It’s been about a week since talking head Jason Calacanis unleashed his anti-Apple tirade on the masses, an article overflowing with mistakes, inconsistencies, and shockingly moronic reasoning. Since then, Calacanis’ article has been debunked, refuted, and challenged quite nimbly by a variety of folks more intellectually capable than Calacanis himself.
I would have imagined that Calacanis read some of these responses, but a recent tweet indicates otherwise, and if anything, points out how self-important Calacanis considers himself to be.
In a tweet posted this past Thursday, Calacanis writes:
The Case Against Apple talked about on the excellent MacBreak Weekly http://twit.tv/mbw153 interestingly, CNBC, CNN, NYTimes haven’t discssd
Wow.
Apparently Calacanis views his article as a solid jumping off point for intellectual discussion about Apple, so much so that he’s genuinely surprised that media outlets like CNBC, CNN, and the NY Times haven’t joined in on the fracas. Is this guy for real? Is he so self-delusional that he thinks his surprisingly uninformed ramblings are worthy of being mentioned on stages as large as CNN and the NY Times? Did he only read comments which praised his work, and ignore comments and responses which clearly show the logical fallacies in his writing?
But the kicker is, even if Calacanis wrote a spot-on article about Apple and its app store policies, how arrogant and self-involved do you have to be to express genuine disbelief that your opinions aren’t being picked up and discussed by the most well-known and influential media outlets in the country?
August 15th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Well, in fairness to my delusional nature, I’m not the only voice coming out against Apple’s App Store policies and general paranoid nature.
1. Leo Laporte of MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Tech has been talking about these issues a lot recently.
2. Peter Rojas and Ryan Block of Engadget and now GDGT.com fame have been talking about it a lot. (disclosure: i hired those guy for Engadget and invested in GDGT).
3. TUAW has been talking about apps being blocked a lot (disclosure: i started TAUW)
4. Gina from LifeHacker and Arrington from TechCrunch have been reporting on it.
5. The Times of London just wrote about it.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6794844.ece
6. The FCC is investigating Apple/AT&T
7. Apple is starting to respond to the issues.
So, I think it’s starting to break into main stream and I think my involvement in all of this is about .01 of 1%. Frankly, my piece is a rehash of many other people’s opinions over the past couple of months.
Thanks for the feedback… any chance you can link to calacanis.com and mahalo.com so I get a little SEO juice out of this whipping at least!??! :-p
best j
August 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I wouldn’t consider CNBC, CNN, or NY Times to be very good sources of information or unbiased sources. They are all huge fans of Apple.
Jason nailed Apple right on, and in time, you are going to see the FCC and DOJ go after Apple for it’s business practices. They’ve become too big to keep up with their bad behaviour. They have gotten too much attention now, and if a company like Microsoft or Google tried to pull the crap they do, Apple would be screaming bloody murder to the DOJ.
August 15th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I think, regardless of some of the points raised, it needs to be noted that many died-in-the-wool Apple fans, and Apple boosters have real concerns about some of these practices. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the points I’m hearing across the board, but I agree with many. Apple SHOULD be concerned about the growing number of voices questioning its positions. Apple’s life blood has been its competitively cohesive an loyal community. Once they start to lose that constituency, even if it hurts only slightly – it will hurt them, in mindshare and in the bottom line. In the case of Apple, mindshare is key, and has been a central and critical part of its success and its business strategy.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I have to say, I generally like the Apple products I own, but I hate being associated with the Apple-lovers that cannot see their beloved company do any wrong. While some of Jason’s statements were over the top (e.g. “We over-paid for your phone–which you render obsolete every 13 months” – my 1st gen iPhone works just fine) and one of the questions was not open-ended (“Do you think Apple’s dexterity and competence forgive their bad behavior?”), I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe there is some debate on the 5 main areas:
1) iTunes limiting the devices it works with
It would be one thing if they simply didn’t write an API, but when they employ specific countermeasures it is clear they are acting in a anti-competitive manner.
2) Monopoly with AT&T
This one I’m more on the fence on… There is choice in the space of phones, and not every phone is available on every carrier. While I would like to see it more open, I don’t have a specific issue with this except for some of the other effects (e.g. AT&T having leverage on what apps get through)
3) Draconian app store process
You have to have your head in the sand if you don’t agree with this. I think the president’s security detail is more open than this black whole of a process that perhaps even Apple employees don’t understand. What’s more, if Apple wanted to control their own app store then they should have allowed the phone to be open to applications not available through them only. Problem solved.
4) Banning of other browsers
The whole “blocking apps that compete with Apple’s offerings” is ridiculous. If Microsoft stopped us from installing Firefox or Safari on a Windows OS we’d all be having a fit.
5) Blocking of Google Voice
Utter insanity move, especially with apps like Skype available. It just proves the process is not consistent (at best) and intentionally anti-competitive (at worst).
—
Now some of the debaters took the line that Apple isn’t morally obligated to keep their products open, and I agree with that. The point is there are a lot of consumers that like Apple products and like the finish that Apple puts on those products. However we also like to control those products as well. Right now Apple is at the top of the heap, but as their competitors come closer to them and offer a reasonable comparison in a much more open way then I think consumers who care about openness will vote with their wallet.
August 16th, 2009 at 1:40 am
@jason
1. your friend.
1. your friends.
3. your network.
4. your friend.
5. ???
…
main stream?$%#
August 16th, 2009 at 1:42 am
I’m sort of ‘on the fence’ too, but I wanted to congratulate Jason on his measured response to an article showing the Mac community in the worst possible light. And it was good to see a few folk writing to support Jason; the community has become too ‘starry-eyed’ with Apple lately.
August 16th, 2009 at 2:21 am
I agree with what jason said dudes
August 16th, 2009 at 3:39 am
I think Jason is wrong on every count.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:40 am
well, Apple bashing is the new black. Seems that people are asking them to shoot themselves in the foot:
http://pravdam.com/2009/08/12/the-latest-meme-apple-bashing/
August 16th, 2009 at 7:32 am
As a long-time Mac user, I must say this article is pretty embarrassing and shows the worst of the Mac Fanboi attitude.
While not all of Jason’s points resonate with me, it is a fair set of questions to ask.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:38 am
The most pertinent point to make here — a number of the media outlets Calacanis mentioned in his tweet *have* talked and written about the issues he wrote about.
They just didn’t mention him. Presumably, that’s his problem.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Everyone is talking about iTunes and the app store policies. Are you guys forgetting the way apple forced Safari through their application update process? To me that is the more egregious offense.
August 16th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Did he get an email from Phil. 😉
August 16th, 2009 at 10:37 am
CapnVan: I don’t have a problem with anyone… that’s the joke of this article. It’s saying I have some sort of problem with the mainstream press not covering the story and I don’t.
I’m simply wondering when they will, because usually the press read TechCrunch, GigaOm, bloggers, techmeme, etc. and build their stories from there. If they don’t cover I could care less.
Frankly, I’ve gotten more press then I deserve in this lifetime!
Also, with 75k followers on Twitter, 25k on Facebook and an email list of almost 17,000 industry folks I don’t need the press to get my message out. If I have something to say I just do an email and I’m done.
I would be just fine with never getting any press ever again…. really I would.
All the best,
Jason
August 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
And btw, press? I AM THE PRESS!
August 16th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“Also, with 75k followers on Twitter, 25k on Facebook and an email list of almost 17,000 industry folks I don’t need the press to get my message out. If I have something to say I just do an email and I’m done.
I would be just fine with never getting any press ever again…. really I would.”
Was that satire? It’s *so* hard to tell these days…
August 16th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
fyi: that Jason saying “I AM THE PRESS!” is not the real Jason Calacanis. This is the real calacanis, so perhaps the sysadmin can make that a little more clear. 🙂
best j
August 16th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I too love many of Apples products and own many as well. I also find Calacanis to be an arrogant, obnoxious, and overbearing egomaniac. With all that said, I find too many Apple fans–and we all know that fan is the first syllable of fanatic,are blindly loyal to a fault. Calacanis referred to Laporte agreeing with some of his issues, some of his issues were legit. I find Apple droids like Alex Lindsay as laughable in his defense of anything Apple as I do Calacanis is saying. What we have here is a “virtual” pissing contest of wannabe journalists with egos far larger than the points they make. They should all stfu..come to think of it, so should I.
bye now.
August 16th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
man this author sounds like a politician(republican). all he did was crucify his opponents character while offering only links that refuted his points, supplying no additional material to the discussion. this one was best suited for his private diary.