Apple Death Knell Counter

Last Updated: Jan 2, 2018

Apple has been declared dead 71 times since April, 1995.

The Apple Death Knell Counter (ADKC) is a collection of death pronouncements for Apple throughout the years. Issued by journalists, analysts, pundits, business executives, and the like, there have been innumerable "Apple is dead," "Apple will soon be dead," and "Apple is dead if they don't do this or that" statements issued by all sorts of people who have been proven time and again to be wrong.

The purpose of the Death Knell Counter is to collect these statements for posterity's sake, so that as Apple continues to thrive and prosper, we can remember them. Below, you will find a list of updates, followed by our original posting, including our rules for inclusion in the Counter, and then the Death Knells themselves.

It happens every few weeks: Someone new jumps on the bandwagon loudly proclaiming that Apple will soon be dead. It's been happening since the early 1980s, and still Apple, and its doom sayers, keep chugging along. We decided that it would be interesting to collect these stories, prognostications, predictions, and premature eulogies in a sort of testimonial of buffoonery, and we are calling it The Apple Death Knell Counter.

We shall keep a running total of the number of times that Apple has been declared dead or dying, with links to each one (whenever possible), the date it was published, and the person who so blithely set upon the path of being utterly wrong. With luck, we'll eventually get back to the primordial Death Knell, whose peals have rung on long past their normal life spans.

Our Criteria:

We are looking for published predictions and statements of Apple's demise from pundits, journalists, analysts, and editorialists. These statements can be in the form of quotes, especially from analysts, or entire pieces dedicated to Apple's imminent death.

Pieces where the author wishes, encourages, or hopes that Apple would change some aspect of its business are not eligible for listing, but pieces saying that Apple will shut its doors unless it changes some aspect of its business probably will be included. For instance: "Apple needs to move to x86 in order to increase market share," would not be a statement of doom. "Apple will be having a fire sale on office furniture to pay its bills in 6 months unless it makes the move to Intel now," is an outright prediction of death.

Articles where Apple is referred to as "beleaguered" are not necessarily eligible, and in fact, the vast majority of such references are simply colorfully negative descriptions that do not qualify as an Apple Death Knell.

We'll make the decision on what is included in the list on a case by case basis, and the criteria may be refined as we go.

We ask you to send us information on any new, or old, death predictions, be it a link, or a scan from an old magazine, or other information. We'll then add it to the counter, duly noted in chronological order, on this page. We will also be adding a Hall of Buffoonery for those with the most dead-Apple predictions.