Where by Cutting, They Mean ‘Increasing’

From an entry titled “Apple Cuts Expected Flash Memory Spending by $200M”, CNet’s Tom Krazit reports:

In February, iSuppli reported that Apple was slashing its orders of flash memory amid a weakening economy, but iSuppli wasn’t sure exactly how far the cuts would go. After crunching the numbers, iSuppli now expects Apple to spend $1.4 billion on flash this year for iPods and iPhones, up 12 percent from $1.2 billion last year. But the analyst firm, and the flash memory industry, had been expecting much more purchasing out of Apple, at least $1.6 billion.

And:

Plunging flash memory prices are expected to dent Intel’s first quarter, among other companies likely to be affected.

So, component prices for flash memory are “plunging” and Apple is still spending 12 percent more on flash memory than last year, and yet this somehow constitutes a “cut” because the increase is less than the number iSuppli — whose track record regarding Apple component analysis wavers between “wrong” and “really wrong” — simply made up out of thin air a few weeks ago. iSuppli’s original report in February claimed Apple was outright cutting flash memory orders — not just spending — year over year.

Krazit and CNet should know better than this. When has iSuppli ever reported something interesting about Apple that turned out to be true?

★ Monday, 7 April 2008