The New Apple Advantage • Hacker News Board

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#31

Post by dgallagher » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 1:56 AM UTC

Another way to put this, Apple loosely abides to the "Good, Better, Best" lineup for their product offerings. They don't follow it exactly, but in general, they keep selection simple. This doesn't confuse customers, and allows them to easily compare one thing to another.

If you've ever eaten at Panera Bread, you'll usually see people staring at the menu on the wall for a few minutes. Their menu is huge and all over the place. Hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches, salads, specialty salads, bagels, breakfast items, pastries, plus much more including ingredients. What's inside a Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken salad? Read the fine print under it. Do you want apple, chips, or bread on the side? What type of bread do you want on your sandwich? We have 20 different types. Cheese OK? Mayo OK? Fountain drink, one of the 8 different bottled drinks in front of you you've never heard of, or freshly squeezed OJ? Complex, like Dell/HP/Lenovo.

What about McDonalds? You order by number associated with a picture. At 10:30, the breakfast pictures are replaced with the lunch/dinner pictures. Cheese or no cheese? Coke, diet coke, sprite? Large, medium, small? Quick, easy decisions. You know what a Big Mac is. And if you want to know what's in it, you're out of luck! There are 10 pictures; pick one of them. Simple, like Apple.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#32

Post by LokiSnake » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

X-Istence wrote: post #25

jsnell wrote: post #17

It's hardly the first time logistics has been touted as the key competitive advantage of a company. Take Nokia for example. Massive economies of scale, designs taking maximum advantage of that, and incredible supply chain management[1]. All this kept them going for a while even after the wheels fell off, but by now they pretty much have no logistical advantage left. Apple pundits seem to think that Apple's (undeniabl…

I don't think Apple's wheels are necessarily going to fall off. The reason why they have tied up the worlds supply of touch screens and flash ram is because they realised the potential early on and made massive commitments to the manufacturers. If Apple stops innovating then those people suggesting Apple will no longer have an advantage are correct. So long as Apple is innovating and requires newer and more modern te…

This is also one of the benefits of Apple's huge cash reserve. They can easily make these commitments and investments as they see fit.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#33

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:02 AM UTC

zeteo wrote: post #9

There's nothing new about this. Apple has been doing vertical integration for decades. When things went badly, pundits criticized it. Now it's the whole new rage. There's nothing particularly enlightening in this article, nothing that would be of any use to anyone hoping to replicate some of Apple's success. Advice to have good design and a low price is just a platitude.

[deleted]

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#34

Post by ShirtlessRod » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:06 AM UTC

dgallagher wrote: post #31

Another way to put this, Apple loosely abides to the "Good, Better, Best" lineup for their product offerings. They don't follow it exactly, but in general, they keep selection simple. This doesn't confuse customers, and allows them to easily compare one thing to another. If you've ever eaten at Panera Bread, you'll usually see people staring at the menu on the wall for a few minutes. Their menu is huge and all over t…

Is that really the comparison you want to be using here? Panera versus McDonalds, where Apple is McDonalds? Seems more like an insult.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#35

Post by CamperBob » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:11 AM UTC

ShirtlessRod wrote: post #34

dgallagher wrote: post #31

Another way to put this, Apple loosely abides to the "Good, Better, Best" lineup for their product offerings. They don't follow it exactly, but in general, they keep selection simple. This doesn't confuse customers, and allows them to easily compare one thing to another. If you've ever eaten at Panera Bread, you'll usually see people staring at the menu on the wall for a few minutes. Their menu is huge and all over t…

Is that really the comparison you want to be using here? Panera versus McDonalds, where Apple is McDonalds? Seems more like an insult.

Not if you look at their balance sheets, it isn't.

McDonalds is one hell of a highly optimized operation, and nobody in business would object to being compared to them. Meanwhile, Panera's food is probably less healthy if you actually look at the numbers.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#36

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:12 AM UTC

microarchitect wrote: post #7

jballanc wrote: post #2

There's a story that I've heard told about Tim Cook numerous times. I can't remember the original source (there's a reference here: http://www.cultofmac.com/who-is-apples-new-ceo-tim-cook-bio/... ), but I think it basically sums up Tim: > When in a meeting discussing a problem in China, Tim Cook noted that the problem was “really bad” and that someone should be in China fixing it. Thirty minutes later, Cook then famo…

I understand these things are partly symbolic, but besides that is this really useful? I mean, is there a real business benefit to Apple by making Khan take the next immediate flight to China rather than the one a few hours later. Similarly, what was your friend doing that was so important that he couldn't wait to get a change of clothes? I personally do my best work when I'm relaxed and un-stressed. The apple enviro…

What I take away is these people are part of something bigger than themselves, they understand that, and they care deeply about that thing.

Why does this matter? Anecdotes like this are simply the tip of the iceberg. In my experience, it's also (counter-intuitively) good for morale. You feel good about the sacrifices you make, rather than stressed or bitter.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#37

Post by joezydeco » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:18 AM UTC

vacri wrote: post #28

fjarlq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's a limited-time promotional discount. They are reporting the usual price. http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2011/09/ultrabook-intel...

That's not quite fair either - adding to the complexity of pc purchases is the dizzying array of weekly specials. It's entirely normal for a vendor to mark stuff down from week to week.

Good point. You may not care for Apple's prices, but you know they will be exactly the same between all outlets almost all the time. There are obvious windows of exception, like just before a keynote, but those are pretty well marked.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#38

Post by pgroves » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:18 AM UTC

I know everyone likes to think Steve Jobs came up with the idea of focusing on a few very good products, but it's actually an old idea.

"Indeed, the basic problem of U.S. competitive strength in the world economy today may well be product clutter." - Peter Drucker, Managing for Business Effectiveness, 1963

Sorry I don't have a link to the original article, I had to look it up in a book

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#39

Post by pnathan » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:19 AM UTC

jballanc wrote: post #2

There's a story that I've heard told about Tim Cook numerous times. I can't remember the original source (there's a reference here: http://www.cultofmac.com/who-is-apples-new-ceo-tim-cook-bio/... ), but I think it basically sums up Tim: > When in a meeting discussing a problem in China, Tim Cook noted that the problem was “really bad” and that someone should be in China fixing it. Thirty minutes later, Cook then famo…

Rands mentions this in his blog (rands in repose) as being part of the DNA of the culture of the company. My take away is that this is Company Myth; these are the myths we tell each other over lunch, the stories that say, "This is who we are, this is what we do, these are the people to follow". These are the myths that we think about when a hard choice comes, so that we know we know what the Company would do.

I don't mean this as a bad thing. It's like the myth of Stallman coding alone to write emacs. Maybe it is 100% true. Maybe it is 50% true. But it's part of the Hacker Mythology, and hackers take their cues from that mythology.

And Apple has the Apple Mythology.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#40

Post by wmf » Sat, Sep 10, 2011, 2:19 AM UTC

pkamb wrote: post #18

I break out this link whenever the topic of PC manufacturing comes up: http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/2009/04/display-rati... Thinkpads are (were) well known for their 4:3 screens. People are downright fanatical about them, and continue to buy old T60s off craigslist rather than buy new from Lenovo. Tall screens are better for documents and spreadsheets. 4:3 displays instantly differentiate business -machine…

Also, Apple buys a lot more of that panel than any panel that Lenovo buys. If Lenovo ordered millions of 4:3 panels, they would suddenly become available.