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What about Apple? Does anyone think that they can be beaten? What makes Apple different from Google, Amazon & Facebook? Curious to hear what people think.

chrisvalleybay 9y ago
Paraphrasing from the book The Four by Scott Galloway: Apple is a company that has positioned itself as a luxury brand. Apple is about sex and signalling. Carrying an Apple phone signals more status than if you were to carry an Android phone, since it is more expensive, just like with other luxury items. But in addition to attaining this status, it has done something that many other luxury brands have not: low production costs in addition to premium pricing. Now, no other techbrand is a luxury brand, which puts Apple in its own league. Either it's going to take a very long time to unseat Apple, or they need to miss a big new market, that they didn't see coming. Now, most of us believe AR/VR and AI to be the next market, if they aren't able to get to market fast enough with products that we have come to expect from Apple, this can be an issue. I recommend reading the book by Scott Galloway, it is insightful.
- ghostcluster 9y ago
  He has some insights, but also injects a lot of naive and grating political signaling into analysis, which makes him sometimes hard to take seriously.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jbreckmckye 9y ago
    I have never read _The Four_, but stopped by to make a quick complaint: can we please retire the verb "signalling" in political discourse? As far as I can tell all "political signalling" means is "I cannot believe what you profess to believe, therefore I assume that you profess it merely to be trendy".
    - ghostcluster 9y ago
      When talking about Facebook earlier this month, he posed this question: "If a firm wittingly or unwittingly becomes weaponized by Russian intelligence, isn't the responsible thing to do to shut the firm down?" That is the kind of eye-rollingly partisan political "signalling" I'm talking about. If he thinks $100,000 of Russia linked ad-spend on Facebook flipped the votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida, and thus we should consider shutting Facebook down for this reason, I really can't take his analysis that seriously.
      - jbreckmckye 9y ago
        That is not signalling. Signalling is making a political statement for a social benefit. There is no particular indication of that here.
    - fwn 9y ago
      It is a well known, meaningful concept. If you spot someone using it the wrong way, just correct this specific person. If we trash every concept someone does not understand, we are cavemen by afternoon.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
beautifulfreak 9y ago
Could someone design a new kind of product and seize first mover advantage, eclipsing Apple? That would be a cool product. Maybe the manufacturing capacity exists, and the money to back it, so the producer could avoid acquisition. Patents matter. But it's hard to imagine Apple falling behind, or even being caught off guard. It would have to emerge from super stealth. Maybe a general purpose, human level AI? It would have to be something that extraordinary to even make a dent in Apple.
Eridrus 9y ago
Apple has already lost the international market. They're hugely popular and have huge margins due to.branding & iOS familiarity, but they don't have a lock on the smartphone market.
- junkscience2017 9y ago
  I used to believe this too. Apple is playing a longer game. They are maintaining their brand premium as an aspirational plateau...and over time they are quietly finding ways to let their product be attained while still maintain the premium. The most obvious way they do this now is to continue to sell older phones, but at a reduced cost. Any time someone in the world can claim the status of affording an iPhone, they seize the opportunity. Why? Because owning an iPhone is strongly associated with wealth and success. Ask Android users in international markets if they would switch to an iPhone if they could...90% will say yes. Apple gets this, and it will happen. Indeed the real danger is Google's inability to establish a high-end Android market...they're trying, but it is a pitiful imitation of what Apple is doing
  - Eridrus 9y ago
    Would be good to see data showing people actually switching to iPhones as they get wealthier. My gut says that Android dominance means that companies in emerging markets build Android first apps, everyone around you has Android phones and you already know how to use the platform, which all leads to the same inertia Apple benefits from in the US. You're right that they've managed to hang on to their premium branding, I just don't know if this matters in comparison to devices and apps that are actually tailored to local market.
    - raspasov 9y ago
      Do you have examples of useful, widely used Android apps that and are tailored to local markets (and do not have iOS equivalents)?
      - Eridrus 9y ago

chrisvalleybay 9y ago

Paraphrasing from the book The Four by Scott Galloway: Apple is a company that has positioned itself as a luxury brand. Apple is about sex and signalling. Carrying an Apple phone signals more status than if you were to carry an Android phone, since it is more expensive, just like with other luxury items. But in addition to attaining this status, it has done something that many other luxury brands have not: low production costs in addition to premium pricing. Now, no other techbrand is a luxury brand, which puts Apple in its own league. Either it's going to take a very long time to unseat Apple, or they need to miss a big new market, that they didn't see coming. Now, most of us believe AR/VR and AI to be the next market, if they aren't able to get to market fast enough with products that we have come to expect from Apple, this can be an issue. I recommend reading the book by Scott Galloway, it is insightful.

ghostcluster 9y ago
He has some insights, but also injects a lot of naive and grating political signaling into analysis, which makes him sometimes hard to take seriously.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jbreckmckye 9y ago
  I have never read _The Four_, but stopped by to make a quick complaint: can we please retire the verb "signalling" in political discourse? As far as I can tell all "political signalling" means is "I cannot believe what you profess to believe, therefore I assume that you profess it merely to be trendy".
  - ghostcluster 9y ago
    When talking about Facebook earlier this month, he posed this question: "If a firm wittingly or unwittingly becomes weaponized by Russian intelligence, isn't the responsible thing to do to shut the firm down?" That is the kind of eye-rollingly partisan political "signalling" I'm talking about. If he thinks $100,000 of Russia linked ad-spend on Facebook flipped the votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida, and thus we should consider shutting Facebook down for this reason, I really can't take his analysis that seriously.
    - jbreckmckye 9y ago
      That is not signalling. Signalling is making a political statement for a social benefit. There is no particular indication of that here.
  - fwn 9y ago
    It is a well known, meaningful concept. If you spot someone using it the wrong way, just correct this specific person. If we trash every concept someone does not understand, we are cavemen by afternoon.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

beautifulfreak 9y ago

Could someone design a new kind of product and seize first mover advantage, eclipsing Apple? That would be a cool product. Maybe the manufacturing capacity exists, and the money to back it, so the producer could avoid acquisition. Patents matter. But it's hard to imagine Apple falling behind, or even being caught off guard. It would have to emerge from super stealth. Maybe a general purpose, human level AI? It would have to be something that extraordinary to even make a dent in Apple.

Eridrus 9y ago

Apple has already lost the international market. They're hugely popular and have huge margins due to.branding & iOS familiarity, but they don't have a lock on the smartphone market.

junkscience2017 9y ago
I used to believe this too. Apple is playing a longer game. They are maintaining their brand premium as an aspirational plateau...and over time they are quietly finding ways to let their product be attained while still maintain the premium. The most obvious way they do this now is to continue to sell older phones, but at a reduced cost. Any time someone in the world can claim the status of affording an iPhone, they seize the opportunity. Why? Because owning an iPhone is strongly associated with wealth and success. Ask Android users in international markets if they would switch to an iPhone if they could...90% will say yes. Apple gets this, and it will happen. Indeed the real danger is Google's inability to establish a high-end Android market...they're trying, but it is a pitiful imitation of what Apple is doing
- Eridrus 9y ago
  Would be good to see data showing people actually switching to iPhones as they get wealthier. My gut says that Android dominance means that companies in emerging markets build Android first apps, everyone around you has Android phones and you already know how to use the platform, which all leads to the same inertia Apple benefits from in the US. You're right that they've managed to hang on to their premium branding, I just don't know if this matters in comparison to devices and apps that are actually tailored to local market.
  - raspasov 9y ago
    Do you have examples of useful, widely used Android apps that and are tailored to local markets (and do not have iOS equivalents)?
    - Eridrus 9y ago