Jackasses of the week

Yep, we’ve got ourselves a few new jackasses this week. John Gruber sums up the recent Gartner analysis with a equal parts humor and critique, that it actually make me laugh out loud.

Two days ago, Gartner “analysts” Mark Stahlman and Charles Smulders issued a report recommending that “Apple abandon the computer hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell”. Hello, Gartner? 1997 called and they want their advice for Apple back.

For those not following along, Apple just announced their quarterly earnings, and it was another record quarter for them:

• the most Macs ever sold in a single fiscal quarter (1.6 million)
• the most Macs ever sold in a fiscal year (5.3 million)
• strong quarterly profits ($546 million)
• high gross margins (29.2 percent)

Sorry, why exactly would Apple want to abandon the computer hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell?

Gruber goes on to further explain why Mark Stahlman and Charles Smulders are jackasses of the week, but he really sums it up nicely with one single sentence.

It’s hard to get a handle on the magnitude of the jackassery here.

So true, John. So true.