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I'm definitely worried about Apple's product line sprawl. They have let their belt out a lot in the last few years and I hope they're planning a sweep to cut do

I'm definitely worried about Apple's product line sprawl. They have let their belt out a lot in the last few years and I hope they're planning a sweep to cut down the product line. 25 different computing devices is a lot for the consumer to think about and I think it would help boost sales. I talked more about this in a blog post recently: http://www.jasonshen.com/2015/the-rise-and-fall-of-product-lines/ http://www.jasonshen.com/2015/the-rise-and-fall-of-product-l...

IBM 11y ago
The old 4 quadrants of products was for an early 2000s Apple that staved off bankruptcy, not 2015 Apple that uses its supply chain mastery as a competitive advantage.
- sirkneeland 11y ago
  Are you saying they should make a huge breadth of products because supply chain?
  - Aloha 11y ago
    The problem with the old Apple was it was in every single product category, as well as every single product class within the category. Apple at one point made (developed or rebranded), PDA's, printers, CTI Hardware (computer telephony integration), networking hardware, Modems, Microphones, Speakers, Monitors, a Confusing array of computers, and other stuff. The problem with this strategy, is in very few cases they were market leaders - many of their non-computer products (and arguably even in their computer products) they were an also-ran. Instead Apple is targeting a much narrower breadth of products and going instead after deep category penetration: Need an Phone? we've got three sizes and price points. Need an Tablet? we've got 3 sizes, and four price points. Need a Laptop? we've got 3 sizes, and four price points. Need a Desktop? we've got 3 form factors, and eight price points. Each of these things is just a computer however, not a whole new category like CTI and printers. Apple still sells mostly computers (counted by SKU). So while they sell networking hardware, and infotainment hardware, IMO, they exist because specifically they offer compelling features not available elsewhere to work with their computers, not like the days of yore where an Apple Printer was often just a rebranded HP or Cannon Inkjet with a Mac serial port on it.
    - alistairSH 11y ago
      Too many options for me. Analysis paralysis. When it was one new phone model, plus the discounted previous version, it was easy. Go to store, hand VISA to guy in red shirt, walk out with new phone. Now, I stare at the internet for hours, worry about which one will work best for me. Go to store, worry more, walk out without buying. And with the 5S being fast enough for most things, the main reason to upgrade is camera (but I have a Canon S100). And with carriers going to up-front retail pricing, what used to look and feel like a $99 purchase (pocket-change, even if it wasn't) is now a $700 purchase (def. not pocket-change - I can take a short vacation for that). Same with the iPads. It doesn't help that my iPad Mini Retina still works fine for it's primary use (reading), so no compelling reason to upgrade.
      - Aloha 11y ago
        How do you make decisions at the grocery store, or for that matter, car shopping? I'm being serious, because of apples return policy, there is no great loss in choosing wrong.
        alistairSH 11y ago
        I was only being slightly hyperbolic. Buying cars is awful. I will literally spend a year researching. And if a new model is released in that period, it really screw up the process. And regardless of what I buy, I second guess myself for months afterwards. No joke. I'm currently shopping for a compact system camera (micro 4/3 or similar). Same thing. Hours upon hours of research, can't decide. Grocery store, not a big deal. Cost is low and I'm not stuck with the items for years. Admittedly, this is a personal problem, and not one of Apple's creation.
        Aloha 11y ago
        I'll spend hours researching, discussing the choice with friends, etc, usually at the end of that process, one of the two things stands out as better, easier to use, etc - in the end if they don't I just pick one and move on. Life is short.
bsbechtel 11y ago
25 different computing devices also places huge amounts of demand on their stores and Genius Bars, and it's really starting to show.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  Yep. The Apple Store near me sells the iPhone 5S, but there's only one single device in the entire store.
  - bsbechtel 11y ago
    There is more to running and operating a store than just selling products. This is especially true in Apple stores where they not only sell devices, but they are also service centers, and hold regular training events on Apple products. These additional functions coupled with offering 5x the number of products from a few years ago, plus the fact that Apple now has an order of magnitude more devices out in customers hands, whom are now coming back to the store to regularly get serviced, and Apple stores are really being stretched to their limits. Employees now need to know how to sell, and service all of these devices. Training staff needs to be able to teach people how to use each device. The logistics teams (each Apple store has it's own logistics team), has 25 SKUs to keep track of. Apple retail stores are not the same as your typical Walmart or Best Buy, and they can't try to operate like they are. Try visiting your local Apple Store, and let me know what the experience was like.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
      Oh absolutely, the issue is not solely store space. That's just the aspect that's most visible to me personally, since the Apple Store near me is quite small, and I'm not an employee.
      - bsbechtel 11y ago
        I apologize, I misread your statement as to say that the Apple store near you ONLY sells the iPhone 5S, intended as sarcasm or snark. I thought you were implying that the retail side of Apple's operation was simple. Obviously you understand it isn't :-)
maxerickson 11y ago
The Ultimate comic series weren't a reboot, they were in addition to the other books. They've mostly wrapped up, while the main books continue on. The goals as I understand it were several fold, to tell stories in a universe with no baggage, and to have less age restrictions (the Ultimate Hulk likes to eat people, there's lots of other darker stuff).
- astrange 11y ago
  Maybe someone should remind the American comics industry that they sold hundreds and thousands times more comics when they were about funny dogs, and not the Hulk eating people.
  - gyardley 11y ago
    Since an 'eating people' scene was the one thing most responsible for the collapse of the entire Ultimate Universe product line, I don't think Marvel needs a reminder. The writer of that one still won't do interviews about it seven years later.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    There is plenty of content aimed at the warm and fuzzy audience. The golden age of comics happened to come right before TV took off, so I would sort of not expect the content to be the only issue. I actually didn't think that content was particularly useful to the story, it was more in the vein of we-are-so-edgy-it's-awesome, a sort of stunt that is common in popular media these days.
    - astrange 11y ago
      Well, by popular media I think you mean one specific subculture which calls itself pop-culture media. It's not literally popular, but for some reason they think they are. DC and Marvel in particular seem stuck to their existing aging fan market and universes, but independent graphic novels and Japanese comics with no shared universes outsell them constantly. Their reaction was to get themselves a separate category in the bestseller lists so they could go back to just ignoring them. ref. http://otakuusamagazine.com/Anime/News1/As-Geek-Culture-Assimilates-Otaku-Remain-Outcasts-7080.aspx http://otakuusamagazine.com/Anime/News1/As-Geek-Culture-Assi...

IBM 11y ago

The old 4 quadrants of products was for an early 2000s Apple that staved off bankruptcy, not 2015 Apple that uses its supply chain mastery as a competitive advantage.

sirkneeland 11y ago
Are you saying they should make a huge breadth of products because supply chain?
- Aloha 11y ago
  The problem with the old Apple was it was in every single product category, as well as every single product class within the category. Apple at one point made (developed or rebranded), PDA's, printers, CTI Hardware (computer telephony integration), networking hardware, Modems, Microphones, Speakers, Monitors, a Confusing array of computers, and other stuff. The problem with this strategy, is in very few cases they were market leaders - many of their non-computer products (and arguably even in their computer products) they were an also-ran. Instead Apple is targeting a much narrower breadth of products and going instead after deep category penetration: Need an Phone? we've got three sizes and price points. Need an Tablet? we've got 3 sizes, and four price points. Need a Laptop? we've got 3 sizes, and four price points. Need a Desktop? we've got 3 form factors, and eight price points. Each of these things is just a computer however, not a whole new category like CTI and printers. Apple still sells mostly computers (counted by SKU). So while they sell networking hardware, and infotainment hardware, IMO, they exist because specifically they offer compelling features not available elsewhere to work with their computers, not like the days of yore where an Apple Printer was often just a rebranded HP or Cannon Inkjet with a Mac serial port on it.
  - alistairSH 11y ago
    Too many options for me. Analysis paralysis. When it was one new phone model, plus the discounted previous version, it was easy. Go to store, hand VISA to guy in red shirt, walk out with new phone. Now, I stare at the internet for hours, worry about which one will work best for me. Go to store, worry more, walk out without buying. And with the 5S being fast enough for most things, the main reason to upgrade is camera (but I have a Canon S100). And with carriers going to up-front retail pricing, what used to look and feel like a $99 purchase (pocket-change, even if it wasn't) is now a $700 purchase (def. not pocket-change - I can take a short vacation for that). Same with the iPads. It doesn't help that my iPad Mini Retina still works fine for it's primary use (reading), so no compelling reason to upgrade.
    - Aloha 11y ago
      How do you make decisions at the grocery store, or for that matter, car shopping? I'm being serious, because of apples return policy, there is no great loss in choosing wrong.
      - alistairSH 11y ago
        I was only being slightly hyperbolic. Buying cars is awful. I will literally spend a year researching. And if a new model is released in that period, it really screw up the process. And regardless of what I buy, I second guess myself for months afterwards. No joke. I'm currently shopping for a compact system camera (micro 4/3 or similar). Same thing. Hours upon hours of research, can't decide. Grocery store, not a big deal. Cost is low and I'm not stuck with the items for years. Admittedly, this is a personal problem, and not one of Apple's creation.
        Aloha 11y ago
        I'll spend hours researching, discussing the choice with friends, etc, usually at the end of that process, one of the two things stands out as better, easier to use, etc - in the end if they don't I just pick one and move on. Life is short.

bsbechtel 11y ago

25 different computing devices also places huge amounts of demand on their stores and Genius Bars, and it's really starting to show.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
Yep. The Apple Store near me sells the iPhone 5S, but there's only one single device in the entire store.
- bsbechtel 11y ago
  There is more to running and operating a store than just selling products. This is especially true in Apple stores where they not only sell devices, but they are also service centers, and hold regular training events on Apple products. These additional functions coupled with offering 5x the number of products from a few years ago, plus the fact that Apple now has an order of magnitude more devices out in customers hands, whom are now coming back to the store to regularly get serviced, and Apple stores are really being stretched to their limits. Employees now need to know how to sell, and service all of these devices. Training staff needs to be able to teach people how to use each device. The logistics teams (each Apple store has it's own logistics team), has 25 SKUs to keep track of. Apple retail stores are not the same as your typical Walmart or Best Buy, and they can't try to operate like they are. Try visiting your local Apple Store, and let me know what the experience was like.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
    Oh absolutely, the issue is not solely store space. That's just the aspect that's most visible to me personally, since the Apple Store near me is quite small, and I'm not an employee.
    - bsbechtel 11y ago
      I apologize, I misread your statement as to say that the Apple store near you ONLY sells the iPhone 5S, intended as sarcasm or snark. I thought you were implying that the retail side of Apple's operation was simple. Obviously you understand it isn't :-)

maxerickson 11y ago

The Ultimate comic series weren't a reboot, they were in addition to the other books. They've mostly wrapped up, while the main books continue on. The goals as I understand it were several fold, to tell stories in a universe with no baggage, and to have less age restrictions (the Ultimate Hulk likes to eat people, there's lots of other darker stuff).

astrange 11y ago
Maybe someone should remind the American comics industry that they sold hundreds and thousands times more comics when they were about funny dogs, and not the Hulk eating people.
- gyardley 11y ago
  Since an 'eating people' scene was the one thing most responsible for the collapse of the entire Ultimate Universe product line, I don't think Marvel needs a reminder. The writer of that one still won't do interviews about it seven years later.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  There is plenty of content aimed at the warm and fuzzy audience. The golden age of comics happened to come right before TV took off, so I would sort of not expect the content to be the only issue. I actually didn't think that content was particularly useful to the story, it was more in the vein of we-are-so-edgy-it's-awesome, a sort of stunt that is common in popular media these days.
  - astrange 11y ago
    Well, by popular media I think you mean one specific subculture which calls itself pop-culture media. It's not literally popular, but for some reason they think they are. DC and Marvel in particular seem stuck to their existing aging fan market and universes, but independent graphic novels and Japanese comics with no shared universes outsell them constantly. Their reaction was to get themselves a separate category in the bestseller lists so they could go back to just ignoring them. ref. http://otakuusamagazine.com/Anime/News1/As-Geek-Culture-Assimilates-Otaku-Remain-Outcasts-7080.aspx http://otakuusamagazine.com/Anime/News1/As-Geek-Culture-Assi...