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Hubris and arrogance (and “courage”) can only get you so far: - iPod Hifi (which Jobs claimed would completely replace his audio gear ) - the butterfly keyboa

Hubris and arrogance (and “courage”) can only get you so far: - iPod Hifi (which Jobs claimed would completely replace his audio gear ) - the butterfly keyboard - the touchbar - the original (uber pricey) Homepod - the trash can (also pricey) Mac Pro - and I’m pretty sure in a few years’ time we’ll all be looking back at how stupid the “notch” was

danielmarkbruce 5y ago
They are the most valuable company on the planet with a $2.5 trillion market cap. Surely it's fair to say they've gone far?
- sebastien_b 5y ago
  And that they’ve had a number of flops (not just ‘one’) along the way.
- johnny_b_g 5y ago
  All this means is that they're adept at parting fools from their money with "feel-good" marketing and such, to benefit their shareholders (those are their "real customers", not the consumers of their stuff), and to benefit themselves - huge bonuses etc., and have you seen their campus? That kind of opulence is on the same level as Trump's gold toilets.
  - Spooky23 5y ago
    I agree that the HQ is a navel gazing exercise of the highest order. But their ability to sell a full line of computing devices with so few SKUs is pretty amazing. Dell sells like 30 different laptops. Apple sells 3.
    - johnny_b_g 5y ago
      > Dell sells like 30 different laptops. Apple sells 3. So Dell offers 30 different choices in price/feature ranges, from lowest to highest. Apple only offers at most 3 - likely all in the more expensive range. Kinda fits and confirms the "telling you want you want" mentioned above.
      - Spooky23 5y ago
        Apple historically has been a tiny player in terms of share. They are able to punch over their weight and be profitable making hardware. The original iMac, at the company’s nadir, was the #1 computer model, which gave them supply chain advantages in the market. The other thing is that while Dell is stuck with Windows, Apple owns a few platforms. They sell cheap iPads as their entry product. You may not like the strategy or the particulars of it at a given time (ie shipping a defective keyboard for years for inscrutable reasons), but they have a differentiated strategy because that’s what makes sense to them. They are not a commodity. Dell, HP, Lenovo can’t do that because they are merely a channel for delivering Windows - just like Exxon or BP are middlemen brokering gasoline, the only way to make more money is to ship more stuff.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    > All this means is that they're adept at parting fools from their money with "feel-good" marketing and such It’s hard to square comments like this with things like the M1 - what should the fools be buying instead?

danielmarkbruce 5y ago

They are the most valuable company on the planet with a $2.5 trillion market cap. Surely it's fair to say they've gone far?

sebastien_b 5y ago
And that they’ve had a number of flops (not just ‘one’) along the way.
johnny_b_g 5y ago
All this means is that they're adept at parting fools from their money with "feel-good" marketing and such, to benefit their shareholders (those are their "real customers", not the consumers of their stuff), and to benefit themselves - huge bonuses etc., and have you seen their campus? That kind of opulence is on the same level as Trump's gold toilets.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  I agree that the HQ is a navel gazing exercise of the highest order. But their ability to sell a full line of computing devices with so few SKUs is pretty amazing. Dell sells like 30 different laptops. Apple sells 3.
  - johnny_b_g 5y ago
    > Dell sells like 30 different laptops. Apple sells 3. So Dell offers 30 different choices in price/feature ranges, from lowest to highest. Apple only offers at most 3 - likely all in the more expensive range. Kinda fits and confirms the "telling you want you want" mentioned above.
    - Spooky23 5y ago
      Apple historically has been a tiny player in terms of share. They are able to punch over their weight and be profitable making hardware. The original iMac, at the company’s nadir, was the #1 computer model, which gave them supply chain advantages in the market. The other thing is that while Dell is stuck with Windows, Apple owns a few platforms. They sell cheap iPads as their entry product. You may not like the strategy or the particulars of it at a given time (ie shipping a defective keyboard for years for inscrutable reasons), but they have a differentiated strategy because that’s what makes sense to them. They are not a commodity. Dell, HP, Lenovo can’t do that because they are merely a channel for delivering Windows - just like Exxon or BP are middlemen brokering gasoline, the only way to make more money is to ship more stuff.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  > All this means is that they're adept at parting fools from their money with "feel-good" marketing and such It’s hard to square comments like this with things like the M1 - what should the fools be buying instead?