Apple isn't losing a war of words, it's getting its ass kicked in software. Just about everybody agrees that Android is now evolving faster than iOS. Many of their recent app releases have been mediocre or downright bad, and they still haven't really figured out how to run robust and reliable cloud services. Crucial new iOS APIs like AutoLayout are an absolute design-by-committee trainwreck.<p>Their hardware is still excellent if perhaps too conservative but I'm bearish on Apple mainly because I just don't see any evidence of the kind of software engineering discipline that's necessary to compete with Google.
Bullshit.<p>In Google's Q4 2012:<p>Amazing: 8<p>Strong: 10<p>Thrilled: 1<p>Focused: 9<p>Great: 32<p>China: 6<p>"Sad Words"<p>Disappoint: 0<p>Weak: 0<p>Bad: 2 (in context, they said, "not bad")<p>Fail: 0<p><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/1126031-google-s-ceo-discusses-q4-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single" rel="nofollow">http://seekingalpha.com/article/1126031-google-s-ceo-discuss...</a><p>The entire point of an earning call is to reassure the shareholders and raise the markets confidence in a companies' potential.<p>It would be very strange if a company spent the majority of their earnings calls pointing out their failures and avoiding talking about their success.
<i>Attacking competitors, pointing to their weaknesses, and trumpeting one’s achievements is better done by hired media assassins.</i><p>If you read Gruber's blog it is very hard to dispel that this is mostly what he does.
The point about Apple being "the Man" is interesting. Reading comments here, it seems that everyone hates every company these days, often irrationally. Are there any companies that anyone likes, or has the written word devolved to only be able to share negative opinions?
Earnings calls and earnings press releases have an optimistic bias. Technology companies tend to be more zealous still. The experiment in the blog, while illustrative, could have been made more rigorous with a control.<p>A 2006 paper out of the St. Louis Fed investigated "whether managers use[d] optimistic and pessimistic language in earnings press releases" between 1988 and 2003 "and whether the market respond[ed] to" this variation [1]. It found an optimistic bias, with optimistic words appearing nearly three times as frequently as pessimistic words.<p>Given that "levels of optimistic and pessimistic language used by managers in earnings press releases reliably predict future firm performance" and the "significant market response" to this variation, investors believe "that managers credibly communicate information to investors via optimistic and pessimistic language usage". But the market is Bayesian; "managers have reputations" that investors use as their baseline.<p>[1] <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2006/2006-005.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2006/2006-005.pdf</a>
Slightly related:<p>I think the "You'll love the iPhone..." campaign Apple <i>just</i> launched is a little tacky, and un-Apple-like. It reads like one of their Valentine's Day or Back to School ads... except there's no holiday or event to back it up.<p>Except, of course, it coincides with the S4 reveal. Even if unintentional, it's poorly timed.
Did you guys notice the author of the article? He has a strong connection with Apple/Jobs - <a href="https://www.smalldemons.com/persons/business_leaders/Jean-Louis_Gass%C3%A9e/see_all/Mentioned_In__1__Books" rel="nofollow">https://www.smalldemons.com/persons/business_leaders/Jean-Lo...</a>
Good article, good analysis of how the words are used in the press releases. Thus I won't agree with the intro. Google I/O is coming up and will probably bring up an update to the Android system. If this happens - the Galaxy S4 will have to wait.
About the only thing I agree with in the article is that Schiller going on the record of criticizing Samsung the day before their announcement was an error. It seems to me that the day before the cards are set, just let hand play out and <i>then</i> go and update your messaging.
Apple has done very well so what else are they going to say on the earnings calls? They could consult a thesaurus and come up with some less commonly used words but that comes off as snobby and unnecessary.