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A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

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Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#31

Post by notatoad »

natch wrote: post #2

This hardly captures Apple's strategy. It appears to offer an insight into one step in their strategic thinking for one issue, but the title of the post is quite misleading.

i think it captures apple's strategy pretty well, and the flaw in their thinking. They see a commercial promoting kindle books on the kindle tablet and an iPhone and see "it's easy to switch", not "you can own devices from two different brands and they will work together". Amazon doesn't make a phone, nobody is going to switch from an iPhone to a kindle, but the concept of owning two devices that aren't from the same brand is totally foreign to apple. Their entire strategy is focused on every apple user owning nothing but apple devices. an iPhone user buying an other-brand tablet is a threat to apple as a whole, not just to their tablet business. Their strategy is to control everything and not allow anything to happen out-of-ecosystem. Playing nice with others doesn't even occur to them.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#32

Post by noloqy »

johnrob wrote: post #7
natch wrote: post #2

This hardly captures Apple's strategy. It appears to offer an insight into one step in their strategic thinking for one issue, but the title of the post is quite misleading.

This absolutely captures their strategy. They are clearly building a walled garden for their own benefit, while selling it as the user's benefit. I can't imagine users complaining about having the option to switch to android.

They might be selling it as a users' benefit, but in the case of the Amazon app, users are at a loss.

As long as the developers submit themselves to Apple's authority, Apple and its related products could offer superior service. Most developers are still accepting the "Apple way", even in cases where it hurts their own business proposition. The reason Apple has such a strong supplier power is that they have a very strong market share. However, Apple's arrogance will one day contribute to their downfall. Developers choose to develop first and foremost for the platform that offers the greatest benefits; as Apple's market shares are falling, the userbase is less of a reason to choose to develop for Apple first. Also, because alternatives are strengthening on various fronts, developers will be less likely to swallow Apple's authoritative terms if those terms hurt their own business model - even if that means offering a suboptimal service to Apple's customers.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#33

Post by mistercow »

_yields wrote: post #9
johnrob wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This absolutely captures their strategy. They are clearly building a walled garden for their own benefit, while selling it as the user's benefit. I can't imagine users complaining about having the option to switch to android.

> while selling it as the user's benefit I disagree. Facebook, Google, Microsoft have a walled garden, in-fact every company on earth thinks on how to keep customers from leaving. The difference between Apple and others is that Apple products are far superior, i can't imagine myself using any Microsoft product if Apple provides it.

Are you really suggesting that Apple products are superior in every case? Are you going to tell me that Safari is superior to either Firefox or Chrome?

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#34

Post by oarevalo »

Terretta wrote: post #12
johnrob wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This absolutely captures their strategy. They are clearly building a walled garden for their own benefit, while selling it as the user's benefit. I can't imagine users complaining about having the option to switch to android.

> They are clearly building a walled garden for their own benefit, while selling it as the user's benefit. On the contrary, I think this highlights that Jobs thinks, "They want to compare? Great, let's force them to really compare." Jobs: "If they want to compare us to Android, let’s force them to use our far superior payment system." It's one thing to build a walled garden that's crap but users get stuck with it. It…

actually it's not just forcing a real comparison, it's about directing what will the comparison be about. In this case Jobs doesn't shy away from the problem, he actually proposes to meet it head on, but on a battle field of his own choosing.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#35

Post by estel »

_yields wrote: post #21
Oletros wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The difference between Apple and others is that Apple products are far superior" Really? How are superior?

I hope this is a joke, but.. Go a head, take OSX and Windows 7 and compare between them, see how much it takes Windows 7 to crash and tell you: "do you want to send us a report?". The report should be sent automatically and analyzed by computers before it reaches humans.

I take it you don't use xcode then...?

But seriously, what are you demonstrating here by providing an anecdote? I've got some of my own: I use osx and windows 7/8 extensively every day, and (except xcode!) neither of them crashes with even the slightest degree of regularity: they're both great operating systems.

But of course, neither are evidence of any form to support the claim "x is better than y". Which is good, because it's a stupid debate anyway.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#36

Post by larrik »

_yields wrote: post #21
Oletros wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The difference between Apple and others is that Apple products are far superior" Really? How are superior?

I hope this is a joke, but.. Go a head, take OSX and Windows 7 and compare between them, see how much it takes Windows 7 to crash and tell you: "do you want to send us a report?". The report should be sent automatically and analyzed by computers before it reaches humans.

Okay, XCode crashes on me about every hour of use or so on my Mac Mini (especially when I leave it and come back). None of my Windows 7 programs have crashed on me in over a month. Btw, once XCode crashes, Apple offers to let me send in a technical report.

*Sent from my Linux Mint machine.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#37

Post by c0mpute »

How are these emails being leaked? Part of the ebook case they had? Otherwise I would imagine companies would take their email seriously...

Perhaps a good practice for companies to completely delete emails after a few days? (Its impractical, but maybe there is a need?)

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#38

Post by etler »

nickconfer wrote: post #15
dm8 wrote: post #8

Out of curiosity, why did he think Apple had far superior payment system? I personally think Apple's payment gateways no better than Amazon Checkout or Google Checkout experience.

Three reasons. 1) Apple has more active credit cards than Amazon. 2) If someone were to purchase a book on an iOS device it is more likely they have an active credit card on their account than an Amazon account with an active credit card. 3) One payment system is easier for customers to understand and trust. Steve's wording here may have indicated better technology in his mind, but I doubt that is true, given amazons…

Amazon is huge. Do you have anything backing your first claim? I wouldn't feel comfortable claiming either side has more cards without a source.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#39

Post by dsaber »

I've always believed it's time for Apple to embrace running some of their software on other platforms. Not only would it take the competitive advantage away from other companies providing multi-platform products, but it would also show confidence in their products that users will ultimately use their products for the best experience. Sure, some products may not make sense on other platforms (e.g., Mac OS X), but many others do make sense.

In many ways, history is repeating itself here with Microsoft and Apple 20 years ago.

Re: A Steve Jobs email exchange that captures Apple’s strategy

#40

Post by etler »

dm8 wrote: post #8

Out of curiosity, why did he think Apple had far superior payment system? I personally think Apple's payment gateways no better than Amazon Checkout or Google Checkout experience.

I would argue that Amazon and Google are better because I can use their payment system on things other than my phone as well. Whenever I'm on a new site that's selling something, I'm very relieved when I see the amazon or google checkout logo. Other than having to sign up once (which there's a good chance you already have if you've ever bought anything on amazon, and google wallet is spreading more), I don't see how apple's system is better at all, let alone "far superior".
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