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There are two things that have always set Apple apart in my opinion: 1) Landscape-shifting new product categories 2) Holistic, "scenario"-driven product desig

There are two things that have always set Apple apart in my opinion: 1) Landscape-shifting new product categories 2) Holistic, "scenario"-driven product design (as the author was advocating for) #1 mostly died with Jobs, imo. But #2 seems to still have deep cultural roots at the company. They don't think in terms of component parts (at the hardware, software, UI, or any other level). They think in terms of making a device that a person can use for things they care about. They start from the top and work downward, everything else serving that ultimate end. Microsoft still doesn't do this, Google still doesn't do this. That was enough on its own, but now 14 years of investing iPhone profits have added "sheer technical excellence" to the equation, giving them an additional edge.

jollybean 5y ago
I think of Apple as tech company that has fashion brand retail quality marketing and distribution, and highly developed internal hardware with very strong and well managed supply chain. Those are more advantageous features in smartphones than they are in desktop. The products are 'good' but not that much better from a feature/function perspective. They look a little cleaner, nicer, but it's not really features that make them better. Every employee rants, and thinks that 'the thing they are working on' is really important, and it's common that people think that the company has 'lost it's way' with this or that. The fact is, the 'speed' of the file system on mac and windows isn't very relevant. It works, it's fast enough. More paradoxically, the Windows UI's are a total confusing mess, always have been, and yet they've dominated on desktop forever.