The gadget web log Engadget Wednesday post a rumor that Apple ’s iPhone ship date would be delayed from June to October , a rumor that appears to have aim Apple ’s breed cost down more than three points — about 2.2 percent of the line of descent ’s value .
The post read , in part , “ we have it on potency that as of today , the iPhone launching is being pushed back from June to … October . ”
As you probably know by now , the rumor was delusive and establish on a fake national memo .
web log are routinely lambasted by the mainstream press as undependable sources of news because some report rumor as fact , and thereby get ripples of misinformation to spread .
Malus pumila fans , and especially Apple stockholders , are call in for an SEC investigation — not to refer the head of whoever create and leak the false memoranda . They ’re also blame web sign in general and Engadget in particular .
I retrieve they should count their blessings .
The news media of yesteryear — namely newspapers — sometimes impress simulated rumors , too . But in that intermediate corrections take a lower limit of 24 hour — not minutes — and tend to be kick downstairs to a broadly speaking disregard section of the newspaper book for corrections .
In the casing of the Engadget mail , the correction came within 20 minute , and Apple ’s stock price recovered almost like a shot .
Sure , it ’s potential that the fake memo was created and “ leaked ” deliberately to take down the stock terms so the scammer could buy low and then sell in high spirits after the recovery . The SEC may investigate this theory .
But that does n’t imply blogs are to blame . Unscrupulous traders have long had a variety of method for spreading rumor — especially since the Second Advent of the cyberspace . vitamin E - mail , message boards — you name it .
The difference with blogs is how quickly and sure they can correct false rumors . Before blog , rumors like this lingered for days or weeks before being gradually drive away . Now , all doubt can be completely erased in minute — thanks to blog .
It ’s also possible — I would reason , very potential — that Apple ’s fund terms , sales name and recent private-enterprise success are partly attributable to the piece of work of web log like Engadget . Gadget blogs — and , in the case of the Applesphere , Mac , iPod , iPhone and cosmopolitan Apple blog — have created more buzz over Apple mathematical product than perhaps any other spiritualist . And much of that buzz has focused on false rumour — usually of coolheaded raw products that never come about .
It ’s irrational to , on one script , evoke that yesterday ’s Engadget post was damaging to Apple or its shareowner and , on the other , to ignore the thousands of other posts on that web log and others that benefited , excited and informed Apple ’s fabled fan base ( and Wall Street ) .
It has to be said that , on the whole , blogs and even false rumors , have been very , very effective to Apple .
Apple fans and iPod partisan may not realize the significance of Amazon ’s promulgation this workweek . The online retail merchant said it would sell downloadable songs that , unlike most song available historically on iTunes , are DRM - freeand can be play on any player . As always , the threat comes from the fact that Amazon already has the credit add-in information of trillion of potential music customers , so buying will be easy .
Mike Elgan publish about applied science and global technical school culture . Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com or his blog , The Raw Feed .
