4 ms·

Apple is seriously screwed when it's iPod/Phone/Pad/Moneygrabber2020 becomes uncool. Apple isn't even playing a popularity game, they're playing a coolness game

Apple is seriously screwed when it's iPod/Phone/Pad/Moneygrabber2020 becomes uncool. Apple isn't even playing a popularity game, they're playing a coolness game, which is infinitely more dangerous. They'll eventually find themselves as the Fonzie on water skis looking at a shark tank. Microsoft has never been cool, which makes it perfect for corporate business where coolness is treated like an itch in a private place. Until Apple is able to sell itself to big business it is riding a knife-edge trying to stay cool with the college students that change every single year.

MikeCapone 17y ago
Interesting. I'm not sure I entirely agree. I think there are different kinds of "cool". Music goes through phases, and for a while grunge is cool, and then after a while it becomes uncool (mostly because the popularity attracts dozens of second rate copycats and the airwaves become saturated). The same thing could happen to apple; maybe all the copycats will dilute the appeal of its products and fatigue will set in for everything Apple. But there's another kind of "cool" that can last a lot longer. Think BMW or Mercedes. Not for everybody, but they've owned a lot of the upmarket segment for a long time, and the very fact that they're not for everybody probably helps keep the copycats and saturation away. Maybe the fact that Apple isn't trying to be everything to everybody will help their longevity...
hugh3 17y ago
Well, yes and no. Are iPods still cool? Not really. Your mother has one, and she's not cool at all. (Sorry, I'm guessing here). Nobody is impressed by an iPod any more, because everybody has one. But people still buy them, because they don't suck, they work with everything they already have, they're well integrated into the ecosystem (iTunes etc) and because they're so ubiquitous that most people are barely even aware that it has competitors. In short, I think the iPod is the Microsoft Windows of the mp3 player world.

MikeCapone 17y ago

Interesting. I'm not sure I entirely agree. I think there are different kinds of "cool". Music goes through phases, and for a while grunge is cool, and then after a while it becomes uncool (mostly because the popularity attracts dozens of second rate copycats and the airwaves become saturated). The same thing could happen to apple; maybe all the copycats will dilute the appeal of its products and fatigue will set in for everything Apple. But there's another kind of "cool" that can last a lot longer. Think BMW or Mercedes. Not for everybody, but they've owned a lot of the upmarket segment for a long time, and the very fact that they're not for everybody probably helps keep the copycats and saturation away. Maybe the fact that Apple isn't trying to be everything to everybody will help their longevity...

hugh3 17y ago

Well, yes and no. Are iPods still cool? Not really. Your mother has one, and she's not cool at all. (Sorry, I'm guessing here). Nobody is impressed by an iPod any more, because everybody has one. But people still buy them, because they don't suck, they work with everything they already have, they're well integrated into the ecosystem (iTunes etc) and because they're so ubiquitous that most people are barely even aware that it has competitors. In short, I think the iPod is the Microsoft Windows of the mp3 player world.