Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

steveblank.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 307 posts

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#91

Post by _wp3r »

IBM wrote: post #68
_wp3r wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple in the PC market is a single digit percentage point(7.2) participant. Premium niche is a functional business model, but broad market speaking, commodification has taken place, in that 25% of the PC market is Other in most reports. That number is important because it implies that 25% of the entire market is "small" actors that have been able to leverage commodification. If you also consider Dell as a commodity v…

The parent implies that it will eventually drive the margins down. If you're saying that commodification has already taken place then it's even more impressive that Apple's line of computers can still command a premium and indicates that they have some kind of durable competitive advantage.

I agree. Premium niche is a very effective business model, and Apple does apply that strategy very well. I was only suggesting that supply chain optimization is more a function of profitability for Apple and less of a market advantage due to total market commodification.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#93

Post by robotresearcher »

bischofs wrote: post #10

Tim Cook is a "Bozo" - He has moved the focus away from computers and the companies core professional users and turned Apple into a fashionable health services company. They will coast for a while on their dominant mobile market share but eventually the stagnation and lack of new products will catch up to them. He built a watch, which was a "me too" product and answered a question that no one asked. Jobs would never…

> looking at the needs and demands of users inside the computing industry where apple should be focused.

That approach would not have yielded the iPod, iPhone, or Music Store.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#94

Post by empath75 »

bad_user wrote: post #12

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI

A lot of people are running their AI stacks on aws.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#95

Post by JustSomeNobody »

jpalomaki wrote: post #51
bad_user wrote: post #12

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

I think Apple is making a mistake by taking the privacy first approach. I strongly believe people will be trading privacy for convenience and companies which shamelessly mine the customer data will win. This could also affect recruiting, since I assume it is more interesting to be working with AI projects in company like Facebook or Google where you have access to was amounts of customer information.

I want so desperately to disagree with you but when I think about the average person today, I just don't see them fighting against privacy invasions. They are too brainwashed by the terrorism drum bangers.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#96

Post by al_biglan »

bischofs wrote: post #35
zekevermillion wrote: post #11

Even if I generally agree with disappointment at the apparent "maintenance mode" of Apple's product line, I am not sure Ballmer is the best analogy. My understanding is that Tim Cook actually is responsible for many of the supply chain innovations behind Apple's dominant product lines. This is an incredibly hard technical feat, not just blustery MBA crap. I suppose it remains to be seen whether Apple can put its enor…

Generally speaking a product company can't thrive off supply chain innovations. The market will move to commodification at some point.

I was going to say something along these lines (tho more of a "cautionary tale" than absolute "no company can") Having worked for Nokia when they absolutely dominated the supply chain for their phones, this indeed gets you to the position of "top 10 brand in the world" but it isn't enough to keep you there.

That said, I think Apple it much better positioned than Nokia and much more focused on continual disrupting their own position (ipad to phone to tablet to watch is an interesting morph away from single product). So long as they can keep innovating and dominate the supply chain, I believe they will have some long legs.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#97

Post by lucasmullens »

empath75 wrote: post #94
bad_user wrote: post #12

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI A lot of people are running their AI stacks on aws.

That doesn't really help them compete in the AI space.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#98

Post by nathas »

Certhas wrote: post #64
bad_user wrote: post #12

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

Azure seems to be doing well and some people expect it to overtake AWS sooner rather than later in market share. The talk that Microsoft is irrelevant is a bit hilarious, given that they beat google on revenue and income last year. They have morphed from a company that is front and center to one that provides the infrastructure for the digital side of non-tech business. Microsoft Office is absolutely pervasive, and i…

> Azure seems to be doing well and some people expect it to overtake AWS sooner rather than later in market share.

Source?

Edit: Sorry, that was lazy of me. Googled: https://mspoweruser.com/cio-surey-finds-microsoft-azure-will...

A bit of a biased source, "mspoweruser".

Read a bit more.. We'll have to see how the offerings change or evolve in the next 5 years.

Edit 2: https://rcpmag.com/articles/2016/08/02/microsoft-behind-aws-... AWS is still > 30% of the overall market, Azure hitting around ~9%.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#99

Post by zekevermillion »

IBM wrote: post #68
_wp3r wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple in the PC market is a single digit percentage point(7.2) participant. Premium niche is a functional business model, but broad market speaking, commodification has taken place, in that 25% of the PC market is Other in most reports. That number is important because it implies that 25% of the entire market is "small" actors that have been able to leverage commodification. If you also consider Dell as a commodity v…

The parent implies that it will eventually drive the margins down. If you're saying that commodification has already taken place then it's even more impressive that Apple's line of computers can still command a premium and indicates that they have some kind of durable competitive advantage.

It's almost like Apple has uncovered a new kind of product microeconomics -- luxury commodity, a commodity product where luxury pricing increases demand. It's a cheap way for consumers to signal upscale fashion.

(This is me appreciating the enemy's skill from afar. I do not personally like Apple products. Just as I prefer wearing paint-stained sweatpants and 10-year-old extra-large t-shirts, as well as running linux on 8-year-old workstation. My favorite "smart"phone is a blackberry classic.)

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#100

Post by aetherson »

the_watcher wrote: post #83
bad_user wrote: post #12

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them Alexa is easily the best voice assistant, at least in terms of actually understanding what is being asked. When it can't help, it's far more often because it can't find a result or because Amazon/the app builder hasn't built Alexa into the product yet (still drives me crazy that asking Alexa to play an HBO show only works with HBO Go…

I don't know if Alexa is the "best" voice assistant, but up until Google Home ships (has it yet?) it's the "only" voice assistant in the place that voice assistants actually matter.

It'll be interesting to see if Google overtakes the Echo. I'm not a fan of Google's "no apps" approach.

Post reply on HN