It would be easy to overstate the case and say Apple's halo is slipping.

It's not but the ramifications of events such as its feud with Adobe, not to mention the Gizmodo police raid, multiple iPhone 4G losses, suicides at Foxconn, and the general grouchiness of Steve Jobs is knocking some shine off a company that expects to be lauded.

Backscratch

In this context, it's fascinating to read the blog post from John Strand of mobile consultants Strand Consult.

Entitled 'No I do not hate the iPhone', it's an attempt to place iPhone in its correct global perspective, while pre-empting the abuse Strand expects to receive from Apple acolytes.

That said, lines such as "The iPhone reminds me of Paris Hilton - I really don't understand why she gets so much attention either!" are unlikely to endear Strand to the audience.

Show me the money

More substantial are his claims that iPhone only has a little over one percent of the total global mobile telephone market - the same number as Poles compared to the world population - accounts for a tiny proportional of mobile data traffic, and in many cases has been detrimental to those operators who signed up to be exclusive providers.

As well as taking on the  supine attitude of the press generally, he also has a pop at Wall Street Journal writer Walter Mossberg, who called Strand anti-American, when he was critical about the importance of the iPhone to operators.

"If there is one thing that I am not, that is anti-American. But I do have a very clear attitude towards fanatics - both religious fanatics and people that are totally infatuated by a mobile phone that has a marginal share of global sales," Strand says.

You can read the full post here.