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Zach Bass (a.k.a Ernie Varitimos) is Chief Bloviator of Investor in the Wilderness. He has 30 years experience as a Tech Maven, Investor and Consultant. Zach has been using Macs since their introduction in 1984, and investing in the markets just as long. His mission is to help guide all level of investors through the Apple Ecosphere and make sense of the markets. Zach's take on Apple, the markets, and life pursuits, will keep your mind tuned.

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Toni Sacconaghi Hit Job on Apple’s iPhone

June 19th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi published the results of a May survey of 105 U.S. and European CIOs concerning their purchasing plans of high profile products like iPhones and Vista. The results, according to the survey, don’t bode well for enterprise adoption of the iPhone.

I have two problems with this study. First of all it was conducted in May, well ahead of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), from which details were released that would undoubtedly sway many of these CIO’s opinions. Secondly, Toni Sacconaghi was behind the survey, a well known Apple antagonist, that seems bent on diss’ing everything Apple by manipulating statistics and warping his analysis.

The problem with this report is not the content, but the message it’s trying to deliver. Apparently, Bernstein wants you to believe that the iPhone has no place in the corporate arena. Anyone with an ounce of sensibility knows that the iPhone is not just a smart phone, it’s a revolutionary mobile computing platform. It’s by all accounts disruptive technology, the black swan, that’s taking the world by storm. Evidenced by the fact that it will be soon shipping in virtually every industrialized country in the world.

Toni is trying to single handedly position the iPhone as a consumer-only device, as he was quoted saying, “I think most investors are looking to the iPhone as being principally a consumer device.” You think? Or do you know, Mr Sacconaghi? We’re interested in what you “know,” not what you think, because we all know where your thinking has gotten you with past blunders, like the case of the 1.4 million missing iPhones. Another firestorm started by Toni, with obvious malicious intent.

How about this quote, and inane conclusion, that can only be described as a logical fallacy know as non sequitur, where the conclusion does not follow the premise.

“Our CIO survey suggests that corporate iPhone use will be driven by employees purchasing their own iPhones, rather than company-wide deployments…” “If this persists, it may ultimately limit iPhone penetration into the corporate space.”

Did Toni ever hear of the Trojan Horse effect of Apple’s design aesthetic? Did he even bother to survey the 35 percent of the Fortune 500 companies working with Apple to evaluate business software for the iPhone? I’m sure they weren’t on Toni’s short list of survey takers. Did he even bother to talk to Apple’s principle customer, small businesses with 200 or fewer employees? These users far outnumber the Fortune 500 by many orders of magnitude.

And what about and institutes of higher education like Abeline Christian University, or Vanderbilt University, that plan on making the iPhone integral with virtually every student activity? The fact is, Toni has always been known to manipulate the facts to suit some hidden agenda, either that or he’s simply out of touch with the rest of the world. 

Check out the following video, and tell me that the iPhone and iPod Touch are not going to break new ground in the way we do everything. A new era is upon us Toni, come on in, we’re a very forgiving bunch, we don’t want anyone left behind.

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{democracy:2}



 

  • 123apple
    Zach... I think I love you. You have been extremely helpful to Apple investors and you truly seem to care that people do well with their investments in the stock. Keep up the fantastic reports.
  • yet another steve
    Honestly, guys like Toni are our friends. They help us buy low.
    Earnings and results will help us sell high.
  • artman1033
    Toni the tool!
    Hey Ernie! Watch out you are getting groupies!
  • Yeah, pretty soon I'm gonna have to slip out of back doors ;-)
  • Nose Dalton
    For secure Email, and lack of problems, you can't beat the Blackberry.
    The Blackberry is like a radio, while the iPhone is a TV
    When his opinions are proven wrong, investors will lose respect for his opinions
  • curmudgeon
    Yes, because so look what's happened to Jim Cramer. His track record is awful and nobody listens to him at all.

    Oops. Sorry, I was thinking of an alternate universe there.

    And I'd say that a more apt analogy is that the Blackberry is like a teletype machine, while the iPhone is like - oh, well, let's see - a fully-featured, modern, multi-media computing platform.

    and Zach, please do keep up the good work.
  • I've thought about leaning into Cramer many times. But I'm not of the mind to start a rant just for the sake of the rant. Besides, Cramer is now officially an entertainer, he can't help himself, it's his job to shake things up.

    Toni just pushed me over the edge. I'm amazed how analysts like him, Eric Savitz, even Shaw Wu (although he's usually an Apple bull) keep their jobs. They're supposed to be servicing their clients, yet they're wrong so often, it makes one's head spin.
  • taojones
    who would NOT want this device? Pundits on both sides use weighted deceptive language they say phrases like "significant differences" when they mean "measurable" ( i don't consider a tenth of a precent "significant")
    and like the commercial says "you can prove anything with 90 precent of the statistics 50 precent of the time"
    I don't see how a 45% increase in profits (adobe last week) could "disappoint " anybody but an idiot yet there were the reporters "adobe disappoints" as a headline. its reporting like this that put an inarticulate idiot in charge of our country i hate that the same bull materially affects my wallet but hey what the heck half the people you meet will be below average (forgive me) i guess they are Toni's readership
  • Toni and his employer, Sanford Bernstein, think they are they center of the universe, that they make the news. The products, companies and investors are simply their playground.
  • Jeff
    Since here in Europe almost all employees ask(!) their bosses for a G3 iPhone, prefering it above a Nok, I guess your 'Trojan Horse' theory is a quite well one Zack. Just as other Apple products wich were doubted in history and eventualy became a booming succes, this will do for the iPhone double.

    Many 'hip' companies here in Amsterdam have already donated the (hacked) iPhone to their employees: except for the brilliant functionality, it's a status symbol aswell. That's how it works here. Best of both worlds.

    Once people seen and feel this machine, the moment they know: I want to have an iPhone.
    Just wait until after july 11th and see what's gonna happen here ;-)
  • I've already got the money set aside to buy the new 3G iPhone when it hit's the shelve. My old one will go to my youngest daughter. Her older sister already has one. And you know, my wife's cell phone just went on the blink. She's gonna be a tougher sell because she's a gadget luddite.
  • bionzo4
    right on... as a production manager for exhibition and fair systems i can see the obvious benefits of the iphone in a company for construction and faires so in the heat of work information and communication is at each workers hand and with gps its easy to find the appropiate worker near by to fix the job. The producitivity of the iphone will be the driving force for i phone sales and it is a no brainer to employ the iphone for econimical and logistic reasons. bionzo4
  • It seems like all Telcos subsidizing iPhone's high cost have all reported lower than expected earnings.
  • Blackberry is good to be a phone, but how can you compare it with a memory so huge in size. If you just need a phone to be manage your business than go for blackberry, but if you need something to move with you in all aspects than I thing you should try apple.
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