Made the New York Times and resulted in at least one high profile stock analyst issuing a 'sell' recommendation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/technology/10dell.html
Bad news about Apple products, usually undocumented or poorly documented, is the province of Mac media, particularly blogs such as TUAW. Crossover to the mainstream is very limited.
Leander Kahney has become a writer in search of a topic. I rarely bother to read him anymore.
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Mary Gilmartin said 6:29AM on 7-12-2006
Im never buying apple again after getting an Ipod shuffle on the saturday and returning it when I gave up trying to make it work on the sunday.
What a waste of time. And I'm not the only one unhappy, the help forums where filled with unsatisfied customers who were getting no help, apples refused to help said my ipod was bought months ago not the previous day (maybe it was by the shop but not me), so I followed one guys of advice of returning it and just getting another brand. The shop gave a months warrent so im happily now ipod free.
Im probally going to wait and might get the microsoft one coming out.
Blah. That whole experience was awful.
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Daniel Brown said 9:11AM on 7-12-2006
Maybe now that you and Leander agree that things get blown out of proportion in the media world, you can take a moment and extend that thought to other companies when you see their bad news.
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Ken said 10:25AM on 7-12-2006
This is what happens with media everywhere. If you watch the news, you would think that everyone around you is a criminal, everything you eat is poisonous and the world war 3 has already started.
And all iPods attract the rage of Zeus.
But I guess it must be a little better than that.
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XIII said 2:08PM on 7-12-2006
Depends on your point of view. Given various reports about people getting banned from Apple's discussion forums after trying to get help for the MacBook wee wee effect I can't help but wonder if it wasn't all the media attention that got them to admit and fix it eventually.
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oj said 2:14PM on 7-13-2006
I don't care how many stories are out there that talk about how many/few problems consumers have with a company like Apple. Not to sound selfish, but all I care about is MY experience.
Now personally, I'm a new Apple customer. I bought a MBP, and it had the whine. I can live with that. It runs VERY HOT. I can live with that, too. After about a month I see a red line running straight down my screen. Last straw. It took more than a month for me to get my system back. Guess what? Now my newly replaced display has a dead pixel and gradients look HORRIBLE. I don't want to send it in for another month.
So Apple has left a sour taste in my mouth. This is MY experience. I don't care about everyone else, I don't care about all the bad press, but my personal experience was a bad one. I can only speak for myself, and I have decided to buy another brand of computer next time.
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