Is Apple Running Scared?

There are numerous unwritten rules in business. Some are well known, like "no corporate rumor is true until it's been denied." Others are not so well-known. One of these is: "don't bash the competition if you're winning."

The reasoning behind that rule is simple. When you're ahead of the game, talking about the competition just gives them credibility and makes them seem more of a threat.

That's why whenever I see a technology vendor trash a competitor, it tell me that the trash-talker is getting worried. Big time. And that's what I took away from Steve Jobs' recent appearance at a Wall Street conference call about the company's earnings.

This is the first time in two years that Jobs has shown up for this kind of briefing, which already suggests that Apple is feeling worried enough to bring out the big gun. But it was what he actually said that made me think Apple is running scared.

Jobs knocked the rival tablet vendors like Dell and Samsung, which seemed completely gratuitous. More importantly, his criticism (that the 7" tablets were too small) is a competitive element that is trivial and easily fixed, if it ends up limiting the sale of those devices.

Here's the rub. Apple already faces some pretty serious competition in the smartphone market as the result of Android, and if the only thing stopping a similar competitive threat in the tablet market is screen-size, then Apple's dreams of dominating the color tablet market may be a pipe dream.

I could be wrong, of course, but I think that Jobs (who is a very smart guy) knows all too well (from past experience) that being first in a market doesn't mean you'll dominate the space. Remember how cool the Macintosh was... until Microsoft Windows emulated most of what made it cool?

I'm curious what you guys think, so here's a "fill in the blank" poll: