Sorry Ryan - it's your blog, you have the right to publish whatever you want - BUT, your apology in short is: We're sorry we're going to flood what was a general tech blog with a near crazed obsession with a single product, and we know a lot of you are tired of it - but so what?
Not exceptionally sincere.
Just a thought - when your *customers* are telling you they're tired of it, maybe you might want to listen?
Anyway, your counter argument about the Wii and XBox and so on is specious. The Wii, for example, represented a major change in gaming both in terms of technology AND in terms of market penetration. It's STILL sold out in many places - almost eight MONTHS after it's introduction. And now it's being opened up for developers.
The XBox 360 is different because for the first time, Microsoft is introducting tools to allow the average hobbyist to write games.
It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone - and not even one of the more interesting ones out there. If you actually took the time to cover some of the other phones out there to this degree, you'd see this.
The ONLY thing that makes the iPhone special is the name 'Apple' associated with it. I sincerely doubt that if this phone had been made by Microsoft it would have gotten 1/2 the airtime - and I'm also equally sure you'd have been obsessing with what was WRONG with it rather than what was great about it.
The public seems to agree because Apple couldn't even sell out their stock on their first day. If the feeding frenzy was as great as you (and others) made it out to be, I had half expected people to be rioting in the streets after the crowd of millions couldn't get their iPhones on the first day. Heck, even RIMs stock went up a record 22% the same day the iPhone came out. Read the clues guys.
But in the end - here's the best evidence to date that perhaps you've gone over the deep end on this one...
The very fact that in the last week, you've had to
- come up with a way for people to NOT read your site (and how screwed up is that? a guy creates a blog and then has to find a way to get people to read it without reading it?)
- TWICE remind people that this 'out' exists (which SHOULD tell you that it's not working)
- and finally - publish a half-assed apology.
Have you EVER had to do that before? I've never seen it here before. Not even on things like the Mac mini or new MacBooks.
Maybe it's time to start that 12-step program to recovery with the first step: Admitting that Engadget has a problem.
Oh and maybe looking at some of your iPhone articles and ask yourself: do you REALLY want your reputation in journalism to come down to 'I wrote an article about which swear words are in the iPhone prediction dictionary' and 'fat guy has a Zune tattoo'? I know I wouldn't.
But hey, if you want to become the Fox News of gadget journalism - have fun. :) We'll sit back and enjoy laughing at it all. My only complaint is that I miss having a place to read *interesting* articles on new tech and gadgets.
Perhaps you've heard of the vocal minority? There is a number of people complaining about the coverage, and probably plenty who want it to go back to normal -- and it will.
Meanwhile, we continue to experience record traffic, and there's not a ton of news out there but iPhone stuff right now, so it's clear why people are coming to Engadget in droves.
Simply: *some* vocal customers are telling us to cut out the coverage, and orders of magnitude more are flooding the site to read all the iPhone news.
BSW -- absolutely positively wrong. The readers are Engadget's customers, not the advertisers. We have an extremely strict separation between advertising and editorial.
you sir are an idiot. The reason RIMM went up 20% was because they reported earnings. And iPhone did not sell out b/c apple knew a lot of people were going to buy it. So they spent the better half of June stockpiling them. So instead of releasing a few early/mid june. They released their entire stock on June 29th.
Ryan - About half of your total page hits are from me - trying to read the Engadget front page for news about non-iPhone products and happenings. You know, before those stories got pushed off the main page.
Point is, Jeff DOES have a point - albeit highly critical of you on a personal level. There are huge stories that Engadget kinda "brushes" over or ignores completely, then we get whole blog posts about the word "fuck" being in the iPhone's dictionary. Yes, the iPhone is fantastic, yadda yadda yadda, but it's not the 21st century's printing press. It's a phone that does things that other phones do - we really didn't need two weeks of 90% iPhone articles. I mean, how much can REALLY be said about one product? How much can be said that has some weight to it?
The iPhone coverage *really* does feel like Paris Hilton coverage. Lots of people read about it and buy magazines that have Paris on the front cover - but let's face it, it's not news. US Weekly decided not to write any more about Paris, because they came to their senses. We're not asking for that dramatic of a reaction to our pleas for help, but we are asking for a reduction in content so we can see the worthwhile content. If something major comes up about the iPhone, tell us! (This does not include 17 videos of launch day or 10 entries saying how Engadget thinks it's cool or how many you guys got.)
You misunderstand the business-customer relationship. None of your readers pay anything, your advertisers do. That creates a profit-motive and is all I'm saying. I'm sorry if that infers a motive for bias, but it is what it is: the defacto ad-based business model. This isn't an opinion, it's a fact of market economics.
Network television, for example. We'll say over rabbit-ears for simplicity. Why is it profitable to develop programming to attract the largest number of viewers who pay nothing? Because the number of viewers drives their advertising rates. Scary-accurate analogy.
Same applies for cable-tv once you make it past the subscription fee to Cox (or whoever) to subsidize the commercial-free stations and public-service fees (for C-SPAN and local gov't broadcasts)
I suppose I'll speak for the "vocal majority" when I say that as a person who will likely not own an iPhone for at least a few years, it's great to read about it. Frankly, I don't care about you trolls and your Linux-Palm OS dual boot super-smart phones complete with air conditioning and rocket launcher. You've made your points about the iPhone, why you hate it, why Engadget sucks because it's pro-iPhone, etc. It's time to move on. The reason why the iPhone is so interesting to me is that despite the fact that I've read time and time again why the iPhone sucks on these comment boards, I'm still intrigued by it. To top it off, people who have actually used the iPhone (what a concept) are happy with it and even say it lives up to expectations. How can you argue with that?
To Ryan, you don't need to apologize. I have an Engadget RSS feed on my homepage that I check regularly for iPhone news. I appreciate the work you all put into your articles and hope that these haters don't discourage you.
Everyone's pretty much saying it people (all outlets). Readers are showing up in DROVES to read iPhone updates. Here I bought an iPhone, I'm HAPPY, but not overly giddy (anymore). I just wanted to use it, and now I can, and its f-ing great.
That said, Engadget's been posting some interesting perspectives and information that I wasn't thinking about until I read it. Good stuff! Am I interested in the new iRiver right now? No, can't say I am, but the story is there. Next week? Maybe. Right now, its a strange time for everyone. I question whether any cell carrier has EVER taken on this many new customers all at once. I mean, really. This has to be some type of precedent. It will be interesting when we get the REAL numbers. This has passed the point where it is PURELY about the iPhone's "gadget pedigree". The story has become about the rollout of a gadget that enthralled a nation (merits or not). It's got some cache to it. Let's hope Apple doesn't sit on its laurels.
On a sad note, I was cleaning up my podcasts, and listened to the last podcast of DigitalBill (Bill Douthett, 9.26.2006 show), of the Wizards of Technology podcast. He passed away last September. I was listening to him talk about the introduction of the Nokia N95, when he commented on it being "maybe a little too late" (a great device that would do even better if it started at $499 like the iPhone), he said this, just before asking, "Where's my iPhone?" That ran chills down my spine. It also helps to lend to the remarkeable 9 month incubation period people have attributed to this rollout from mainstream analyst reports to product launch. It's been an amazing ride.
"It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone"
It is not "just a phone". It would be if you could pick it up and start dialing away but you can't. You have to choose the phone program from several other options to make a call. No phone requires more than simply unlocking the keypad or sliding/flipping it open to make a call. That is why the iPhone is not "just a phone".
"It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone - and not even one of the more interesting ones out there." - Jeff Lewis
Ah, Jeff, now I see. The iPhone nothing more than a phone, and a mediocre one at best - which is why the media and consumers are completely obsessed with it, right? Please.
The irrational blather from the chronic Apple haters is funny, if not sad.
The iPhone is not just a phone - it's an entirely new mobile platform. It will change everything, and your comment will look even more ridiculous 5 years from now than it does now (which is pretty ridiculous already).
Go play with your Origami or something and spare us your idiotic diatribe.
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Sorry Ryan - it's your blog, you have the right to publish whatever you want - BUT, your apology in short is: We're sorry we're going to flood what was a general tech blog with a near crazed obsession with a single product, and we know a lot of you are tired of it - but so what?
Not exceptionally sincere.
Just a thought - when your *customers* are telling you they're tired of it, maybe you might want to listen?
Anyway, your counter argument about the Wii and XBox and so on is specious. The Wii, for example, represented a major change in gaming both in terms of technology AND in terms of market penetration. It's STILL sold out in many places - almost eight MONTHS after it's introduction. And now it's being opened up for developers.
The XBox 360 is different because for the first time, Microsoft is introducting tools to allow the average hobbyist to write games.
It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone - and not even one of the more interesting ones out there. If you actually took the time to cover some of the other phones out there to this degree, you'd see this.
The ONLY thing that makes the iPhone special is the name 'Apple' associated with it. I sincerely doubt that if this phone had been made by Microsoft it would have gotten 1/2 the airtime - and I'm also equally sure you'd have been obsessing with what was WRONG with it rather than what was great about it.
The public seems to agree because Apple couldn't even sell out their stock on their first day. If the feeding frenzy was as great as you (and others) made it out to be, I had half expected people to be rioting in the streets after the crowd of millions couldn't get their iPhones on the first day. Heck, even RIMs stock went up a record 22% the same day the iPhone came out. Read the clues guys.
But in the end - here's the best evidence to date that perhaps you've gone over the deep end on this one...
The very fact that in the last week, you've had to
- come up with a way for people to NOT read your site (and how screwed up is that? a guy creates a blog and then has to find a way to get people to read it without reading it?)
- TWICE remind people that this 'out' exists (which SHOULD tell you that it's not working)
- and finally - publish a half-assed apology.
Have you EVER had to do that before? I've never seen it here before. Not even on things like the Mac mini or new MacBooks.
Maybe it's time to start that 12-step program to recovery with the first step: Admitting that Engadget has a problem.
Oh and maybe looking at some of your iPhone articles and ask yourself: do you REALLY want your reputation in journalism to come down to 'I wrote an article about which swear words are in the iPhone prediction dictionary' and 'fat guy has a Zune tattoo'? I know I wouldn't.
But hey, if you want to become the Fox News of gadget journalism - have fun. :) We'll sit back and enjoy laughing at it all. My only complaint is that I miss having a place to read *interesting* articles on new tech and gadgets.
Cheers.
Perhaps you've heard of the vocal minority? There is a number of people complaining about the coverage, and probably plenty who want it to go back to normal -- and it will.
Meanwhile, we continue to experience record traffic, and there's not a ton of news out there but iPhone stuff right now, so it's clear why people are coming to Engadget in droves.
Simply: *some* vocal customers are telling us to cut out the coverage, and orders of magnitude more are flooding the site to read all the iPhone news.
Welcome to the extremely vocal minority!
Wow, can't let that one go.
Engadget's 'customers' are the advertisers, not you. You are the PRODUCT being sold to those customers.
So anything that drives mass page-impressions is all that matters to such a 'business'.
BSW -- absolutely positively wrong. The readers are Engadget's customers, not the advertisers. We have an extremely strict separation between advertising and editorial.
you sir are an idiot. The reason RIMM went up 20% was because they reported earnings. And iPhone did not sell out b/c apple knew a lot of people were going to buy it. So they spent the better half of June stockpiling them. So instead of releasing a few early/mid june. They released their entire stock on June 29th.
Ryan - About half of your total page hits are from me - trying to read the Engadget front page for news about non-iPhone products and happenings. You know, before those stories got pushed off the main page.
Point is, Jeff DOES have a point - albeit highly critical of you on a personal level. There are huge stories that Engadget kinda "brushes" over or ignores completely, then we get whole blog posts about the word "fuck" being in the iPhone's dictionary. Yes, the iPhone is fantastic, yadda yadda yadda, but it's not the 21st century's printing press. It's a phone that does things that other phones do - we really didn't need two weeks of 90% iPhone articles. I mean, how much can REALLY be said about one product? How much can be said that has some weight to it?
The iPhone coverage *really* does feel like Paris Hilton coverage. Lots of people read about it and buy magazines that have Paris on the front cover - but let's face it, it's not news. US Weekly decided not to write any more about Paris, because they came to their senses. We're not asking for that dramatic of a reaction to our pleas for help, but we are asking for a reduction in content so we can see the worthwhile content. If something major comes up about the iPhone, tell us! (This does not include 17 videos of launch day or 10 entries saying how Engadget thinks it's cool or how many you guys got.)
Ryan-
You misunderstand the business-customer relationship. None of your readers pay anything, your advertisers do. That creates a profit-motive and is all I'm saying. I'm sorry if that infers a motive for bias, but it is what it is: the defacto ad-based business model. This isn't an opinion, it's a fact of market economics.
Network television, for example. We'll say over rabbit-ears for simplicity. Why is it profitable to develop programming to attract the largest number of viewers who pay nothing? Because the number of viewers drives their advertising rates. Scary-accurate analogy.
Same applies for cable-tv once you make it past the subscription fee to Cox (or whoever) to subsidize the commercial-free stations and public-service fees (for C-SPAN and local gov't broadcasts)
I suppose I'll speak for the "vocal majority" when I say that as a person who will likely not own an iPhone for at least a few years, it's great to read about it. Frankly, I don't care about you trolls and your Linux-Palm OS dual boot super-smart phones complete with air conditioning and rocket launcher. You've made your points about the iPhone, why you hate it, why Engadget sucks because it's pro-iPhone, etc. It's time to move on. The reason why the iPhone is so interesting to me is that despite the fact that I've read time and time again why the iPhone sucks on these comment boards, I'm still intrigued by it. To top it off, people who have actually used the iPhone (what a concept) are happy with it and even say it lives up to expectations. How can you argue with that?
To Ryan, you don't need to apologize. I have an Engadget RSS feed on my homepage that I check regularly for iPhone news. I appreciate the work you all put into your articles and hope that these haters don't discourage you.
Everyone's pretty much saying it people (all outlets). Readers are showing up in DROVES to read iPhone updates. Here I bought an iPhone, I'm HAPPY, but not overly giddy (anymore). I just wanted to use it, and now I can, and its f-ing great.
That said, Engadget's been posting some interesting perspectives and information that I wasn't thinking about until I read it. Good stuff! Am I interested in the new iRiver right now? No, can't say I am, but the story is there. Next week? Maybe. Right now, its a strange time for everyone. I question whether any cell carrier has EVER taken on this many new customers all at once. I mean, really. This has to be some type of precedent. It will be interesting when we get the REAL numbers. This has passed the point where it is PURELY about the iPhone's "gadget pedigree". The story has become about the rollout of a gadget that enthralled a nation (merits or not). It's got some cache to it. Let's hope Apple doesn't sit on its laurels.
On a sad note, I was cleaning up my podcasts, and listened to the last podcast of DigitalBill (Bill Douthett, 9.26.2006 show), of the Wizards of Technology podcast. He passed away last September. I was listening to him talk about the introduction of the Nokia N95, when he commented on it being "maybe a little too late" (a great device that would do even better if it started at $499 like the iPhone), he said this, just before asking, "Where's my iPhone?" That ran chills down my spine. It also helps to lend to the remarkeable 9 month incubation period people have attributed to this rollout from mainstream analyst reports to product launch. It's been an amazing ride.
"It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone"
It is not "just a phone". It would be if you could pick it up and start dialing away but you can't. You have to choose the phone program from several other options to make a call. No phone requires more than simply unlocking the keypad or sliding/flipping it open to make a call. That is why the iPhone is not "just a phone".
"It's a *phone*. A nice phone, but in the end - it's just a frigging phone - and not even one of the more interesting ones out there." - Jeff Lewis
Ah, Jeff, now I see. The iPhone nothing more than a phone, and a mediocre one at best - which is why the media and consumers are completely obsessed with it, right? Please.
The irrational blather from the chronic Apple haters is funny, if not sad.
The iPhone is not just a phone - it's an entirely new mobile platform. It will change everything, and your comment will look even more ridiculous 5 years from now than it does now (which is pretty ridiculous already).
Go play with your Origami or something and spare us your idiotic diatribe.