I was just wandering around Bloomberg.com articles from 8½ years ago, when I came across this one by Matthew Lynn – a Bloomberg News columnist.
“The opinions expressed are his own.”
says the disclaimer at the bottom. Looking back now, I bet Matthew wishes that the opinions expressed had absolutely nothing to do with him, given that the headline is this:
Apple iPhone Will Fail in a Late, Defensive Move
Ugly.
In other Apple related foolishness, there’s that famous thing that golfer Rory McIlroy shared in 2012:
If anyone is having a bad day, remember that today in 1976 Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake in Apple for $800. Now it’s worth $58,065,210,000
Because yes, if you are having a bad day, it’s somehow comforting to know that someone has had a worse day than you. Thus, in the same way, if you’ve ever thought that you might have been massively wrong on something, take a look at the link above, because you won’t have been more wrong than Matthew.
Matthew has taken the proverbial biscuit when it comes to being wrong. Publicly wrong. Wrong on the internet, where no-one ever forgets and stuff like this gets brought up on top class South African blogs on Monday mornings 8½ years later. That wrong.
There’s some deep insight from the industry expert, as he states with the sort of confidence that only an indusrty expert can state:
The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant.
Well, yeah. But no.
Matthew wades through plenty of incorrect assumptions and erroneous assertions before coming out with this blisteringly mistaken final paragraph:
The mobile-phone industry is becoming a cozy cartel between the network operators and a limited range of manufacturers. It could certainly use a fresh blast of competition from an industry outsider.
It may come – but probably from an entrepreneurial start-up somewhere. How about phones with fewer gadgets but better at making calls? Or with never-ending batteries? Or chargers that don’t weigh three times as much as the phone?It won’t come from the iPhone. Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.
Look, credit where it’s due – we’re still waiting on the never-ending battery (wo-o-oh, wo-o-oh, wo-o-oh) (sorry), but “phones with fewer gadgets but better at making calls”? Hahahahaha, because this is 2015 and we don’t talk any more.
Thankfully, as far as I am aware, Matthew Lynn is still around and the continual resharing of his 2007 column hasn’t yet driven him to suicide. That’s good, because if we weren’t reading his opinion pieces, how else would we know that the Pope is going to renounce his Catholicism in 2016?