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Stephen

Do you have a reference from Apple that shows they ever nominated a target of 10 million phones *in* 2008 ?

I ask because I know you do not. This is a case of sloppy journalism, simply repeating errors made elsewhere on the web. Do your credibility a favour & find out to what time period that 10 million unit target applied.

You guys make the Google News pages, but obviously not for journalistic accuracy.

Correct your error.



Separately, despite *the fact* that Jobs did not nominate a target of 10 million in 2008, it appears that Apple may well achieve this figure.
However, if your phrase "it is not completely obvious" suggest you think such a result highly unlikely, then why not go on the record and say it won't happen ? Or is your meaning by "not completely obvious" quite similar to "entirely possible" or "quite likely" ?

Truly, I hope you guys are working for free or on a journalistic apprenticeship as, judging by the accuracy of this column, that is your level

Hi Damien,

That is a complete and utter load of nonsensical nonsense, and I can prove it to you, courtesy of Steven P Jobs, CEO of Apple Corporation, and I'm sorry to say that YOU are the one who does NO RESEARCH and simply enjoys being an unknowledgeable troll.

First, let's see what Mac Fanboi site 'MacDailyNews' has to say on the topic. You'll find the stuff I quote from at this address:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/16480/

Here, MDN say:

MacDailyNews Note: To make this perfectly clear, Apple's publicly-stated goal is 10 million iPhone units in 2008 alone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his Macworld Expo 2007 keynote address that Apple would set the goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008, the first full year on the market (Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone Introduction: Jobs' remarks on iPhone goals begin at 1:15:52 into the QuickTime video).

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf07/

On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 - 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple's goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008 (Apple's Q3 07 Apple Quarterly Results Call: Oppenheimer's remarks on iPhone goals begin at 6:05 into the QuickTime audio stream).

http://www.apple.com/investor/

Damien, if you watch that 2007 Macworld Keynote, you'll see that Steve Jobs at 1:42:33 (that's 1 hour, 42 minutes and 33 seconds in case you aren't familiar with the standard nature of time codes) - he starts talking about games consoles, mp3 players, PCs, Mobile phones.

Watch for a full minute. He says that 'last year' - meaning 2006, there were 1b phones sold. That 1b equals 1 billion. I explain this in detail because I'm not sure you're going to understand simple concepts.

Jobs says, and puts it up on his slideshow: 1% market share equals 10m units.

He talks a bit more about it, and says: 'We're going to see if we can grab 1% market share in 2008 and go from there.'

He also has 1% market share and 2008 in BIG NUMBERS. (Big so you can see them clearly, Damien).

Please, Damien, please go and watch. And then, please, do your research next time, like, maybe, seeing what Steve Jobs himself has to say before mouthing off.

You know, I happily accept criticism, especially when it is constructive. But when you make out and out accusations that we are not serious journalists, that we lack credibility, and all the rest, and I KNOW you are wrong because of what STEVE JOBS HIMSELF SAID...

Well... I'm very, very happy to tell you where to get off.

Cheers and thanks for reading, and taking the time to comment.

Alex.

So, Alex, why are you responding like you wrote it when the byline is "Stephen Withers"?

Hi Josh,

Do I have to explain it? Isn't it obvious?

Damien states: 'You guys make the Google News pages, but obviously not for journalistic accuracy. Correct your error.'

Further, Damien states: 'Truly, I hope you guys are working for free or on a journalistic apprenticeship as, judging by the accuracy of this column, that is your level'.

Damien's use of "you guys", and his comments, ignoring for a moment that we have both genders writing for iTWire, is an accusation of us all here at iTWire.

If you don't stand up for your own colleagues, your workmates, the team you are part of... especially when they have been unfairly accused... when do you stand up for anything?

I don't take kindly to being slandered, whether I have written the article, or not. Which I didn't - Stephen Withers is his own man, but I don't let criticism (that I don't agree with) of someone else's article with stand in the way of making my own commentary. I did it under my own name as well, I didn't hide behind a pseudonym or an anonymous first name - everything is out in the open.

And, just so it's clear, Damien's comment was very clearly a comment on iTWire as a whole, not just about Stephen's article.

I knew someone would ask this question after I'd published my comment, and thought perhaps I should make it clear, but upon reflection I didn't think it was necessary, all you had to do was to read Damien's comment to understand my frustration.

I hope this clears it up for you.

Cheers

Alex.

Calm down!!!

Damien made a mistake, which was pretty obvious to anyone who has watched that famous keynote, and heard the backpedaling from 1st year to 2008. He also made his point rather aggressively. However your response should have been a bit more factual, and less emotional, specially from professional journalists.

We all know the facts now, so lets move on. The second point Damien made was quite valid I think. Going along the present coarse Apple is unlikely to reach it's target of 10M. To achieve that they need to add more countries likely to buy iPhones in numbers. Trouble is that there really isn't any of these unless there is a 3G version. Lets face it, it had tanked in Europe a bit because of this, and the restrictive nature of the contract. My guess is that they are fixing both these issues before they roll out to other countries such as Australia.

I am not sure that the Canadian market is quite the same though. As I understand it Rogers is omnipotent over there, so maybe a wider ranging contract including multiple carriers may not be such an issue.

Hi Funkyg,

Ah, well, I was very factual in my response. Facts, figures, references, time codes, video clips, audio clips. Can't get more factual than that.

And yes, I was emotional. It wasn't even my article, but Damien calling into serious question the honesty and integrity of every writer on iTWire just really got to me last night when I wrote the comment, and I guess, at the time, I just wanted to leave him in no doubt whatsoever what I thought about his line of thought.

As for Apple's plans... it's a shame they're all still unknown, and that we are dealing with rumours. With Apple, we need to expect the unexpected.

If a 3G iPhone is launched, 2G iPhones could still be sold, and at a discount, making them even more attractive than they are now. Apple could also easily have different sales plans for different countries.

After all, even if you can buy an iPhone cheaper than you could in Canada, for example, Rogers still charges for phone calls and data - the price of the phone ultimately isn't that important if you're still going to end up using it in Canada. Rogers could give the iPhone away free to all its customers and still make a motza.

Much, but probably not all, will be revealed on June 9, if that is indeed the time and date at which Steven P. Jobs decides to unveil his plans and new hardware to the world. Which he may not. We'll just have to wait and see!

Alex.

Hi Funkyg,

Also, there was no backpedalling from Steve Jobs over 1st year to 2008.

If you watch carefully, Steve Jobs says "the first full year on sale".

6 months from mid 2007 to the end of 2007 is not "the first full year".

The first full year is January 1, 2008 to the very last day in December, 2008.

Steve Jobs doesn't mention financial years. It sounds very much to me like he is talking about a calendar year.

Cheers

Alex.

A un-interesting article (to me) suddenly turned great when commenters suddenly went wild!

Funny shiznit.

Good on you Damien and Stephen.

Remember: Normal person anonymity of the internet = jerk.

:)

God I hate Apple users...so self righteous.

have to agree with the first poster if for different reasons. credibility of some columnists is lacking.
alex in particular seems to pad anything on apple with tired prognostications qualified with lots of "but i guess the only person who really knows is jobs himself".
i stopped digging through his posts for anything of value a while back, only wish my rss reader gave me an indication of the author before i clicked through to read on.
overall, itwire is staying in my subscriptions because of its coverage of the australian telco / government scene which i find really helpful. keep up the good work, but show your readership the respect of spellchecking and proofreading for grammar before publishing.

off topic? for the article, sure. not for the brouhaha that came after.

"So maybe Australians will be able to spend their tax rebates on a shiny new 3G iPhone - without having to change mobile carriers or resorting to unofficial unlocking."

ummmmm, Australia isn't part of the United States so we wont be getting any of George Bush's tax rebates... they're actually raising taxes here.

Ben

Hi Craig,

Well, of course the only person that really knows is SJ and his team. I love pointing that out, especially when we are dealing with... rumours. Unless you have some other verifiable information, in which case feel free to share it.

Spell checking and grammar checking are always good to do, can't argue there.

Sorry you don't like me or my articles, Craig. Glad you're not my only reader or I'd be in real trouble, I guess.

Also, credibility is a two way street. The credibility of some readers who comment is sorely lacking at times. I'm not suggesting you, Craig, but Damien in particular is a perfect example. I note he's been very quiet since his initial outburst.

That said, we like all comments here at iTWire, whether they have credibility or not, good or bad, factual or fanciful. The comments can sometimes be more enjoyable than the article itself, whoever wrote the article, and whoever wrote the comments.

Cheers

Alex.

Why do people feel the need to be so snide or aggressive when pointing out what they think are spelling, grammatical or factual errors? Especially when there's a chance that the 'correction' is itself wrong.

It's becoming all too prevalent on this and other sites that allow unmoderated comments.

I suspect skythra was right about the risk of allowing anonymity. I know I hide behind a nom de plume, but I do try to keep myself nice.

It seems to me that many of the 'spelling mistakes' people complain about can be put down to finger trouble and differences between preferred spellings in various English-speaking countries rather than actual errors. Maybe I'm just more inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt.

If you do spot a mistake, why not follow the example of those who restrict their comments to something like 'shouldn't color be colour?' or 'don't you mean the ZX80, not the ZX89?'

And then you get people asserting that there's something factually wrong in an article without bothering to provide what they believe is the correct information. I say 'put up or shut up.'

Damien's original comment is a good example. He claimed the 10 million iPhone target didn't apply to 2008, but didn't provide what he believed was the correct information. Alex Zaharov- Reutt put that one to rest, but what was Damien's motivation? Was it a genuine mistake on his part? Does he work for a rival publication that's trying to discredit ITWire? Is he simply seeking attention? Who knows!

Then we have craig rubar's comment, casting aspersions about spelling and grammar without actually identifying any in the story. This is someone that doesn't bother with capital letters. Again, I question his motivation.

Also, making comments such as 'credibility of some columnists is lacking' is weaselly. If you're going to criticise someone, say who you are criticising and provide something to support your position.

Whether the iPhones sell 10 or 100 what is your concern or is it a matter of rubbing Jobs's face more important. Stick to facts and cut out the innuendo that will make you a better writer.
BTW for those who want to have perfect spelling in the their comments use Safari - it has an auto spellchecker.

Hey Hey, I thought you were reffering to the rebates George Bush is throwing at everyone in the US in an attempt to revitalise the economy (and improve his popularity).