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What happens when it's all glass?
11–20 of 93 posts
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#12It's interesting insight, but look at it like this...
Apple's dominance isn't from hardware alone. But they are exceptionally talented at it. It isn't in software alone, but again, they know what they're doing. They've got a lot of mature, battle tested code and an outstanding developer community who knows how to wield it. It's not in digital distribution alone, but yet again, they got there very early, have a lot of practice and many deep relationships with the rogue states (thanks, PG) who bully would-be media companies.
Marketing isn't their top achievement, but they love the things they make and the authenticity of their marketing works very well for them.
I could go on and on, but you probably get my point.
Apple's core strength isn't any one thing first, then something else second. Their strength is their ability to see the whole board and make every single thing they do complement everything else in a very meaningful, very equal way. It's an absurd game they play, a combo of three dimensional chess and hacky sack, but their focus makes it work.
No one can compete with Apple by trying to crib any one of their strengths. To be successful, you need to be able to attack several of them at once, and that's very challenging.
They've created an absurdly defensible position. The vision needed to get there makes my brain hurt. No matter how you feel about Apple, you can't argue that their organizational synergy is an incredible force.
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#13> The difference in build quality, materials, and tolerances between a MacBook Pro and a Lenovo are still obvious
Yes, ThinkPads are still some of the most sturdy laptops around while MacBooks tend to need more support/repairs. Of course Apple's (repair) service is very good, and MacBooks do look nice(r), but "build quality" means something else to me.
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#14I think this post makes some very bold assumptions.
It assumes that there is no place for innovation in industrial design with glass. Apple's dominance in industrial design has given them the advantage to set the standards for industrial design.
Additionally, I think Jason assumes that industrial design and software design are mutually exclusive. He ignores that part of the beauty of Apple's products is the interaction and combination of software AND hardware and the quality of interaction between them.
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#15I think Steve Jobs gets this.
"One of our biggest insights [years ago] was that we didn't want to get into any business where we didn't own or control the primary technology because you'll get your head handed to you.
"We realized that almost all - maybe all - of future consumer electronics, the primary technology was going to be software. And we were pretty good at software. We could do the operating system software. We could write applications on the Mac or even PC, like iTunes. We could write the software in the device, like you might put in an iPod or an iPhone or something. And we could write the back-end software that runs on a cloud, like iTunes.
(ca. March 2008 via http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0803/gallery.job... )
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#16[deleted]
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#17They are hitting everything on all cylinders – industrial design, mechanical engineering, material selection and finish, manufacturing, supply chain, hardware, customer service, marketing, advertising, retail stores, their website, company structure and internal product development processes. And the software they make is deep and wide – OSX , iOS, respective dev platforms, all the productivity utilities they make, iTunes (owning the music industry), whatever cloud apps they are working on now…
All are benchmarks of the industry.
I'm not a blind fanboy, just impressed and happy to witness a company constantly iterating and making themselves better.
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#18It's interesting insight, but look at it like this... Apple's dominance isn't from hardware alone. But they are exceptionally talented at it. It isn't in software alone, but again, they know what they're doing. They've got a lot of mature, battle tested code and an outstanding developer community who knows how to wield it. It's not in digital distribution alone, but yet again, they got there very early, have a lot of…
Hard to read with one or two sentences separated as paragraphs.
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#19Once it’s all about glass, it’s all about software.
This is a good thing!
This can dramatically lower the barriers to entry for great interface design by exposing more of the end user experience to programmers. Just like the move from desktop to browser, the cream will rise even faster. What a great time to be a software hacker!
Re: What happens when it's all glass?
#20I think this post makes some very bold assumptions. It assumes that there is no place for innovation in industrial design with glass. Apple's dominance in industrial design has given them the advantage to set the standards for industrial design. Additionally, I think Jason assumes that industrial design and software design are mutually exclusive. He ignores that part of the beauty of Apple's products is the interacti…
"Additionally, I think Jason assumes that industrial design and software design are mutually exclusive. He ignores that part of the beauty of Apple's products is the interaction and combination of software AND hardware and the quality of interaction between them."
I'm not ignoring any of these things. I'm simply suggesting that one of Apple's key first impression advantages - their unique hardware design - is a bit less powerful as all the hardware designs in the industry trend towards a slab of glass.