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The New Apple Advantage

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Re: The New Apple Advantage

#111

Post by revscat »

pgroves wrote: post #38

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

"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."

No one thinks that. I, at least, have never read anyone who has made such claim. Where did you get the impression that that is a widely-held belief?

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#112

Post by dlss »

endtwist wrote: post #102
dlss wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an odd way to decide which machine you'll use every day for the next year or more. A clean install is really easy -- maybe one hour if you sit and watch it, fifteen minutes if you use your old laptop while it's going... why would you let a cost of Setup time is part of the cost of a system. I'm sure that the apple machine isn't actually ready for you to use it out of the box -- if you're like most HN readers you…

You do know you're not the typical laptop buyer, right? The majority of people buy a laptop, take it home, and want it to just work. Do you buy a new refrigerator expecting to have to clean out the compressor the minute you take it home? I certainly hope not.

If I could make a 100x profit on my time doing it, you bet.

To put more forcefully: if I needed to maintain one of those room sized refrigerators, and could save $10,000 for a couple hours of messing with a compressor the decision is a no brainer.

I agree that mortals can't/won't do this -- doesn't mean the HN crowd is being intelligent when they say what the guy I replied to was saying :p

EDIT: Downvoters, please explain -- For people with high computing requirements who insist on the x220 / Macbook air form factor, this is an accurate picture of the ROI.

Look at the performance differences between the macbook air ssd (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3991/apples-2010-macbook-air-1...) and the vertex 3 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4316/ocz-vertex-3-240gb-review...). If your job commonly has you IO bound you will see at least 100 hours of your life saved over the 2,000 hours of a year of 40 hour work weeks (a 5% savings -- not all your time will be spent IO bound). And that's not including the difference between a 2.7 Ghz and a 1.7 Ghz processor...

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#113

Post by jarek »

glenra wrote: post #96
microarchitect wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Speaking from experience as somebody who has done this sort of trip: Yes, it's hugely useful and there is a real business benefit. First off, we're probably talking about a time when there were only a few direct flights a day from SFO to the relevant airport so if he didn't go that afternoon he'd have to wait until the next morning so instead of flying through the night he'd be flying through the day - flying RIGHT T…

> For Apple, if your product isn't ready to ship, it's not ready to show

Hm. I guess the iPad that shipped a couple of months after being shown is the special butterfly exception that confirms your nice fluffy rule.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#114

Post by billmcneale »

Gruber's analysis is flawed because there is currently no competitor to the Apple products he's discussing, so necessarily, anything the competition has to offer today looks silly.

But this will change, as it always has when Apple's competition catches up. When this happens, Apple's simplistic "one size fits all" strategy will backfire again like it always has in the past.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#115

Post by jarek »

statictype wrote: post #30
microarchitect wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The next flight out probably was more than a few hours later. "Why are you still here" could have easily meant " Why aren't you at home packing to leave as soon as you can?"

Flights from SFO to Hong Kong / Shenzen area sound difficult to come by...

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#116

Post by glenra »

pgroves wrote: post #38

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

Near as I can tell, the online Apple Store was largely inspired by/based on the work of the most successful mac clone makers. Power Computing sold just a few kinds of mac, clearly differentiated in "good/better/best" configurations - both their print ads and their online store were easy to use in exactly the way the Apple Store is now.

Apple complained that Power Computing was marketing to existing mac owners, but the real problem was that Power Computing was marketing well to existing mac owners at a time when Apple was marketing badly to them.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#117

Post by sneak »

kennystone wrote: post #29

"It’s the Jobs side of the equation that Apple’s rivals — phone, tablet, laptop, whatever — are able to copy. Thus the patents and the lawsuits. Design is copyable. But the Cook side of things — Apple’s economy of scale advantage — cannot be copied by any company with a complex product lineup." OK but there is a huge lag in time between Apple's delivery and the competitor's copy. Android did a good job copying iOS bu…

> iPad will probably be a year out before a decent competitor comes along.

They've been saying that for a year.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#118

Post by jballanc »

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…

This wasn't for show, wasn't symbolic. Without going into details, there was no alternative for being there in person (remember Apple is as much, or more of, a hardware company as a software company).

As for your second point, I think you make the mistake of assuming that there are only two states one can operate in: stressed or relaxed. In fact, there is a third...let's call it "flow", for lack of a better term. That's where you're up all night, running to the airport on a moments notice, pulling out all the stops to be absolutely perfect, but you don't feel stressed in the slightest.

...Apple runs on that flow.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#119

Post by mcantelon »

>This realization sort of snuck up on me. I’ve always been interested in Apple’s products because of their superior design; the business side of the company was never of as much interest.

It's news that economies of scale helps keep Apple's parts costs down?

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#120

Post by alastairpat »

jellicle wrote: post #53

What I grasp from this is that John Gruber and Peter Bright are just too dim to understand basic online stores. This qualifies for mockery from Gruber/Bright: > "Everyday Computing" But this is good understandable product description: > "The ultimate everyday notebook" (that second one is Apple's marketing copy for the Macbook Air). The low-end Macbook Air is $999 in Canada. Let's compare. I just priced a Lenovo X220…

I've been reading Gruber for a couple of years now and I really believe that it's not nearly as critical/analytical or interesting as it used to be.

While previously he would write much more in-depth articles (often of a technical nature relating to OS X or Cocoa/Obj-C) now I feel he is really just writing what his audience wants to hear and, what's more, 95% of the time simply linking with a sentence of commentary. Some of his links are interesting but for the most part they're either criticising one extreme or showering praise on the other.

I'm an Apple fan, but yes - it really is boring waking up every morning (I'm Australian) and reading the same thing day in, day out. He's just as guilty of shock-jockery as half the people he links to.

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