Fascinating moment there, but which journalist? No link?

Empty starbucks cups are standard issue for Apple flacks. It makes their hand fidgeting that less creepy.

thanks valleywag for this entertainement.

This is ugly, the lady seems really agressive in a bad way. I am so glad I don't work for apple or in PR. Maybe It's just business.

Apple is the next MicroSoft, time to switch[back] to linux so a friend told me.

Wow that was pretty bad. Apple's PR should have acted a lot more professionally, and could have been nicer!

Apple is a VERY controlling company. All of their products which we have ever reviewed have been purchased by us directly. Apple will not send a product out unless they can control the review process. This mentality is obviously built into their very fiber.

What is the source?!

I'd tell the reporter to get lost too. This whole iPod monopoly thing has been done to death. I guess the only thing I would have done differently would be to spend less time trying to justify the decision to this guy.

uh, why on earth would a journalist waste any time telegraphing the word 'monopoly' to a pr flack? that's just bad journalism. kudos to apple for keepin' it real...

Apple and MS are joined at the hip ethically, there is really no difference.

Apple's having much smaller market share allowed them to junk their old bloated OS in favor of OS X, a good thing. But watch the closed parts of the OS get junked up and bloated with each new release, adding features nobody's even asked for just to justify another release. Their failure to even make an effort in the server market is telling.

Amazon's DRM free music will catch up to them pretty fast I think and they will never come anywhere near a monopoly position with phones.

The three legs (PCs, iPods, iPhones) holding up the Apple stool are all getting shorter at once. I think their luck is about to run out (again).

(But Microsoft won't be the beneficiary this time, they have their own problems.)

The journalist, Ben Cohen, is an ass. But then so is Phil. This must have been some preview for them both of Dante's 9th level of hell

This looks like it may have been poor preparation from a PR perspective. There didn't seem to be any pre-prepared answers for difficult questions and Schiller didn't seem to be well media trained. He looked like a rabbit in the headlights.

The iTunes / iDevice monopoly question could have been really easily answered. I am not too sure that the PR people were afraid of the journalist, but instead may have been afraid of their own people.

Finally the UK press have a reputation for being much more challenging and probing than their US counterparts.

Bad video, yes, but I also have a small amount of sympathy for them.

Last thing is it me or does Schiller look a bit like a clean shaven Woz and what has happened to his Billy Ray Cyrus-style mullet and acid washed denim shirts?

@renaissancechambara: you had me at "Billy Ray Cyrus-style mullet"

@AWESOMESAUSAGE you got to respect a man willing to step that far outside the envelope for senior executive attire just a little bit. However if he ever gets a pony tail all bets are off.

@renaissancechambara: Phil is incapable of a pony-tail. His hair resembles a wire brush. Though he could get it oiled and go all dreadlock on us, I think that's pretty unlikely.

He's still a twat, even though he has become more fashion-forward in recent times. I still have nightmares about his tight-fitting black drain-pipe dreams. Arrrrrggggghhhhh

I meant jeans not dreams. Fuck, once he gets into your psyche....

*****

Phil was nice enough to speak with this person and was actually about to answer AT LEAST his second question when the guy tries to sneak the word "Monopoly" -- anything Phil says at this point would be negative. He could get into a debate about why Apple/iPod/iTunes/iPhone is not a monopoly or he could decline to answer. Both are could be viewed negatively (which clearly here, one was.)

Actually, if you watch the video a second time, even in the moment the word "monopoly", Phil only twinges just the very slightest and to me, remains completely in control of himself.

Honestly, the day WAS about the iPhone. It was a proud day for Steve & the Gang to be across the pond to have a happy and enjoyable time bringing one of their crown jewels to another continent. Why do journalists have to piss all over that? British journalists pride themselves on being upfront and to the point at the risk of rudeness. It's not necessary. Phil didn't want to take the question and passed the person on to someone else to answer iPhone-related questions.

Honestly, if the person asking the question would've left out the word monopoly and kept it nice, I'm sure Phil would've been happy to answer the question.

@renaissancechambara: I couldn't disagree more. No rabbit in headlights. A person had heard the same lame question a million times over and didn't want to deal with the repeated BS.

@JGowan: he's a freakin' exec at a high profile company and gets paid handsomely as a result: he should be expected to answer lame questions from crappy UK journalists...and not rely on passive-aggressive flaks to intervene.

Be a man Phil, not a girly-boy and take this rube head on.

Nothing beats a Phil Schiller interview - thinly veiled contempt for media mixed with lack of preparation.

I've worked in PR long enough to know that we aren't supposed to become part of the story. There are situations where I've jumped in on the phone, or perhaps even ended an interview early in this situation, but only if agreed-to boundaries have been breached.

The only thing I thought was odd was how Phil looked over at the PR guy with eyes that screamed "help!"

Quite frankly, he should have been prepared to for that question and quite easily could have deferred him over to "Matthew" to talk about iTunes. An obvious deflection of an expected question that would have saved face for all parties.

Wow. Pathetic performance by Apple PR. Well, they've never claimed that they "do no evil" so at least they've never pretended to be the good guys.

Hey, retards! If I answered a question and the questioner asked the same goddamn question again, I'd probably have a dumbfounded look on my face too and ask my lackeys to have them removed from my store. Obviously these so-called journalists removed the first part because it would have slightly messed up their agenda which is apparently to make Apple look bad.