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Apple lacks strategic vision

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Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#61

Post by cosmicgadget »

slwvx wrote: post #35
Jerry2 wrote: post #14

I'm convinced that Tim Cook's biggest mistake was not creating an EV. Just look at how Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and BYD have moved into the EV space and have created amazing experiences for their customers. CarPlay paired with American cars is simply few generations behind from what the Chinese companies have done. Yet Apple was early enough and had an EV team but Cook killed it. Even if the 1st gen was crap…

I think Tim Cook has bad product and design taste [1], and see no reason to think that there are enough good design people at Apple to make a good car. I think they likely got stuck looking at making a car version of the gold Apple Watch Edition [2] and rightly shut the project down. [1] https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/07/31/ep-428 [2] https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/2/23900158/apple-watch-edit...

What sort of backward company allows their CEO to have any design input? Gross.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#62

Post by weego »

alphazard wrote: post #26
tracerbulletx wrote: post #10

There are a few hiccups, but everyone'e acting like Apple Silicon wasn't one of the most wildly successful overnight improvements in laptops in the last 50 years and that airpods aren't so popular that even Android phone users buy them.

Both of these products could be expected from any well run company. They are both very polished versions of something that already existed. The direction to optimize in was already clear. No one wants to compare Apple to a generic well run company, they want to compare Apple to itself a decade or two ago. Others have said that if Jobs were still alive, AR would be ubiquitous by now, and everyone would have a stylish…

What is ARs 1000 songs in your pocket moment though?

There is no thing that needs the ubiquity that Jobs would have channelled the idea into.

In my opinion it would just never have seen the light of day.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#63

Post by cr125rider »

kllrnohj wrote: post #46
tracerbulletx wrote: post #10

There are a few hiccups, but everyone'e acting like Apple Silicon wasn't one of the most wildly successful overnight improvements in laptops in the last 50 years and that airpods aren't so popular that even Android phone users buy them.

Apple Silicon either followed Microsoft's direction (who pushed for ARM laptops a solid 8 years before M1) or just did a better iteration than Intel at the same time Intel was struggling. Regardless of how you want to frame it, there clearly wasn't any grand innovative strategic vision in play there from Apple. It was just an incremental improvement to long established products with no shortage of equally significant…

Rosetta 2 was the big innovation there. Not ARM in a mobile device.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#64

Post by waswaswas »

Jerry2 wrote: post #14

I'm convinced that Tim Cook's biggest mistake was not creating an EV. Just look at how Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and BYD have moved into the EV space and have created amazing experiences for their customers. CarPlay paired with American cars is simply few generations behind from what the Chinese companies have done. Yet Apple was early enough and had an EV team but Cook killed it. Even if the 1st gen was crap…

Automaking is a capital intensive, operationally complex, and fiercely competitive (read: low profit) industry. Apple's gross margin is nearly 3x higher than Tesla's, and Tesla will face increased margin pressure as more of the industry electrifies. Even if Apple were to match Porsche as the leader in volume+profit luxury automotive, it wouldn't be nearly as lucrative as their current businesses. There are other areas in which Apple could expand to more profitably leverage its core competencies.

Aside from all the difficulties that come with self driving, I suspect Apple cancelled its car effort because they couldn't figure out how differentiate its offering at a price low enough to drive volume and a cost low enough to drive comparable profit to its other businesses.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#66

Post by nine_k »

benoau wrote: post #13

> While he has achieved growth, innovation has tanked. The iPhone’s design has barely changed since 2019 The rules for iPhone software are almost unchanged since 2009 !

Should it have changed? Does an iPhone have known pain points not fixed for years and years? Something that makes users migrate to Android in anger?

Safety razor blades did not change a lot either since the time they were invented; the seem to be in a deep local optimum. Maybe the iPhone is in a somehow similar situation.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#67

Post by cosmicgadget »

encom wrote: post #54
Jerry2 wrote: post #14

I'm convinced that Tim Cook's biggest mistake was not creating an EV. Just look at how Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and BYD have moved into the EV space and have created amazing experiences for their customers. CarPlay paired with American cars is simply few generations behind from what the Chinese companies have done. Yet Apple was early enough and had an EV team but Cook killed it. Even if the 1st gen was crap…

I would have loved to see an Apple iCar, just to see the soulless, sterile and inoffensive result, and the resulting magical marketing circus. Do you take it to an Apple Store to refill the windshield wiper fluid? Does it use another bullshit proprietary charging port, and will it refuse to charge if I'm not using the supplied Apple cable? Is the bonnet glued shut? Do I need to hold the keyfob just so to unlock the d…

When you turn the car on the radio blasts a U2 track. This feature cannot be disabled.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#68

Post by ryanobjc »

matusp wrote: post #7

Doing AI just because everybody else is doing AI is not exactly a strategic vision. Going into AI without a clear plan is exactly what they should NOT be doing.

There was a quote recently where Nadella was trash talking the apple AI stuff, and like yes sure, but also do we not realize that Nadella isn't a random third party CEO, he's literally financially incentivized to maximize AI usage because Microsoft is selling the stuff?

It's like listening to the Intel CEO saying that the new apple silicon is alright, but what would REALLY make them go is to migrate back to Intel x86.

I'm not really upset at Nadella for this, because it's what he should do. But for everyone else to breathlessly be obsessed with his word and forget his real job as salesman in chief is what's pathetic.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#69

Post by nine_k »

kllrnohj wrote: post #46
tracerbulletx wrote: post #10

There are a few hiccups, but everyone'e acting like Apple Silicon wasn't one of the most wildly successful overnight improvements in laptops in the last 50 years and that airpods aren't so popular that even Android phone users buy them.

Apple Silicon either followed Microsoft's direction (who pushed for ARM laptops a solid 8 years before M1) or just did a better iteration than Intel at the same time Intel was struggling. Regardless of how you want to frame it, there clearly wasn't any grand innovative strategic vision in play there from Apple. It was just an incremental improvement to long established products with no shortage of equally significant…

It's a bit like saying that an iPhone was not a big deal, phones were becoming smarter by the day, Apple just did a better iteration in 2007 than Nokia and Blackberry.

Making an iteration so much better is not something I'd ascribe to luck.

Re: Apple lacks strategic vision

#70

Post by encom »

emchammer wrote: post #11
matusp wrote: post #7

Doing AI just because everybody else is doing AI is not exactly a strategic vision. Going into AI without a clear plan is exactly what they should NOT be doing.

I simply don’t need a lot of AI. I would be very happy with a futuristic UNIX workstation with lots of development on the kind of things that used to get everyone excited about computers.

What things? Apple doesn't really cater to the type of customer who's excited about computers, or even UNIX. And I'd argue that Mac OS barely qualifies as UNIX anyway. Yes, if you dig deep enough you'll get the faint smell of UNIX, but the spirit is long gone. Anyone who appreciates UNIX(likes) has much better options available.
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