Boy, oh boy.
I think that the people out there who are either in leadership positions or in high-profile punditry are a bit deficient in imagination and anticipation.
I just heard an interview with a Gartner analyst who emitted the often-heard disclaimer, “I don’t think anyone anticipated…” that Apple would release their Safari browser for Windows.
Well, I anticipated it, reasoning that Apple’s addition of a “Safari” button on the iPhone meant that they were expanding the market for that brand — as opposed to a button named “Web”, which wouldn’t help brand Safari.
And ZDNet talked about this six months ago.
It seems as if pundits now do no research, pay no attention to what is going on around them, and just make their money by reacting in surprise at things that the rest of us saw coming but that they didn’t anticipate.
They must have learned that this is the best way to claim ignorance and get away with things, a strategy that has served members of the Bush administration for years now.
“I don’t think anyone could have anticipated…” that someone would fly planes into buildings. That the war would go on so long. That stacking the judicial system with political shills would be frowned upon. That…
I tried installing Safari yesterday, but it doesn’t like my computer; the menus and button bars don’t display properly. But that was about how the WWDC appeared to go for Apple, the announcement that “outside” apps for the iPhone are limited to recreating AJAX versions of the existing apps on the phone was met with yawns. And Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing an iPhone and mentioned yesterday that he was underwhelmed so far.