Barnako Bungles Video iPod Claim
Newsday this week published an article detailing the many problems facing Apple's new video iPod. Among the concerns cited was numerous consumer complaints at Internet message boards. The newspaper also included a less than glowing assessment of the device's small video screen.
However, Frank Barnako, the Internet columnist for the Dow Jones-owned financial news site, MarketWatch, charged today that Newsday based the negative article "almost solely" on the opinions of yours truly.
"Phillip Swann says the video iPod is a bust because he says so," Barnako wrote in today's "Internet Daily" column, which appears at marketwatch.com and barnako.com. "He cites an article published by Newsday critical of the video iPod, almost solely due to quotes by Swann."
Barnako was referring to today's Swanni Sez e-mail newsletter which noted the Newsday article under the headline: "Apple's Video iPod In Trouble?"
I wrote in today's newsletter that despite Apple's partnerships with NBC and ABC that it was unlikely that the video iPod would succeed. (I first made this prediction six months ago when the device was launched.) I said that few Americans will be interested in watching video on the device's small 2.5-inch screen.
Barnako seems to think that the sheer power of my argument somehow persuaded the Newsday reporter, Diane Werts, to write a negative article about the video iPod.
"It's just that telling a reporter something for which you cite no evidence and having the reporter write it, doesn't make it fact."
But the Newsday article actually quotes me offering evidence of the video iPod's problems. I told Werts that a studio president has disclosed that more than half of Apple's video downloads were being viewed on PCs and laptops and not the video iPod itself. (Apple is selling NBC and CBS episode downloads designed for the iPod for $1.99 each.)
If that's true, that would suggest that Apple's claim that the video iPod is gaining acceptance is suspect at best.
At Barnako.com, I posted a comment explaining that Newsday actually had cited more evidence than my remarks. I also noted the article's reference to my comment about the studio president. I told Barnako that the studio president was from NBC.
Barnako dismissed my response, saying: "NBC? Don't think so. I think you confused your self-supplied testimony."
However, I then posted at Barnako.com another response that included a link to a April 4, 2006 article in The New York Times that quotes Rick Finkelstein, the president of Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, as saying that Universal's research "showed that the majority of those (video) downloads were watched on computer screens, not video iPods."
I'm not sure why Barnako is attacking me, and Newsday, for that matter. Oddly, he also criticizes my web site for being too "self-promoting."
However, he doesn't mention that on his web site that he has a promo for his daily podcast at -- yes, that's right -- Apple's iTunes store. The very place where -- yes, that's right -- Apple sells downloads for the video iPod.
Well, isn't that special?
For more news on TV technology, click TVPredictions.com
However, Frank Barnako, the Internet columnist for the Dow Jones-owned financial news site, MarketWatch, charged today that Newsday based the negative article "almost solely" on the opinions of yours truly.
"Phillip Swann says the video iPod is a bust because he says so," Barnako wrote in today's "Internet Daily" column, which appears at marketwatch.com and barnako.com. "He cites an article published by Newsday critical of the video iPod, almost solely due to quotes by Swann."
Barnako was referring to today's Swanni Sez e-mail newsletter which noted the Newsday article under the headline: "Apple's Video iPod In Trouble?"
I wrote in today's newsletter that despite Apple's partnerships with NBC and ABC that it was unlikely that the video iPod would succeed. (I first made this prediction six months ago when the device was launched.) I said that few Americans will be interested in watching video on the device's small 2.5-inch screen.
Barnako seems to think that the sheer power of my argument somehow persuaded the Newsday reporter, Diane Werts, to write a negative article about the video iPod.
"It's just that telling a reporter something for which you cite no evidence and having the reporter write it, doesn't make it fact."
But the Newsday article actually quotes me offering evidence of the video iPod's problems. I told Werts that a studio president has disclosed that more than half of Apple's video downloads were being viewed on PCs and laptops and not the video iPod itself. (Apple is selling NBC and CBS episode downloads designed for the iPod for $1.99 each.)
If that's true, that would suggest that Apple's claim that the video iPod is gaining acceptance is suspect at best.
At Barnako.com, I posted a comment explaining that Newsday actually had cited more evidence than my remarks. I also noted the article's reference to my comment about the studio president. I told Barnako that the studio president was from NBC.
Barnako dismissed my response, saying: "NBC? Don't think so. I think you confused your self-supplied testimony."
However, I then posted at Barnako.com another response that included a link to a April 4, 2006 article in The New York Times that quotes Rick Finkelstein, the president of Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, as saying that Universal's research "showed that the majority of those (video) downloads were watched on computer screens, not video iPods."
I'm not sure why Barnako is attacking me, and Newsday, for that matter. Oddly, he also criticizes my web site for being too "self-promoting."
However, he doesn't mention that on his web site that he has a promo for his daily podcast at -- yes, that's right -- Apple's iTunes store. The very place where -- yes, that's right -- Apple sells downloads for the video iPod.
Well, isn't that special?
For more news on TV technology, click TVPredictions.com
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