Time Techland
The latest rumor of a new Apple product prompted Harry McCracken to check the track record of Digitimes, the Taiwan-based website that frequently cites “industry sources” in passing along rumors of new products and features. Turns out Digitimes’ crystal ball is pretty cloudy (which means it must not be made by Apple):
When it comes to the big Apple stories, it’s wrong most of the time. Sometimes wildly so. … At least some of its sources appear to be so lousy that suppressing their scuttlebutt would make more sense than publicizing it — and partway through its stories, it sometimes stops hedging and starts stating the rumor as fact.
McCracken was able to assess the accuracy of 21 of 25 stories (the remaining four could turn out to be accurate) and found that 16 were completely or largely “off-base.” His advice: Ignore Digitimes’ stories unless you can confirm them. On a related note, did you hear about Apple’s latest game-changer, the iTV? || Related: David Cohn says everyone who can report substantially on tech industry is beholden to it | Is tech blogging over, or entering a new golden age?
(Thanks to Sarah F. Kessler for pointing this out.)
