I guess it all comes down to Apple's marketing
machine. If Apple put 1% of their money into Marketing
that they put into lawyers, the mantra would be, "why
not Apple?"
Through out history Apple has been their own death
knell. They can't seem to get a product out the door
without shooting themselves in the foot before the
release! Marketing...and I hate to say it (yes, my
clothing IS flame retardant) yes...greed! Apple, like
any corporate entity is in it for the money. But why
not? If you want to eat, you need to earn. Communism
has been proven to not work...
I mean...take for example this latest ream of "switch"
commercials...I exist in a WinTel centric environment
at work, and we come into work in the morning with,
"hey, did you see that latest Apple commercial about
that Network Engineer who couldn't share a printer in
his office? What an idiot he must be! One thing for
sure, he's no network engineer" or something similar
(don't get on my case about the above statement, I
know it's not a real switch commercial, just a blatant
example) Then we all have a good laugh about how all
apple users must be retarded! (sorry to everyone who
really IS retarded, no insult intended...;-P
Then apple shoots themselves in the foot by leaking
that the Windows switch commercial involves stock
footage from Microsoft, therefore it can't be real! I
mean...give me a break! Like all those Apple switch
commercials are real? uh-huh...the girl who saved
christmas with iphoto...unless she celebrates
christmas during the epiphany (somewhere in
february)...iphoto wasn't offered last christmas!
Come on...it's all marketing and Apple has proven that
it can't play the game...That's their main problem.
And they just can't seem to get it! It's like the Star
Trek episode <geek alert on> The Wrath of Khan. Where
Kirk tells Khan that he "keeps missing the f**king
target" (explicitive added for emphasis, we all know
that's what he really wanted to say, like in the
"Doomsday" episode when they were going to ram a
starship down the throat of the planet killer device
and let a warp core breach kill the thing, and of
course Scotty was having trouble with the transporter
and Kirk was saying "you can beam me over any time
now..." Actually wanted to say, "uh, get me the f**k
out of here...anyone listening?"...anyway, I went off
subject here) Apple "keeps missing the target!"
Apple's not a weak company, they don't make crap! So
why is it that everybody hates their products? I
mention Apple products to a career IT person and I get
snickers (the laugh, not the candybar...although, I
wouldn't mind a Snickers...)
but of course, I don't have the answers...like the
saying goes, "those who can't do, teach" I'm just an
armchair quarterback..
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- John Anderson <dearjohn_at_everchanging.com> wrote:
>
> What you're talking about is shifting paradigms. And
> in a world with
> Microsoft in it, a business model based on
> paradigm-shifting is a
> sure-fire way to go bankrupt. Let me explain my
> somewhat cynical view:
>
> 1) Company (possibly Apple but more likely some
> two-guys-in-a-garage
> company) develops a new product which changes the
> way people think
> of... um... let's say toasters. But they're the
> first ones to do it, so
> they run into several problems:
>
> 2) The public doesn't understand it, so they get
> loaded with false
> expectations, be them too high or too low. Maybe
> they think it only
> toasts bagels. Or maybe they think it can fix them a
> three-course meal.
> That's because many people simply skim product
> descriptions and
> reviews, and fill in the blanks themselves.
>
> 3) Those early adopters who purchase the toaster or
> get a free copy for
> review in ToastWorld run into a barrage or problems.
> Since this was
> probably an ultra-secret project, user testing was
> probably kept to a
> strict minimum. And the engineers had no examples to
> learn from. They
> have to make the mistakes themselves. The first
> version of anything
> truly new usually doesn't work well. (There are some
> notable exceptions
> here, the iPod being the first that comes to mind...
> but then again it
> wasn't the first portable MP3 player either.)
> Anyway, ToastWorld tries
> it out and uses the wrong settings, turning the
> toast into a llama.
> Many users in the field run across the llama problem
> as well, and
> pretty soon popular media is picking up the llama
> problem and making
> humorous parodies and cartoons mocking the product.
>
> 4) While the original developers who put the effort
> and development
> into creating a completely new product, and the
> marketing dollars to
> get people to understand it, a third party (usually
> Microsoft) has been
> working on copying it. And guess what? It's much
> easier to look at
> someone else's product, see what they've done
> better, and fix it. Or,
> in Microsoft's case, they may just copy the idea
> with little regard to
> improving it. When it's shipped with the well-known
> brand name, they
> can put the saved R&D dollars into their marketing
> budget or, better
> yet, into reduced margins, making their product
> cheaper. And because
> it's marketed under a different brand name, it
> doesn't have the stigma
> attached to the original product.
>
> And therein lies the problem. It's incredibly risky
> and difficult, even
> for a company like Apple, to create something
> completely new and
> different. And with Apple, whenever they create
> something new that
> isn't a complete success (look at the Cube), the
> press has a field day
> with it and the sales of all of their products, and
> the price of their
> stock, fall from the sky. People understand and soak
> up small changes
> (mostly cosmetic ones) much easier than big ones.
> Making the new 1GHz
> Superdrive-equipped PowerBook will impress
> media-geeks, but I guarantee
> that if they came out with a color they'd sell more
> of them than this
> technologically-challenging feat.
>
> But there's no good solution to this, other than to
> limit the power of
> companies like Microsoft to force their knockoffs on
> hardware
> manufacturers that don't want them. Amazon's
> solution isn't bad
> (patenting some of their concepts) but they've taken
> it way too far.
> (one-click shopping? why not patent the hyperlink
> too?)
>
> I'm not saying any of this to support Steve Jobs,
> and it has nothing to
> do with me working for Apple. It has no basis on
> insider information
> (come on, I work for the server group, they don't
> tell me anything).
> I'm just expressing disgust with the state of
> technology
>
> Hmmm... I've been thinking of starting a weblog...
> perhaps I should do
> so with this long-winded rant :-)
>
> John Anderson
=====
Why is that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life
in the universe are pointed away from Earth?
--Anonymous
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