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	iMac News: Apple gets mishandled by popular press on announcements by: Anthony Frausto-Robledo ([email protected]) 1999.10.07
	Did Apple get bad coverage from the popular press on the new iMac and Mac OS 9? After reviewing much of the press coverage on Apple's new announcements at the Flint Center it became clear to me that the popular press was doing an extremely poor job of making note of the important new features in the new iMacs. They also did a poor job with Mac OS 9, but let's just stick to the new iMacs for now. In a companion article we looked at (a random sampling) the press coverage systematically, noting the actual coverage of the new features in the iMacs. You can click here to see that chart. Essentially, with the exception of ZDNet and a few others all of the popular press articles on the new iMacs failed to mention a majority of the new features -- many of which clearly differentiate Apple's iMacs from any competition in the PC market. For instance, almost all of the articles failed to mention the iMac's wireless AirPort card technology. Those that did mention it failed to explain it and call it by its name. The 128-bit RAGE graphics card was also omitted on most occasions. That's important technology that matters in this consumer/game oriented market. Others failed to mention FireWire and the Harman Kardon sound system. Not ironically, most mentioned the least valuable new feature: no-fan, convection cooling system. Need we by surprised? "One of the worst articles was from the New York Times, where John Markoff somehow forgets to mention half of the new features and fills his article instead with negative facts (like chip shortages and the Taiwan earthquake) and emphasis on the least important new features, like convection cooling." In the NY Times article John Markoff goes as far to say and suggest that the new iMacs are nothing more than hot-air, and have no "traditional performance enhancements": hence, no value. Well! John needs to go back to journalism school because he failed to catch some amazing new "performance enhancing" features in the new iMacs. "Trumpeting 'amazing features,' he [Jobs] at times seemed to parody late-night 'infomercials' as he talked up iMac capabilities that have little to do with traditional performance enhancements." - John Markoff Those traditional performance enhancements that John fails to see are either there or they are not "traditional", for he fails to mention the AirPort wireless technology, Harman Kardon sound system, and the 128-bit graphics card. He even forgot to mention the slot drive CD-ROM. Yes! wireless AirPort cards are not traditional, but Internet connectivity is. And connecting anywhere without wires within 150 feet of a base station is definitely a performance improvement. The improvement is in the flexibility the Airport technology buys you, not to mention the money you save from wiring your whole house with Ethernet. And since when is a 128-bit graphics card not a traditional performance improvement? And yet John's article for the New York Times is just one of many such articles with tainted bias against the new iMacs. Closing Comments To get a real look at the poor and biased journalism regarding the new iMac go to our companion article with links and rating chart. After reading the chart you will notice that most of the great new features that make the iMac a killer machine for the price are simply overlooked -- and intentionally so, for how do you fail to not mention wireless AirPort card technology in the same article that you mention that Microsoft is targeting Internet integration technologies. Come on! These articles just stink of the type of anti-Mac sentiment that us Mac users have had to put up with everywhere we go. "I can hear it now in November 2000: "all of this season's home PC's have wireless Internet card slots built-in, FireWire ports for video camcorders, easy-to-use video editing software, 128-bit graphics cards, convection cooling, non-breakable DVD slot drives and, yes, Harman Kardon sound systems to boot!" If Apple and its great machines threaten the PC world so much, then why even cover them in the news at all? Really, all these writers are doing (with some exceptions, notably ZDNet) are painting a false picture of Apple and its amazing new machines. The irony is, this time next year those same writers will all be hyping up these very same features in PC's. I can hear it now in November 2000: "all of this season's home PC's have wireless Internet card slots built-in, FireWire ports for video camcorders, easy-to-use video editing software, 128-bit graphics cards, convection cooling, non-breakable DVD slot drives and, yes, Harman Kardon sound systems to boot!" And they may even come in all-in-one colored creations with see-through plastics -- so long as they create their own shape and not rip off Apple's -- and feature an integrated handle. Wow! Amazing! Just think what you can get next year for the holiday season. Is it always going to be this same old story?   To send comments to Anthony Frausto-Robledo, click here. Click here for more info on the publisher.

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