MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Dec 14, 07 - 05:50 pm Comment from: Ampar

So, his rent was due.

Ahhhh what MDN said.

Dougless

Dec 14, 07 - 05:53 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

Oaf! Good one. I tend to call him what he has so richly earned .... an asshat.

The contrarian indicator speaks......

How about the fact that Apple retail has given a few extra million in profits every year? Investors beware of what? This guy is trippin'.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:00 pm Comment from: JadisOne

Love the MDN takes. Dvorak is a tool. He cannot ever seem to form a logical conclusion.

Has that clown ever been in charge of so much as a lemonade stand?

Something tells me that a company that holds the record for sales per square foot in the entire retail industry doesn't need Dvorak's advice.

-jcr

Dec 14, 07 - 06:05 pm Comment from: Metryq

Surely Apple investors are hanging upon John Dvorak's every FLATULENCE

yea his rent was due, so he talks this way so he can get enough visitors to the site for advertising pay for clicks. thanks for the pr, he really is a charm of good luck charm for ying and yang balance.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:10 pm Comment from: Jubei

Ummm who takes this guy seriously? Please see what he said back about the mouse on the Mac.

"The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse.' There is no evidence that people want to use these things." - John C. Dvorak, Feb 1984

to be honest - and as a firm mac user - i have to agree with at least the headline...

the computer market is different to any other - why are WinPC bricks and mortar stores not doing well?... because the market has become saturated. And online sales took over.

If Apple reaches a massive market share they will have saturated their own market... and their online store will be used by more people.

at them moment they are in a transitional phase - people are 'coming' to the world of mac - and thats why they need all the bricks and mortar stores - they are essentially a place to demo the machines...

but what happens 7 or 8 years from now?...

Dec 14, 07 - 06:13 pm Comment from: January 24, 1984

A Self-help guru once said, "Behind every problem lurks an opportunity."

Now we all know John C. casts a large shadow, and behind that spherical umbra must be something besides methane. I say humor, for this guy has carved out a lucrative niche with hyperbole, wincing illogic, and hypergolic prediction.

I see great opportunity, indeed! Time to crank out a barbed site.

dvorak looking for a maximum number of page views. i suggest not posting anything about this idiot anymore and he'll disappear.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:19 pm Comment from: Edgy

I guess he missed the news that Apple is America's most profitable retailer?

Dec 14, 07 - 06:20 pm Comment from: Grigori

Here's some advice: DON"T click... don't give him the hits.

"My concern is that the Apple stores are getting too big..."

I seriously doubt that D'Forjack is concerned in the slightest about anything accept online profile.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:25 pm Comment from: yet another steve

He's like Fake Steve making geographic mistakes, right? Got to be a joke! He's talking about the most productive space in the entire history of retail.

Apple's ability to do retail is probably the most unexpected jawdropping "think different" success in the company's turnaround. People will be studying Apple stores for years if not decades to learn wtf they did RIGHT?

The only fly in the ointment is that Apple's resurgence is overwhelming the stores. That's the kind of problem investors dream of.

As Carl Howe points out, there are very few stores outside the US. One of Apple's many huge growth opportunities that simply require decent business execution, expanding and tuning what clearly works.

He doesn't understand retail and margin. Apple gets better margins on their own products.
Computers (Apple and PC) have terrible margins for retailers.
Software isn't much better.

"Apple's retail store network is nothing at all like CompUSA's was."

Yes, indeed, for Apple's stores are making money hand over fist. Imagine a concept like that!

...world's preeminent bloated gas bag who....

Toonie's Take: Don't be calling the kettle black.

...his total lack of integrity, Mr. "I Bait Mac Users For Hits" plods on with...

Toonie's Take: Don't be calling the kettle black. MDN baits regularly and has very little claim on integrity.

"While things are all working out for Apple during the iPod era, if there is any sort of slump the company will have to deal with what could be a herd of white elephants."

Toonie's Take: Good point.

I find Dvorak entertaining and sometimes enlightening....a lot like MDN.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:49 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

Come on... does anyone else get Dvorak's MO? Because to me it always reads like something from The Fountainhead - Praising with Faint Damnation. The silly little fruit company creates a store that he calls "Stunning", then makes up some intensely stupid reason that it's a bad thing.
Dvorak is having us all on, which is why he laughs when the hate mail starts rolling in.

Dec 14, 07 - 06:54 pm Comment from: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Actually, I'm convinced that John Dvorak is really a Kuato.

The only person dumber or with less integrity than Dvorak is Rob Enderle...

I think that says it all...

CR

I told you. In the near future, the death knell will toll for Apple. It is only a matter of time before they become a thing of the past. No one is buying their crap anymore. The Shepherd and his flock need to wake up and see the light.
Their just isn't enough people to support a obvious monopoly like Apple. How many cases for my iPod do I need. Well none, since I use a Zune.

Dec 14, 07 - 07:01 pm Comment from: Hm...

@ ChrissyOne

Or maybe Dvorak's a devotee of John Galt. Oh. Wait a minute. Dvorak would definitely end up on the wrong side of that equation! He has neither intelligence, nor ability. And no sense of comedic timing. But he's got bathos nailed 8^P

"While things are all working out for Apple during the iPod era, if there is any sort of slump the company will have to deal with what could be a herd of white elephants."

Clearly the solution is not to open any stores for fear that business might slow down one day. In fact, why bother making any products? What if there's a slump? What then?

Does he know that Apple Stores are NOT computer megastores? They are nothing like a big-box retailer

Dec 14, 07 - 07:08 pm Comment from: Demon

The Apple stores are much more to Apple then Retail outlets (though they are that and very profitable at that) the Apple Stores about visibility of the Apple Brand. The stores reflex that brand and enforce that brand among the consumers. The Apple Stores are about adverting and making the Apple Brand a more of a household brand. They are not about selling the odd cable that a PC Geek might need to build his own computer system. On the sales side the stores sell and promote Products designed and or works for Apple Products and Apple Products.

The Internet is great for selling everything but to sell Apple Products you need to get them in the hands of the Windows Users and answer their questions fully. Best Buy, Fry's and CompUSA who sell Macs also try to steer who be Mac buyers to the Windows PCs because that is what they know and they can't answer questions about the Mac or the MacOS.

Dec 14, 07 - 07:12 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Hm...

Whatever the case... I'm not defending the man's career by any stretch. But I think most people don't really get the subtext of his reviews.

One thing is for sure, he's NO John Galt.

@ max and paddy,

Didn't know that you mac lot had a firm.

Maybe your firm can meet me and my firm. It'd be fun to see who had the most game blokes, the mac heads or the football lads...

Dec 14, 07 - 07:28 pm Comment from: clunker

"My concern is that the Apple stores are getting too big...

Ever been to a Super Wal-Mart, Johnny? Their foyer alone is bigger than many Apple Stores.

It began these high-end stores with the spectacular glass-cube place in New York -- an architectural delight on very expensive 5th Avenue real estate -- and now has fancy new digs in the meatpacking district, incorporating a stunning, three-story glass staircase.

It's called CLASS, moron! Perhaps cookie-cutter blandness with every inch calculated for sales (again, Wal-Mart) would be better?

Anyone can build cheap, few can build good. Kinda amazing when even Apple's storefronts reflect this.

Gotta love the Rand...

Dec 14, 07 - 07:41 pm Comment from: Cubert

"the Round Mound of Unsound"

MDN,
I'm telling Charles and he's gonna come kick your @$$!

My sphincter made me do it.

Obviously Mr. Dvorak knows little, or nothing, about the Apple Stores. First of all, everything in the store works. Need help on using an application ? Not a problem, the in-store staff can show you. Want to see how the computer connects online ? No problem. All of the Macs are on line. Need one-to-one training, still no problem. As long as Apple concentrates on the customer and doesn't lose that focus, they will be around for a long time.

Dec 14, 07 - 07:54 pm Comment from: neomonkey

Dvorak's right about shopping online. Apple Stores are full retail because they can get away with it. I've never bought anything at an Apple Store.

Independent Apple retailers are doing okay because they offer customer service and repair. You can't even get anyone on the phone at an Apple Store. You have to leave a message and wait for a call back.

CompUSA is the pits though. They should have gone big in consumer electronics (TVs, Stereos, DVDs, CDs etc) like Circuit City did.

As far as what Dvorak said about a mouse way back when, he was right. At the time, there was no evidence, now there is.

Dec 14, 07 - 07:55 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

Dvorak is to the tech world as people like George Will, Richard Cohen, Jonah Goldberg, David Ignatius, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, and Thomas Friedman (creator of the Friedman Unit) are to foreign policy, especially the Iraq War. Their pronouncements and predictions have been dead, flat wrong for the past five years, yet they still get to continue their punditry...in the pages of our most influential newspapers.

We must continue to call these people out--the Dvoraks, Enderles, and Thurrotts of the tech world. Surely, they will someday pay the price for their ineptitude and idiocy.

Dec 14, 07 - 08:01 pm Comment from: Hm...

@ ChrissyOne

I was just enjoying your Rand pointer - I agree with you. He's happy when anyone falls for his galling troll-bait. To think he used to write a column for a Mac mag!

Dec 14, 07 - 08:13 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Even if and when the day comes that Apple has to close all of their retail stores, they will have made so much money off of them that it won't really matter. The properties values will be astronomical by then (if they aren't already) and will bring a tidy profit. No problem.

Dec 14, 07 - 08:15 pm Comment from: BiZarRo BaLlmEr

I was wondering why this jerk has been quiet for SOOoooo long.

Where has he been?

@ Jerry T

problem with you football lot is your no good in a real 1 - 1 scrap... just group messy brawling... so uncouth.

one of ours - 1-1 against all of yours... game over.

Dec 14, 07 - 08:19 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Hey, what happened to the stars?

Dec 14, 07 - 08:21 pm Comment from: Ampar

"I was wondering why this jerk has been quiet for SOOoooo long. Where has he been?"

Steve Ballmer forgot the safety word. There was a great deal of pain. A blackout. A few EMTs. A dozen roses. Then, he wrote this.
Ballmer calls it "Wednesday Without the Wife".

Dec 14, 07 - 08:40 pm Comment from: Ferf Muckmeyer

This guy is a fat oaf that refuses to shut the hell up. I have no respect for this assclown. Why he allowed to write in any publication is beyond comprehension.

How can one compare compare CompUSA with Apple Retail? CompUSA failed because they tried to compete with the likes of Best Buy, their stores were filthy and dark, and they were terrible at customer service. In contrast, Apple stores are fun to shop at, brightly lit, clean, well staffed with knowledgeable employees and they have a specific set of products rather than selling "everything".

Dvorak is a moron of epic proportions who just does this to screw with our minds. I'm just as guilty as the next guy for letting him get under my skin, but he can accomplish this by just standing there with that stupid smirk on his face.

Dec 14, 07 - 08:41 pm Comment from: Ampar

anti-creative cretin: Nice. But you have got to stop bogarting the stash.

What a pc-biased fanboy shill.

Dec 14, 07 - 08:59 pm Comment from: alansky

Comparing Apple stores to a chain of computer megastores makes about as much sense as comparing a sports car to an 8-passenger road hog. What a moron!

Dec 14, 07 - 09:12 pm Comment from: Jubei

Come to think of, perhaps he's trolling for click generation. He needs some extra Christmas money to replace all the return Zunes he is giving to his relatives with iPods after Christmas day. LOL

Oh SH*TE!!!!!! Sell your shares everyone! Apple is going down because they are spending all their money on new fancy stores which generate huge marketing in their locations! What was Apple thinking, creating a buzz about their products? Are they stupid? Their billions of dollars are just gonna fade away because of the big store - Whilst sales continue to grow!

Make sense? I think not. This guy is a twot (don't ask me what a twot is, i just thought it sounded cool). Some people make me laugh. This guy didn't, he just made me feel sorry for him for being so ridiculously stupid.

Dec 14, 07 - 09:46 pm Comment from: ChrisW357

Yet another sensationalist windbag has vomited up a rag article. Everyone, rejoice!

Dec 14, 07 - 09:48 pm Comment from: Wade

Comparing CompUSA to the retail Apple Store is about as incompetent as anyone can get. Problem is, all those CompUSA hirelings have to go somewhere, and let's hope no-one in charge of hiring at Apple considers them for one breath. It's bad enough a failed business model is unleashing its hordes on an otherwise unsuspecting IT zone, like major universities, including one, to remain crimsonally nameless, in Cambridge, MA.