Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino

When John Gruber, Apple's unofficial defence attorney, is shattered like this, you know it's bad. The stock market also agrees: ever since this Apple Intelligence debacle, Apple has lost several hundred billions of dollars in market value.

I can never understand this tired line. Do you and all the people who bleat the same thing also post the same thing about Nintendo and PlayStation bloggers? He’s an Apple commentator. Doesn’t it stand to reason that he does that full time because he’s fundamentally a fan of the company, rather than because he’s suborned his integrity in service of… getting to play with new Apple hardware a week before it goes on sale?

...Has Apple's stock dropped notably more than the overall market has, due to uncertainty about tariffs and other economic issues?

Agreed. And my impression is that Gruber is a thoughtful, careful writer. I don't know any details, but he must have a fair number of sources within Apple too. So when he writes this (uncharacteristic for him) piece just excoriating Apple's management, I'm pretty sure it's not just him being in a grumpy mood or being dramatic for click-bait. He must be aware that things related to Siri/Apple Intelligence are as bad or worse than they appear and that management doesn't have a good handle on it.

S&P is down 5% YTD, AAPL is down 12% YTD..

When Gruber talks like this, sh-- is really bad.

There is a different between a Fan of something, such as Nintendo and Playstation. And making reasons up simply to protect the company it loves. Which is what Gruber and DED on AppleInsider does.

USB-C Invented by Apple? AirPod selling at cost or loss? And countless other things.

Assume you are referring to "Apple's official defense attorney" and yeah, that's not fair to Gruber, as others point out he's a very good and thoughtful writer.

I'd say less "fundamentally fan of ..." and more "deeply understands ..."

It's interesting.

We talk about what happens when people put unrealistic standards on themselves they can't live up to, and the self-destructive cycles that can follow; but what happens when it happens to companies?

When a company defines themselves internally as "we're #1, we'll always be #1, because we're the best, we can always get away with these margins"? If the company starts losing, or falling behind, or is criticized for not innovating, they don't know how to cope. They start overcorrecting, overreacting, promising things early, overestimating their abilities, following trends... pride kills companies, just like people.

We live in a time in tech, where it seems to just be beginning at Apple, but ironically, their old partner Intel got so high on that feeling during the 2010s, then was burned to the point of struggling to maintain its existence as a unified entity. Apple in the 90s, and Intel right now, should be a massive warning to Apple that nothing is infallible.

In recent memory, Gruber criticized Apple’s butterfly keyboard and the handling of it for years, how it treats developers, how it was handling the DMA, its App Store policies and a few other things.

But most famously called Jobs saying you didn’t need apps on the phone a “shit sandwich”

Google is down 13% YTD due to Apple Intelligence!