‘The Business’ misleads on ‘iPod music phone’
iPod music phone now on the way from Apple
What does a headline like that tell you? If you saw it in a newspaper or on the ticker of a cable news channel, what would else could you think but that it was confirmed there will be an iPod music phone?
And what if you only got to see the first paragraph of that story and it was this:
After months of speculation, Apple Computers has confirmed it is planning to produce an iPod music phone.
Wow! Apple has confirmed it?! Let’s see this confirmation!
Steve Jobs, chief executive of the iPods-to-Macintosh computers giant, dropped a hint that a new type of iPod music player was on the way when unveiling Apple’s financial results last week.
Wait? It’s not confirmation? It’s just a hint?
“The iPod continues to earn a US market share of over 75% and we are extremely excited about future iPod products in the pipeline,” he said.
That’s the hint? I did not see the words ‘phone’ or ‘now on the way’ anywhere. Jobs says Apple is excited about future products in the pipeline at every single financial results recap.
Later, Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, appeared to confirm this: “We don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is [the best music player]. But over time, that is likely to change, and we are not sitting around doing nothing.”
Peter confirmed what? The only thing he confirmed is that Apple is not sitting around doing nothing. Duh.
And the final paragraph stretches this report beyond belief:
Apple faces major challenges as competitors produce cheaper products forcing the US firm to diversify further. Mobile phonemaker Motorola has already launched a phone, the ROKR, designed to play songs stored on Apple’s iTunes software.
Anyone that didn’t know better would conclude that Motorola was one of those competitors providing major challenges to Apple, when, of course, the ROKR was developed in conjunction with Apple and plays iTunes songs with Apple’s permission.
So, to recap, no one at Apple, especially Steve Jobs, said anything about an iPod music phone, and certainly no one said it was “now on the way.” But obviously they couldn’t run a headline like ‘Apple not sitting around doing nothing’.
Brandon Eley on August 12th, 2006 at 11:29 am
This looks like a case of when there’s a slow day, just make up some news!
Josh Pigford on August 12th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
And if anybody would like to send an email to the sensationalist that wrote the article, fire away: letters@thebusiness.press.net
Nick on August 12th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Great way to discredit yourself. I’ll always have that in my mind. Then again there are always good journalistic sources and the rest :)
Chris Griffin on August 12th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Stuff like this is why I don’t read most traditional news websites nor do I watch cable news (or network news for that matter). Instead of reporting facts, they report misleading eye-grabbing stories that really have no base. News in general has became a form of entertainment and has left journalism by the way side.
This is also another reason why blogs are on the rise when it comes to reporting the news. Most good blogs get it right, and if they don’t get it right they are usually corrected/attacked in the comments. Its easier to lose your audience as a blog than as a news website.
The tech community is generally a smart crowd, unlike the general public as a whole, so if they want to continue to report misleading and exagerrated stories they are just going to run their reputation into the ground.
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shabah on December 5th, 2006 at 5:22 am
I love apple. I wanna by an apple macbook, but i think i should wait for your new one because of graphic card. today i heard some thing about apple mobile phone. i search and i find a video on google. it’s amazing, but when it will release? please say something. i can not sleep because this news already affected on my shopping plan for new year. Please write something.
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pradeep on May 25th, 2007 at 5:41 am
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Ham on June 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
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