iPhone, lies and statistics

I have to chuckle when sites like Engadget say stupid things like “we’re getting ripped off” because Apple may be making a 50 percent profit on the iPhone.

Well Engadget, how much profit do you think you make per post? I guarantee it’s way above 50 percent. Burn them at the stake; we’re getting ripped off! Engadget feeds people this B.S. because the more people read it, the better the profit for Engadget. How ironic is that? Keep in mind that Engadget got its info from iSuppli.

So why is Engadget full of B.S.?
Cost of parts does not equate cost of goods sold, and that’s how Engadget positions the post. I’ll give them credit for adding “if these numbers are to be trusted,” but cost is not the same thing as value created either.

Skip Engadget and go straight to iSuppli on this one
iSuppli did the right thing and explained that hardware cost isn’t the same thing as total cost. Marketing anyone? PR costs? Strategic partnerships? Shareholders? (Don’t say that evil word. Those bastards gave us lots of money to make our company better so that we could get to the point to even develop the iPhone. They expect a return. Those bastards. How dare you mention shareholders?). Go buy a ROKR instead. This stuff isn’t free.

“While iSuppli has a high degree of confidence in its conclusions, these figures are considered preliminary until we perform an actual physical teardown and analysis of the Apple iPhone.”

iSuppli does an excellent job of spelling out how the research could be weak, and I give them major props for focusing on something that people are interested in. There’s a big lesson to be learned from these guys about how to use research to get some serious press coverage. Too bad the media is screwing it up.

A little disclosure
(Cue hate mail. I called out Engadget once for being Apple fan-boys, and someone over there got VERY mad at me. They even sent emails to my boss telling him to reconsider the kind of people he hires. Are you serious? Yes. I was accused of “trolling” because I used my Yahoo! email at home and a different email at work. So, when they said “you’ve been trolling” I didn’t know what the person meant because . . . well, I was making comments as the same guy, under two different email addresses and didn’t think anything of it. The argument was that PR people (which they said shouldn’t comment or something like that) should hold a higher standard. I guess that means the press can criticize PR, but PR can’t criticize the press. Go figure).

More on Engadget
I will say this though, Engadget has some of the best Apple fan-boy coverage available. Despite “our past,” it’s the site I go to for Jobs’ keynotes. Calacanis is right when he said Peter Rojas is a genius for coming up with the “liveblog” idea for covering press conferences. This idea alone is creating a whole new meaning for the words “news” and “timely,” and it won’t be long before journalism professors are talking about “how media is changing” using this very example. Nicely done Peter.