5 ms·

I think Apple's supply chain management is a greater competitive advantage than their product design. There are many factors beyond the quality of product that

I think Apple's supply chain management is a greater competitive advantage than their product design. There are many factors beyond the quality of product that go into a purchasing decision - things like hype, accessibility, and most importantly, price. Apple never had much a problem with great design or building hype, but the real reason for their success over the last 15 years has been their ability to provide customers better access to their products and to provide them at more competitive prices. The iPhone is ( by most accounts ) a superior product to the Blackberry. However, no one was going to buy an iPhone for $900, and without this impressive supply chain, Apple wouldn't be able to get the profit margins they want at $600 ( or $200 subsidized, which is also supply chain management ). Product is important, and as a culture that builds things, HNers tend to focus on that ( the green light conversation in these comments being proof of that ), but all the logistics of how a product is delivered are just as important as the product itself - and maybe more so - in building a successful company.

bunderbunder 15y ago
The same ethos provides similar results on the customer service side. For example, letting users go to the website and schedule a 15-minute window of time in which Apple calls them is huge. Letting users go to the website and schedule an appointment to go talk to a real live human is huge. And making them walk all the way through a retail outlet full of your products to get there doesn't hurt, either. Every other company in their space is still stuck on figuring out how to distribute tech support resources to customers by asking them to wait on hold for an hour. That's an hour worth of time doing absolutely nothing productive that shows up on the 800 number's bill. That's a bunch more call center hardware to maintain in order to manage the queue of people on hold. That's less productivity per operator, because customers who are pissed off about being on hold for an hour are harder to work with, and because dealing with that for 8 hours a day is an excellent way to lose your own motivation. Let alone that a bad support experience is a good way to make sure a customer doesn't become a repeat customer.
- padobson 15y ago
  +1. This should become the standard in customer support. If it's cheaper to provide in addition to being a better user experience, everyone should be moving this way.
adamtmca 15y ago
Thinking about them separately is a mistake. Apple is able to execute many of their designs because they can lean on their suppliers & manufacturers. Similarly apple is able to deliver high margins, price iPads at 500 etc because they make design decisions with the supply chain in mind.
cbsmith 15y ago
The irony was that there was a time when Apple was absolutely HORRIBLE at this. They really only got it fixed after they nearly bankrupted the company.

bunderbunder 15y ago

The same ethos provides similar results on the customer service side. For example, letting users go to the website and schedule a 15-minute window of time in which Apple calls them is huge. Letting users go to the website and schedule an appointment to go talk to a real live human is huge. And making them walk all the way through a retail outlet full of your products to get there doesn't hurt, either. Every other company in their space is still stuck on figuring out how to distribute tech support resources to customers by asking them to wait on hold for an hour. That's an hour worth of time doing absolutely nothing productive that shows up on the 800 number's bill. That's a bunch more call center hardware to maintain in order to manage the queue of people on hold. That's less productivity per operator, because customers who are pissed off about being on hold for an hour are harder to work with, and because dealing with that for 8 hours a day is an excellent way to lose your own motivation. Let alone that a bad support experience is a good way to make sure a customer doesn't become a repeat customer.

padobson 15y ago
+1. This should become the standard in customer support. If it's cheaper to provide in addition to being a better user experience, everyone should be moving this way.

adamtmca 15y ago

Thinking about them separately is a mistake. Apple is able to execute many of their designs because they can lean on their suppliers & manufacturers. Similarly apple is able to deliver high margins, price iPads at 500 etc because they make design decisions with the supply chain in mind.

cbsmith 15y ago

The irony was that there was a time when Apple was absolutely HORRIBLE at this. They really only got it fixed after they nearly bankrupted the company.