Apparently, there isn’t much real news left in the world.
Why else would CNN present an ill-reasoned opinion piece as a front-page news story?
Oh, right. Because another “Apple is in serious trouble” story is always good for a few clicks.
With the scent of CNN’s recent Apple-doubting articles still in the air, this link was listed among the news headlines yesterday: Apple’s innovation problem is real.
Unfortunately, the only reality one can take from this article is that two writers can write a more vapid article than one.
Julianne Pepitone and Adrian Covert gave it their all, starting with the caption under the main photo:
Apple is rumored to be working on a smartwatch and an “iTV,” but they’re niche products when compared to the iPhone and iPad.
Good grief. In an article just eight days prior, the very same CNN quotes a study that says the smartwatch market will increase almost fourfold in 2014 to $94.8 million, and then climb to a whopping $12 billion by 2020.
And television? Now there’s a niche market for you. As far as I can tell from my meager Googling, there are only 1.5 billion TVs in the world.
The bold subhead to the article elaborates on the headline, adding “substance” to the doubts about Apple’s ability to innovate:
Apple’s innovation problem is real. And it’s unlikely to silence the critics if it simply unveils multi-colored iPhones on Tuesday.
Bingo! If multi-colored iPhones are the only news tomorrow, I think we can all officially give up on Apple. However — I have this odd feeling that somehow, possibly, there just might be a bit more substance in Tuesday’s event. In fact, so does CNN. Just this morning, one day after this silly article appeared, they put up another story rounding up the new things Apple is likely to announce.
I won’t even blame Julianne and Adrian for that subhead. I’ll blame their editor. He/she is the one who is supposed to stop the writers from embarrassing themselves and CNN.
But it gets richer.
After pointing out that it will be tough to shake things up with a smartwatch or iTV, they explain that Apple doesn’t always invent things from scratch. It didn’t invent the PC, the MP3 player, the smartphone or tablet. It finds a market where competitors are stumbling, then steps in with “a highly-refined device full of features nobody has seen before.”
So — while Apple, the non-inventor, has revolutionized four categories with this method, that somehow isn’t going to work in the smartwatch and TV markets. Both of which currently feature competitors who have failed to capture the public imagination.
The writers distill it down to the essence for us: The problem for Apple is that the markets it’s about to jump into are all unproven.
Indeed. Just as it was a terrible problem when Apple jumped into the horribly unproven markets for music players, smartphones and tablets.
Of the “hot trend” of smartwatches, the writers say:
The wearable space is still extremely young, and Apple has to worry about both delivering a polished solution and convincing the masses that these devices are as necessary as laptops or smartphones.
Exactly. Because Apple certainly didn’t do that with tablets, did it.
Then the exciting conclusion:
Now does Apple need to latch on to every new tech trend to stay relevant? Not at all. But to focus entirely on its established products doesn’t seem like a smart strategy either.
Hmm. After explaining that smartwatches and iTV — products they believe Apple is working on — aren’t likely to succeed, they advise Apple that it shouldn’t focus entirely on existing products. Geez, make up your mind.
Honestly, you have to search real far and wide to find analysis this shoddy.
Don’t get me wrong. People are free to voice their opinions. It’s a free country. The only thing wrong here is that CNN continues to present these wacky opinion pieces as actual news — which only serves to confuse those who don’t follow technology as closely as we do.
CNN categorizes its front page stories under three simple titles: The Latest, More Top Stories and Opinion.
Please, CNN. Put the opinion pieces under the Opinion header. It’s not that hard.
Oh, and you’ll get extra points if those opinions had a bit of intelligence going for them.