4 ms·

What Europe needs is a reform of whatever it is that is stopping European startups from competing. It took Apple 40+ years to get where they are; they're _were

What Europe needs is a reform of whatever it is that is stopping European startups from competing. It took Apple 40+ years to get where they are; they're _were_ European companies competing with them.

paulryanrogers 3y ago
This assumes a level playing field. Yet Apple was born into a largely monolingual market, with one currency, almost no regulation (for better and worse), a mostly continuous land mass with porous borders (among the states), and grew in a young field with mostly small competitors (IBM and Microsoft being exceptions). And Apple still nearly went bankrupt. With iPhone and Mac they control critical choke points in a crowded market, where all the choke points are now taken by large and powerful incumbents. Europe cannot deregulate it's way into success. In fact I'd say asleep-at-the wheel regulators and anti-trust are what got us into the mess of few real choices and luxury taxes for mediocre offerings.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  With more regulation we'd simply have much worse devices. Apple was born in a country with a lot of free-flowing capital available and incentives to succeed, and they've navigated it extremely well. Of course with big ideas comes the strong chance of failure, but that's why you need to be wary about overtaxing success. If you don't let people succeed when they make something really good, nothing good will get made.
  - tonyedgecombe 3y ago
    Perhaps worse devices is a reasonable tradeoff to allow home grown products to succeed.
    - robertlagrant 3y ago
      They could of course ban iPhones in favour of the employees of companies that make worse products. The only people that lose out are the consumers.
    - fakedang 3y ago
      Honestly that does not work in building quality. India, Russia and Brazil have already tried that.
  - paulryanrogers 3y ago
    Was it absence of regulation or capital or some combination?

paulryanrogers 3y ago

This assumes a level playing field. Yet Apple was born into a largely monolingual market, with one currency, almost no regulation (for better and worse), a mostly continuous land mass with porous borders (among the states), and grew in a young field with mostly small competitors (IBM and Microsoft being exceptions). And Apple still nearly went bankrupt. With iPhone and Mac they control critical choke points in a crowded market, where all the choke points are now taken by large and powerful incumbents. Europe cannot deregulate it's way into success. In fact I'd say asleep-at-the wheel regulators and anti-trust are what got us into the mess of few real choices and luxury taxes for mediocre offerings.

robertlagrant 3y ago
With more regulation we'd simply have much worse devices. Apple was born in a country with a lot of free-flowing capital available and incentives to succeed, and they've navigated it extremely well. Of course with big ideas comes the strong chance of failure, but that's why you need to be wary about overtaxing success. If you don't let people succeed when they make something really good, nothing good will get made.
- tonyedgecombe 3y ago
  Perhaps worse devices is a reasonable tradeoff to allow home grown products to succeed.
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    They could of course ban iPhones in favour of the employees of companies that make worse products. The only people that lose out are the consumers.
  - fakedang 3y ago
    Honestly that does not work in building quality. India, Russia and Brazil have already tried that.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  Was it absence of regulation or capital or some combination?