Rob Enderle is a Moron

Tue, Apr 28, 2009

Analysis, Featured, News

Seriously, how does Rob Enderle get paid to write about tech?  He’s not a hot chick, and this isn’t Mad Men, so how in the world did he manage to convince anyone to give him money in exchange for his moronic ramblings?

In his latest “article”, Enderle tries to argue that Apple has a PR problem due to the fact that Babyshaker was briefly available in iTunes for a few hours last Thursday.

Apple was having a good month until last week. Sales were up explosively — at least, for the iPhone and iPod — but all of that good news was trashed when the company first allowed a questionable application onto the iPhone and then killed it without explanation. Already, the tone surrounding Apple appears to be changing.

Actually Apple is still having a good month.  It’s earnings were stellar and it hit 1 Billion App Store downloads.  As for the “questionable application”, it simulated violently shaking a baby to quiet it down.  It seems pretty obvious to me why Apple decided to axe it.  And as for the changed tone surrounding Apple, Enderle links to a completely irrelevant article regarding Tim Cook’s statements about netbooks.

Huh?  What is Enderle smoking?

I’m not sure what Apple could have done — short of actually shaking a real baby — that would have upset more people. Its actions spotlighted what appears to be a horribly ineffective PR department, as well as a tragically inconsistent process for vetting applications prior to posting them on Apple’s service.

It’s kind of hard to find where Enderle is going with this.  An app passed Apple’s review process when it shouldn’t have.  When made aware of the situation, Apple removed the offensive application and issued an apology.  Seems like pretty standard PR to me.  It’s not as if Apple developed the babyshaker app itself.

At this writing, I still don’t have any real idea of what the purpose of the shaking baby application was, but it did make the related problem — and avoidable tragic result — more visible. If this visibility resulted in saving one baby’s life, the method could likely be forgiven — even by the groups most upset over it, given that the outcome would be consistent with their own goals.

So now Endlerle sees some sort of educational utility in the Babyshaker app?  Why of course he does, because it then gives him the opportunity to chide Apple for censoring free speech!

Going to the core of all of this is free speech and censorship. In this instance, there may be… two groups focused on doing the same good deed, while disagreeing as to the method. In choosing one side, Apple effectively entered as censor with a possible adverse impact: That one life that might have been saved will now be lost.

Oh I get it.  The app was there to promote awareness and prevent parents from shaking their kids.  How dare Apple remove the app?!  Think of all the babies that are going to die as a result.  It’s truly shocking.  I mean right now there are innumerable iPhone owners out there with no idea how to quiet a baby down without resorting to shaking.  Kudos to you, Mr. Enderle, for taking a vigilant stand against Apple!

Enderle then retreats back to his original “Apple has horrible PR” argument.

Some time ago, I chatted with a top PR professional who had been recruited by Apple and refused to even participate in an interview because she felt that being connected to the firm would eliminate any future she had in the profession.

This was because Apple’s PR reputation was so bad it was only matched, sometimes, by Google. It continues to amaze me that a company known for marketing prowess and excellence would allow this complete lack of quality to exist within it. While Apple can and should be admired for many things, when it comes to PR, it remains the worst of the worst,

I call BS.  The idea that working in Apple’s PR department would ruin an individual’s professional future seems either made up, or the thought process of a loon.  And Apple’s PR being the worst of the worst?  Uh..okay.

So there you have it, folks.  Another gem from our good friend Rob Enderle.  Notice how his anti-Apple bias shines through as he criticizes Apple for letting the Babyshaker app into the app store, and then criticizes Apple once again for removing when it could potentially save lives.  Then he goes off on a Freedom of Speech rant, which only serves to illuminate the fact that he literally has no concept of what Freedom of Speech actually is.

Enderle should stick to writing about something he knows, whatever that might be.

As I said before, Robe Endrle is a moron.

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13 Comments For This Post

  1. Ravi Khalsa Says:

    The real issue is Enderle’s conflict of interest. He’s working for companies that benefit from his smearing Apple and not disclosing it.

  2. Don Says:

    I disagree. Rob “Never Right” Enderle is definitely NOT a moron. He has been making money for years by “selling” his predictions to various corporations and journals. The real morons consist of anyone who considers anything he writes or says as having any value. It’s as if they totally ignore his record of bad guesses and total failure. No, morons don’t make lots of money selling stupid and incorrect information. Morons BUY and believe stupid and incorrect information.

  3. mark Says:

    Apple had a PR person named Lynn Fox. She now seems to be the chief PR spokesperson for Palm. She’s evidence one can have a future in the profession even after working for Apple (altho I’m not sure Palm has much of a future).

  4. MacPredictions Says:

    I love it when you write stuff like this. Hilarious, and well said 🙂
    Still loving the site.

  5. Kevin J. Weise Says:

    Actually, Enderle’s really not a moron; he’s a hit whore. Of course, that still doesn’t mean he knows anything about tech. Nevertheless, if Enderle makes money spewing his garbage to get people to click on his site, I don’t see why you guys shouldn’t get a few hits for calling him on his hypocrisy.

  6. Bruce A Says:

    He’s a troll. When people keep paying attention to him it just gives him credibility, ESPECIALLY when Mac users get all flustered and start talking about how wrong he is.

    Just stop paying attention to the troll.

  7. Jocca Says:

    Well said. Just ignore him and he will simply disappear from our consciousness.

  8. CouchGuy Says:

    The best thing we could do about… old what’s-his-name… is forget he exists. No more links to his trolls, no more Tweets and blog entries that link to him. And no mention of his name. Ever. Turn him into Mr. Invisible — the Man the Web Forgot. Then he could talk to himself all he wants and…

    Heck… who WAS it we were talking about, again?

  9. Les Says:

    I kill-filed Rob Enderle stuff ages ago. Next, you’ll be telling me that John Dvorak is still alive also.

  10. smartcow Says:

    The comments to Rob’s article are even more frightening. He takes his Al Gore bashing to an insanely high level for reasons he never fully addresses. But the most confusing part of it is confusing the Apple FCC license on a mobile phone with an FCC broadcast license! Then uses that ridiculous argument to push his free speech issues, ironically asking if it would be okay for Apple to block Fox News from its application list, but blatantly disregarding the clear bias that exists on the Fox News network which has an FCC broadcast license and is supposed to be used for the public good!

  11. D9 Says:

    Yes, I can’t think of 2 companies with worse reputations and lousy brand-awareness than Apple and Google…other than perhaps what happens to Ballmer when I say this word 3 times…

    Vista…Vista…Vista!

  12. Sean Says:

    Thanks for the heads-up on ol’ Rob. We all know he is a Microsoft apologist and devout Apple execrate. Im very glad you are there to call him on it.

    Thanks for all your hard work. Love the site and read it daily.

  13. Martin Hill Says:

    You can see why the New York Times banned the use of any of Enderle’s statements back in Dec 2006 in recognition of his blatant Microsoft-boosterism and twisting of facts.

    Rob Enderle is well-known for a history of smear campaigns against Apple, Linux, Sun and others and his very pro-Microsoft stance in every “analysis” he has every hawked to the press. He quite infamously championed SCO in their thinly-veiled Microsoft-sponsored campaign to sue Linux out of existence and every article he has ever written about the iPhone has had a negative spin.

    it is very sad that he continues to get an audience.

    -Mart

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