Apologies for the totally over-the-top headline but I was looking at two different stories this morning, which at first blush don't have much in common but seem connected in some way. The first is a story in the Observer about "Why the iPod is Losing Its Cool", and the second is about a conference in San Francisco later this month called the "Future of Web Apps" featuring - among others - Michael Arrington. So how are they connected? Well, they're both leading, lucrative brands in their respective industries with a huge amount of influence and little competition. The iPod is still the MP3 device to own despite efforts by Dell, Creative Labs, etc., while Arrington is arguably the King of Web 2.0 given TechCrunch is regarded as the arbiter of all things Web 2.0. Arrington's status as king was confirmed last month when Business 2.0 magazine had a photograph of him on the cover in a story about the business of blogs. What separates Arrington from many people in the Web 2.0 crowd is he's a true, dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur with the energy and drive to aggressively seize a huge and fertile opportunity. Steve Jobs is doing the same thing with the iPod by pumping out new iPods just to make sure competitors don't grab a market foothold. But - and this is a big but - at some point even the strongest brands can lost some of their zest. Maybe the Observer story, which talks about declining sales and a consumer "backlash", is a true depiction of the iPod but maybe it just reflects the idea consumers are always looking for the next new and shiny thing because even cultural icons like the iPod become to lose some momentum over time. The same thing could perhaps be applied to Arrington, who is seemingly everywhere and anywhere within the Web 2.0 world given his expanding empire (blogs, consulting gigs, start-ups, parties, conferences) Don't get me wrong, TechCrunch does a great job of covering the Web 2.0 landscape and it clearly continues to have a large following (96,312 FeedBurner subscribers). At some point, anyone/anything starts to lose some freshness. Perhaps it's the need to have new voices or maybe I'm sitting way too close to the "Web 2.0" fire that Arrington helps fuel. Will I stop reading TechCrunch? No. Are there any indications Arrington is losing his mojo? No. In a sense, Apple and Arrington face similar strategic challenges: maintaining their market leadership positions while, at the same time, keeping their brands vibrant and vital. No doubt, it's a nice problem to have.
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Mark Evansthe blog - examines the world of telecom and technology from a distinctly Canadian perspective.the person - lives in Toronto, CA with his wife and three children, and works as director of community with PlanetEye Inc. 
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Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Mark Evans
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 08:26 AM EDT | Permanent Link
Comments
Michael Arrington is now just a big fat liar
by
Anonymous
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 01:21 PM EDT | Permanent Link
I totally agree with you. I think these days Arrington does not even bother to install and try out apps before writing about them. Just look at the latest on his site:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/09/microsoft-launches-desktop-feed-reader/ Anyone who installs Max and reads Arrington's post would only think that Arrington has lost is mind. What he writes these days is total bullshit. He and his crony Marshall Kirkpatrick are churning out 100% crap day in and day out, just 'cause they have established a brand name for themselves. To add to that we have another outsider Om Malik who wants to become a tech guru when he does not even understand iota about technology. Since Om Malik was from Business2.0, Arrington managed to be on the front page of Business 2.0. This is the problem with Technology these days. Fools like Arrington and Om Malik want to teach people what is technology when they themselves don’t have a clue. Similar people are there all around in corporate world that somehow become managers and harass hardworking people like us with their nonsensical ideas. Just take a look at another of Arrington's venture: Foldera. People at Foldera have been proclaiming that more than 1 million people are interested in trying out their product that has not even been released. What a joke. Why will 1 million people be interested in a product that has not even been launched? Techcrunch was good at one time (maybe till end of 2005), but they are just trying to stay afloat and earn as much as possible. Re: Michael Arrington is now just a big fat liar
I think you're being a bit harsh. Max, looks cool, and from the post it does appear that he did install it. Is Max and RSS wunderkind? I think not. Is it a taste of interesting things to come, yes.
I would also say I think that Michael and Om, both of whom I know, know a lot more about technology than you give them crdit for. Foldera is an interesting example. I know several of the people there and it hasn't been released, true, but it isn't stagnant. There are beta users (I'm not one of them) and the roll out is underway. They are being very cautious in the rollout so they can meet the high expectations we all have Re: Michael Arrington is now just a big fat liar
i have to agree with tris about the harshness of your comment. arrington and techcrunch (and om, for that matter) have roles to play within the tech eco-system. to suggest they don't have some knowledge of their industries is just off the mark. they may not have the technical expertise but they've been around long enough to be pretty good judges of whether technology has a shot of success.
Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Tris Hussey
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 01:27 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Interesting Mark. Yeah good headline ... I think one of the surprising things about Techcrunch is how bloody fast it achieved such a large readership.
Now, we all (in the Web 2.0) space want Techcrunch to profile what we're doing. Lot's of brand power there. Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Rishi Khaitan
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 03:17 PM EDT | Permanent Link
I understand the point you are trying to make, but the comparisons you make seem a bit ridiculous.
Steve Jobs to Michael Arrington... Apple's iPod to TechCrunch... I mean seriously. These two companies and brands could not be more different. One is an innovative product company that has achieved one of the most successful brands amongst mainstream consumers worldwide. TechCrunch is a media company that has achieved success amongst bleeding-edge technologists. There's a huge difference between making products versus delivering news. Furthermore, here's a huge difference between marketing/selling to the mainstream consumer versus garnering (non-paying) eyeballs within a niche audience. Note that I'm not an Apple fanboy nor do I own an iPod or Mac. Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Anonymous
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 06:19 PM EDT | Permanent Link
For Foldera: Just do a "select count(*) from user_interested_in_foldera", and i am pretty sure the number is less than 1 million.
For Max: I am not blaming Microsoft for not delivering. It is Techcrunch which is glorifying a product that has features from year 2002 RSS reader. That kind of reader can be developed in a single day. We as readers don't want expect Techcrunch to lie. Re: Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Oliver Starr
on Sun 10 Sep 2006 11:54 PM EDT | Permanent Link
I thought I'd weigh in on this topic since as both the SVP of Business Development as well as the Chief Mobility Officer and Blogger for Foldera as well as the author of MobileCrunch, the second of the TechCrunch Network blogs I am uniquely qualified to speak on both counts.
Let me address the Foldera comment first. Please note that the individual criticisizing Foldera chooses to post anonymously. I have good reason to believe that this person is the same individual that has been making this identical comment for months. To what end I have no idea but he likes to twist what we have said. Since opening our site to accept pre-registrations for the open beta we have had more than 12,000 companies request over 2,000,000 seats on the application. At times this has been mistated as more than one million registrants but we have done our best to correct this misinformation in spite of certain individual's attempts to portray us in a negative or dishonest light. As Tris Hussey said, we continue to make substantial progress on rolling out the application and with some key new hires and some additional investment capital that has been used to further deploy infrastructure Foldera is on schedule based upon our current plan. Because we are a public company I am not at liberty to divulge more at this time. As for TechCrunch and Arrington what can I say? Success begets envy and envy begets enemies. I believe that Mike continues to work as hard as ever to do the same excellent job he always has in profiling web 2.0 companies. He is a tough act to follow as I can testify since in spite of my best efforts MobileCrunch although arguably one of the biggest blogs covering mobile applications has not come close to attracting the same size audience as TechCrunch. Marshall Kirkpatrick has certainly come under a lot of criticism from TC readers. Again, Mike is a tough act to follow and people have not been charitably inclined towards Marshall. Keep in mind that it's a lot easier to mature along with your audience (as Michael did) than jump right into a blog with an RSS of 80,000 as Marshall did. Granted there have been a few instances when Marshall was a bit quick on the draw with regards to certain posts and got his head handed to him by TC readers in short order but it's not easy being an author on a popular blog and I've noticed a fairly viscious tone amongst readers of a lot of the blogs lately so maybe it's just endemic and we should get used to it. In any case, I don't grudge Michael his success or Marshall his, I'm very pleased with the progress that we're making at Foldera and expect that soon those that are interested will get a chance to see what I mean first hand. As for our anonymous heckler, he should find something else to occupy his time as he's going to look really foolish when we do oficially launch but then there seems to be one jerk in every crowd so I guess we'll just let him sound off like a broken record while we go about building a great application. Sincerely, Oliver Starr http://mobilecrunch.com http://folderablog.com Re: Re: Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
oliver,
thanks for weighing. as i think you picked up, the focus of the post was more about how to stay on top - which gets increasingly more challenging the bigger you get. mark Re: Michael Arrington Must be Stopped (or The Big Brand Challenge)
by
Anonymous
on Sun 09 Sep 2007 03:38 AM EDT | Permanent Link
I am particularly amused by the headline Arrington used in pimping Foldera: "Never Organize Your Inbox Again". Take a look at Foldera. The headline makes perfect sense when you add "You Will Never Organize Your Inbox Using Foldera Because We Will Never Launch". I got a demo of the service and I was thinking, this is the rocket science that you guys don't dare release??? WTF? It is like who cares? Have these guys ever heard of ClearContext or Neo?
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