It may be a new year but you can expect more of the same accountability-free silly punditry. As 2011 came to a close, we got a prime example of the genre foisted on us by Brian Deagon.
Apple, Google Seen Stumbling In 2012; Amazon, IBM Up
Isn’t it odd how it’s always the top dogs who are so widely expected to fail? Technology pundits ever strive to be the first to predict something groundbreaking. And, heck, why not when the cost of being wrong is so low?
Why? Oddly, Deagon doesn’t really say other than to suggest the iPhone and iPad have lost their cachet, despite some indications to the contrary that the rest of us know as “reality.”
With the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple (AAPL) redefined markets and defined cool. But what’s left? The iPhone is boxy, flat and feeling stale.
Yes, the best selling smartphone is “stale.” He wrote that! It doesn’t matter if Apple sells a metric butt-ton of them, it doesn’t have 4G or 3D or some other number-letter combination that some Android phone has that drains its battery before you get out of the driveway.
The Samsung Galaxy smartphone seems cooler. With Google‘s (GOOG) Android platform now the fastest-growing mobile OS, Apple’s software advantage will diminish.
The Macalope has no real idea what market share has to do with software but that’s probably some kind of Apple zealot thing he’s got going on. Objective observers like Deagon could tell you but if you have to ask, you probably wouldn’t understand.
Smartphones and tablets will become commodity items and Apple will be eaten by the collective Android gang.
Just like happened with the iPod and the iPad.
Er…
Apple’s next big hope is the TV market, a tough nut to crack and where Samsung is king.
“PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
The Macalope loves the “next big hope” construction, as if Apple is somehow pinning everything on this next bet. Other companies can plod along content to lead average and unremarkable lives, but Apple must produce breakout hit after breakout hit or it’s somehow failing.
John Gruber says the post will be fun a year from now, but while we might have our laughs, the Macalope predicts Deagon will never look back.
[Editors’ Note: Each week the Macalope skewers the worst of the week’s coverage of Apple and other technology companies. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]