Marek Fuchs
We interrupt this regularly scheduled book review to give you the results of the iPhone prediction contest, to which nearly 500 readers submitted their wild guesses and well-thought-out predictions -- mostly wild guesses.
Normally, The Business Press Maven, the top-ranked business journalism critic in the nation, takes time every other weekend to pontificate on the business book world. Both are crummy enough to require active critical reading by investors who don't want to be misled. But on Monday, I asked readers to submit their best guesses on how many Apple (AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) iPhones were sold in the last two days of June. That number was due to be released on Wednesday, with the company's second-quarter earnings report. The winner would be granted what was dubbed the "Greg Stroh Award" after the Toronto reader who, perhaps with too much free time on his hands, conceived of and suggested the contest. Then came the deluge of nearly 500 guesses, sent with forethought, humor and bombast. As always with our time spent together, though, our goal is to get at the underlying truths of the words, thoughts and prognostications that most take as givens. So what do the bids of those acting mostly as amateurs, without sources and spreadsheets, say about the professional predictors? I'll tell you my hope: that The Business Press Maven's army of nonexperts would peg the number nicely -- or at least do a bit better than the so-called experts. That way, I could simultaneously make a good point and pander to the masses.
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