Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#31

Post by rgrieselhuber » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 1:26 AM UTC

jballanc wrote: post #27

ugh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to able to design and develop good products you need to be vigilant with your money. What good is all that enthusiasm if you have no money to do all the developing and designing? So thinking that Apple would spend money in a random and irrational manner even if this statement is completely true and the mantra every Apple employee says to herself or himself every morning is probably a bad assumption. (I th…

I bet that if those who decided on doing this today were teleported to similar positions of responsibility within amazon they wouldn’t have done it. Then you don't know Apple all that well. You're conflating money with opportunity cost. Apple operates with blatant disregard for incremental opportunity cost, because they believe that the greatest opportunity cost is the cost of doing something you don't believe in...

That's so well put and relevant to more than just Apple I wrote it down.

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#32

Post by CamperBob » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 2:38 AM UTC

pieter wrote: post #14

jonknee wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they trading money? They removed a promo image of one of their products (probably the iPad), but the links up top are still there and anyone going to Apple today to buy a product will still buy the product. It's not like they took down the site.

By that same logic, you might as well put nothing in the center of the screen. Whatever's in there usually gets them money, you can count on that.

That's the iNothing to you. Mine's already pre-ordered, with a spare battery and hose attachment.

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#33

Post by glhaynes » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 3:07 AM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #19

hop wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did it for Al Gore too when he got one a Nobel - http://db.tidbits.com/resources/2007-10/Gore-on-apple.com.pn...

Did they also remove the bottom 3 ads for those? I thought they just changed the center image.

Pretty sure they did for some, at least: I specifically remember thinking "wow, they even took down the little 'ads', too". Not sure which, though.

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#34

Post by savant » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 6:15 AM UTC

freetard wrote: post #16

cmgarcia wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with added traffic, the conversion rate (visitors/buyers) given the tribute and no products on the front page has to be extremely low. Low enough that I tend to believe they are losing money for the sake of this.

Apple is a company that has billions in cash. Any amount of money lost because of this won't do anything to their bottom line, something like 0.01% maybe less. The amount of free publicity and props they got from that action however are worth millions, I mean, just read what people are saying on this thread, they're all praising apple. How much do you think that's worth as publicity?

0.01% of billions is a lot of money.

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#35

Post by mercury » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 6:23 AM UTC

whats the big deal? They didnt shut down the apple store. Its just the homepage....

Re: Apple's Tribute to Jerome B. York

#36

Post by deltapoint » Fri, Mar 19, 2010, 7:35 AM UTC

ambition wrote: post #21

deltapoint wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I think apple is thinking this (though they might be) but by putting this on their homepage they attract positive attention from the interweb and are cast in a very positive light. This in the long term leads to good branding and more sales. Heartfelt condolences and good business can go hand in hand.

By your logic all witnessable acts of good must be viewed with suspicion. I don't disagree, but it's a hard way to approach the world.

The intent of my message was not to state that all witnessable acts of good must be viewed with suspicion. Rather, my goal was to express how acts of good could also be in one's (or in this case a companies) self-interest. I commend what apple did with their homepage.