4 ms·

But they were selling the same thing, just because more people buy laptops doesn't mean you have to hire more hardware engineers. The design is the same, you sc

by cguess 4y ago

But they were selling the same thing, just because more people buy laptops doesn't mean you have to hire more hardware engineers. The design is the same, you scale your outsourced manufacturing instead. With e-commerce you absolutely need more engineers to maintain the software and you need to buy more servers and hire more sysadmins etc.

lapcat 4y ago
> you absolutely need more engineers to maintain the software and you need to buy more servers and hire more sysadmins etc. Apple makes software, you know. ;-) They also have many internet services, such as iCloud, App Store, Apple Music, TV+, etc.
- cguess 4y ago
  None of which scaled significantly due to the pandemic. Everyone at companies that use Macs had Macs already, so if they're not using the one at work anymore there's not a net increase of Mac users.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    Um, Mac sales skyrocketed during the pandemic. Anyway, Apple makes other products that use internet services too, like iPad, and... have you heard of iPhone? ;-) App Store downloads also increased a lot during the pandemic.
underbluewaters 4y ago
Is software supposed to be a low marginal cost business? Why would I need more engineers if my site has 50% more traffic?
- prewett 4y ago
  Strictly speaking, software as a low-cost marginal business originally referred to shrink-wrapped application software. If your website is basically a buy button with a download link, you fall into that category. But now your distribution needs have scaled, so either you hire more people to deal with shipping out CDs, or make sure your website scale. And if your software is the distribution (as is the case for websites, SaaS, cloud apps) you might need more engineers.
intrasight 4y ago
Your assertion makes no sense. If anything, physical goods should take more people than does cloud software. These dotcoms hired more people because that's what dotcoms do when they can.

by cguess 4y ago

lapcat 4y ago

> you absolutely need more engineers to maintain the software and you need to buy more servers and hire more sysadmins etc. Apple makes software, you know. ;-) They also have many internet services, such as iCloud, App Store, Apple Music, TV+, etc.

cguess 4y ago
None of which scaled significantly due to the pandemic. Everyone at companies that use Macs had Macs already, so if they're not using the one at work anymore there's not a net increase of Mac users.
- lapcat 4y ago
  Um, Mac sales skyrocketed during the pandemic. Anyway, Apple makes other products that use internet services too, like iPad, and... have you heard of iPhone? ;-) App Store downloads also increased a lot during the pandemic.

underbluewaters 4y ago

Is software supposed to be a low marginal cost business? Why would I need more engineers if my site has 50% more traffic?

prewett 4y ago
Strictly speaking, software as a low-cost marginal business originally referred to shrink-wrapped application software. If your website is basically a buy button with a download link, you fall into that category. But now your distribution needs have scaled, so either you hire more people to deal with shipping out CDs, or make sure your website scale. And if your software is the distribution (as is the case for websites, SaaS, cloud apps) you might need more engineers.

intrasight 4y ago

Your assertion makes no sense. If anything, physical goods should take more people than does cloud software. These dotcoms hired more people because that's what dotcoms do when they can.