Edible Apple

Seriously, how does Rob Enderle get paid to write about tech?  He’s not a hot chick, and this isn’t Mad Men, so how in the world did he manage to convince anyone to give him money in exchange for his moronic ramblings?

In his latest “article”, Enderle tries to argue that Apple has a PR problem due to the fact that Babyshaker was briefly available in iTunes for a few hours last Thursday.

Apple was having a good month until last week. Sales were up explosively — at least, for the iPhone and iPod — but all of that good news was trashed when the company first allowed a questionable application onto the iPhone and then killed it without explanation. Already, the tone surrounding Apple appears to be changing.

Actually Apple is still having a good month.  It’s earnings were stellar and it hit 1 Billion App Store downloads.  As for the “questionable application”, it simulated violently shaking a baby to quiet it down.  It seems pretty obvious to me why Apple decided to axe it.  And as for the changed tone surrounding Apple, Enderle links to a completely irrelevant article regarding Tim Cook’s statements about netbooks.

Huh?  What is Enderle smoking?

I’m not sure what Apple could have done — short of actually shaking a real baby — that would have upset more people. Its actions spotlighted what appears to be a horribly ineffective PR department, as well as a tragically inconsistent process for vetting applications prior to posting them on Apple’s service.

It’s kind of hard to find where Enderle is going with this.  An app passed Apple’s review process when it shouldn’t have.  When made aware of the situation, Apple removed the offensive application and issued an apology.  Seems like pretty standard PR to me.  It’s not as if Apple developed the babyshaker app itself.

At this writing, I still don’t have any real idea of what the purpose of the shaking baby application was, but it did make the related problem — and avoidable tragic result — more visible. If this visibility resulted in saving one baby’s life, the method could likely be forgiven — even by the groups most upset over it, given that the outcome would be consistent with their own goals.

So now Endlerle sees some sort of educational utility in the Babyshaker app?  Why of course he does, because it then gives him the opportunity to chide Apple for censoring free speech!

Going to the core of all of this is free speech and censorship. In this instance, there may be… two groups focused on doing the same good deed, while disagreeing as to the method. In choosing one side, Apple effectively entered as censor with a possible adverse impact: That one life that might have been saved will now be lost.

Oh I get it.  The app was there to promote awareness and prevent parents from shaking their kids.  How dare Apple remove the app?!  Think of all the babies that are going to die as a result.  It’s truly shocking.  I mean right now there are innumerable iPhone owners out there with no idea how to quiet a baby down without resorting to shaking.  Kudos to you, Mr. Enderle, for taking a vigilant stand against Apple!

Enderle then retreats back to his original “Apple has horrible PR” argument.

Some time ago, I chatted with a top PR professional who had been recruited by Apple and refused to even participate in an interview because she felt that being connected to the firm would eliminate any future she had in the profession.

This was because Apple’s PR reputation was so bad it was only matched, sometimes, by Google. It continues to amaze me that a company known for marketing prowess and excellence would allow this complete lack of quality to exist within it. While Apple can and should be admired for many things, when it comes to PR, it remains the worst of the worst,

I call BS.  The idea that working in Apple’s PR department would ruin an individual’s professional future seems either made up, or the thought process of a loon.  And Apple’s PR being the worst of the worst?  Uh..okay.

So there you have it, folks.  Another gem from our good friend Rob Enderle.  Notice how his anti-Apple bias shines through as he criticizes Apple for letting the Babyshaker app into the app store, and then criticizes Apple once again for removing when it could potentially save lives.  Then he goes off on a Freedom of Speech rant, which only serves to illuminate the fact that he literally has no concept of what Freedom of Speech actually is.

Enderle should stick to writing about something he knows, whatever that might be.

As I said before, Robe Endrle is a moron.