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Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

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Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#51

Post by freehunter »

rimantas wrote: post #45
reedlaw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sounds incredibly controlling, which would explain the lack of freedom on iOS and Apple's various platforms. It's not enough to own the entire ecosystem, anything outside is not allowed to run on the hardware (at least for iOS devices). Great for investors and Apple's bottom line, but horrible for consumers (e.g. this story: http://niederfamily.blogspot.be/2012/06/silencing-of-maya.ht... )

How comes that Apple products are leading in customer satisfaction surveys, if this is horrible for consumers?

Because consumers don't always know what they want. They can be influenced by marketing and word of mouth (as shown in the Vista vs Mojave experiment).

On another point, Facebook is by far the most popular social network, and it can hardly be argued that Facebook's policies are good for the users.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#52

Post by moocow01 »

brown9-2 wrote: post #43

I hope people don't read things like this as advice for things they could recreate at their own companies. There are lots of others way to be successful without being outright mean or vindictive.

I honestly am surprised that there are so many intelligent people who are willing to put up with this sort of environment. I really like Apple products but I'd be out the door in a flat second if I was working there and experienced the kind of culture described. Life is too short.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#53

Post by freehunter »

Angostura wrote: post #36
tudorw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant progress as in 'the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc.'

As a matter of interest; what do you think the phone market would look like today if the iPhone hadn't come out. And what about the iTunes Store? Do you think you'd be able to buy a single track from album, yet?

Thought: what would we gain from a phone market without the iPhone? You'd be able to buy a phone with a stylus if you wanted (some people do want one) and a phone you can use with gloves or wet hands. Keyboards would be more common (rather than being a very small niche). There might be more mainstream hardware variety, rather than flagship phones all looking exactly alike. We might have seen true pocket computers (this is the road Palm and Windows Mobile were going down) instead of pocket devices. We might not have a concept of "jailbreaking", because smartphones prior to the iPhone were generally not restricted so.

As for the iTunes store, ever heard of Rhapsody? It launched in 2001. iTunes store was launched in 2003.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#54

Post by gms »

steverb wrote: post #38
its_so_on wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing). an unimaginable number of such laptops are brought out by every major brand other than Apple. (likewise apple has its standards in a phone, which is not the standard you cite, but not 45 minutes either.). Apple is opinionated on every part of the user interface and design, on usability and ease-of-use. They then go on to put their money w…

The 1.5 hour battery laptop serves (for me) an important niche. You see, I don't actually need a laptop. I need a portable desktop with built in battery backup, which is what the 1.5 hour battery laptop is. Of course, it's entirely within Apple's prerogative to ignore that very niche market (I would if I were them) and it seems to be working well for them, but every odd ball computer configuration you see was created…

Said market needs may exist, but addressing them is not guaranteed to be profitable.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#55

Post by eropple »

huggyface wrote: post #41
its_so_on wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing). an unimaginable number of such laptops are brought out by every major brand other than Apple. (likewise apple has its standards in a phone, which is not the standard you cite, but not 45 minutes either.). Apple is opinionated on every part of the user interface and design, on usability and ease-of-use. They then go on to put their money w…

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing) That's too bad. I use my laptops as portable desktops, seldom away from a plug. So I have to heft around a giant battery because Apple decides that only one usage model is right? RIM devices have, generally, dramatically more endurance than Apple mobile devices. Apple seriously compromised battery life on the burgeoning smartphone market b…

> That's too bad. I use my laptops as portable desktops, seldom away from a plug. So I have to heft around a giant battery because Apple decides that only one usage model is right?

False assertion. With a Macbook Pro, you get one of the lightest laptops of its size, plus very competitive specs in pretty much all areas. (This goes for the new Retina one as well as the standard one.)

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#56

Post by huggyface »

eropple wrote: post #55
huggyface wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple would never release a laptop with a 1.5 hour battery (wifi web browsing) That's too bad. I use my laptops as portable desktops, seldom away from a plug. So I have to heft around a giant battery because Apple decides that only one usage model is right? RIM devices have, generally, dramatically more endurance than Apple mobile devices. Apple seriously compromised battery life on the burgeoning smartphone market b…

> That's too bad. I use my laptops as portable desktops, seldom away from a plug. So I have to heft around a giant battery because Apple decides that only one usage model is right? False assertion. With a Macbook Pro, you get one of the lightest laptops of its size, plus very competitive specs in pretty much all areas. (This goes for the new Retina one as well as the standard one.)

With a Macbook Pro, you get one of the lightest laptops of its size

Samsung series 9 notebook - 2.8lbs.

Macbook Pro - 4.4 - 5.6lbs.

Apple is a remarkable organization, but they are still using the same Intel processors and chipsets, SSDs and wifi chips as everyone else. Where they have a longer battery life it usually is because they filled every crevice with battery, as with the new Retina Macbook Pro. It could have been much lighter if they didn't so intently focus on a 7 hour battery life.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#57

Post by creamyhorror »

freehunter wrote: post #53
Angostura wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a matter of interest; what do you think the phone market would look like today if the iPhone hadn't come out. And what about the iTunes Store? Do you think you'd be able to buy a single track from album, yet?

Thought: what would we gain from a phone market without the iPhone? You'd be able to buy a phone with a stylus if you wanted (some people do want one) and a phone you can use with gloves or wet hands. Keyboards would be more common (rather than being a very small niche). There might be more mainstream hardware variety, rather than flagship phones all looking exactly alike. We might have seen true pocket computers (th…

Wonderful reply. Apple won the smartphone market, and certainly raised overall ease-of-use standards in the market, but that doesn't mean that smartphones would have been objectively worse otherwise - just different, possibly better or worse. We would possibly have much more freedom in terms of app stores.

The fact that Apple stamped its mark on the global phone market and is making huge profits is absolutely not an inherent reason to be thankful for them. They won most of the market and now enjoy a massive network effect advantage (larger market => more developers developing for iOS => improved and cheaper app offerings => larger market); why respect them for doing the equivalent of what Facebook did in the social networking arena (make the most popular UX in the market)?

To be sure, a few companies deserve actual respect - for me, those are the companies that treat their customers well, are highly socially responsible, encourage openness, and play fair with all. Even better if they go beyond immediate profit goals to genuinely drive innovation. Most companies just want to make a buck by winning the market - nothing wrong with that, but that doesn't inherently deserve respect.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#58

Post by creamyhorror »

arethuza wrote: post #18
rkwz wrote: post #8

"Focus is scary. It means not hedging your bets. It means going all-in. If you’re not scared, you’re not focused."

Ribbonfarm has an excellent set of articles on the real world dynamics of organisations (starting with the sociopath/clueless/loser categorisation) but also introduces various kinds of "language" used: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-i... "If you’re not scared, you’re not focused" sounds like "Babytalk" - the language that sociopaths and losers use to speak to the clueless - who actually ta…

Part I of the series: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...

It's a great, intriguing read - certainly one that was genuinely new and unexpected to me.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#59

Post by chestercheetaz »

Apple is a primal predator of a corporation. It's lean, aggressive, and doesn't take any crap. It writes it's own rules, because they can. And it's working for them. You can complain about how "hard" this is, but this is the type of drive and operational organization you need to become the consumer tech powerhouse they've become today.

Re: Lessons from Inside Apple: Why Focus is Horrifyingly Scary

#60

Post by hef19898 »

creamyhorror wrote: post #58
arethuza wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ribbonfarm has an excellent set of articles on the real world dynamics of organisations (starting with the sociopath/clueless/loser categorisation) but also introduces various kinds of "language" used: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/11/11/the-gervais-principle-i... "If you’re not scared, you’re not focused" sounds like "Babytalk" - the language that sociopaths and losers use to speak to the clueless - who actually ta…

Part I of the series: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o... It's a great, intriguing read - certainly one that was genuinely new and unexpected to me.

I finished to read the whole series so far. And it#s just plain impressive! While you can certainly argue some of its points, you can witness most of the points in real live.

Funny to classify co-wokers and bosses accordingly. or not so fun, that depends... :-)

Certainly one of the best reads on organizational psychology I know.

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