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I've said it before and I will say it again. Apple needs to compete on, and thus focus on the quality of their products. Not sue everyone else into the ground b

by thechut 14y ago

I've said it before and I will say it again. Apple needs to compete on, and thus focus on the quality of their products. Not sue everyone else into the ground because they feel threatened. Apple will just keep squeezing out incremental changes to their devices and suing everyone else until they are the only ones left standing. Maybe they should let Woz run the company, he seems to be the last innovator left.

Steko 14y ago
In what world does Apple not focus on the quality of their products? Maybe they're the biggest public company in the world because Woz has never been in charge?
- cooldeal 14y ago
  It's not about the quality per se but I think their problem right now is that users' choice is overwhelming them and the one-size-fits-all approach of the iPhone has diminishing returns after a point. The variety, choice of screen sizes and price ranges of the competition is only getting better by the day. A new iPhone is released only once a year, so it better be very good with a lot of new technologies, features, new designs etc. for sales to last all through the next year. iPhone 4S sales started lagging in the 3Q itself this year, compared to the 4th quarter for the iPhone 4. This is because people start waiting for the next version or switch to the competition because they have better specced devices with more features. I think Samsung timed their Galaxy S3 launch perfectly to coincide with the iPhone 4S getting old enough to beat, and they beat it in monthly sales for the first time, which is a noteworthy thing in itself. The whole situation is reminding me of the PC wars in the 80s, where Apple had a seemingly unassailable innovation lead, and then squandered it away by offering limited choice and higher prices, while Microsoft very smartly licensed DOS to Compaq and others like Dell and HP, and the rest is history. Apple's marketshare is now 17% vs. Android's 67% which is about 4 times more. No wonder Apple is going crazy with the patent war against Android. That's probably their only weapon against the equivalent of the hordes of the 'beige boxes'.
  - Steko 14y ago
    I think Apple is aware that they only make one phone and the trade offs that result. iPhone Q3 sales lagged more than the year before because global rollout is faster and in 2011 they had the midyear CDMA and white iphone launches to buoy Q3. The Galaxy S3 may have outsold the 4S some months and some devices surely will in the future but the claim that it did so in July/August was not supported by much data.
tapertaper 14y ago
Any organization rewards its most productive members. If Apple's marginal dollar of profit starts coming from litigating rather than Innovating it's not just bad for consumers, it's bad for Apple (over a longer horizon). Who do we want to have higher status, Jony Ive or Noreen Krall? http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/10/apples_chief_counsel_profiled_as_field_marshal_in_fight_against_android http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/10/apples_chief_couns...
zmmmmm 14y ago
This is the real problem I see with Apple's litigation streak; it poisons the very belief system essential to the creation of the products they need to make to stay ahead. Apple's belief system is that making super high quality, ground breaking products will lead them to success. But that is incompatible with the idea that all their competitors can trivially produce equally good products just by watching what Apple does. Even while the law suits are trying to send the message that Apple's innovations are protected, they actually send the opposite message: Apple is under threat because the qualities that make Apple's products great are easy to replicate. Once Apple internalises this idea, that what they do is easy to replicate, how will they be motivated to create amazing new things?

by thechut 14y ago

Steko 14y ago

In what world does Apple not focus on the quality of their products? Maybe they're the biggest public company in the world because Woz has never been in charge?

cooldeal 14y ago
It's not about the quality per se but I think their problem right now is that users' choice is overwhelming them and the one-size-fits-all approach of the iPhone has diminishing returns after a point. The variety, choice of screen sizes and price ranges of the competition is only getting better by the day. A new iPhone is released only once a year, so it better be very good with a lot of new technologies, features, new designs etc. for sales to last all through the next year. iPhone 4S sales started lagging in the 3Q itself this year, compared to the 4th quarter for the iPhone 4. This is because people start waiting for the next version or switch to the competition because they have better specced devices with more features. I think Samsung timed their Galaxy S3 launch perfectly to coincide with the iPhone 4S getting old enough to beat, and they beat it in monthly sales for the first time, which is a noteworthy thing in itself. The whole situation is reminding me of the PC wars in the 80s, where Apple had a seemingly unassailable innovation lead, and then squandered it away by offering limited choice and higher prices, while Microsoft very smartly licensed DOS to Compaq and others like Dell and HP, and the rest is history. Apple's marketshare is now 17% vs. Android's 67% which is about 4 times more. No wonder Apple is going crazy with the patent war against Android. That's probably their only weapon against the equivalent of the hordes of the 'beige boxes'.
- Steko 14y ago
  I think Apple is aware that they only make one phone and the trade offs that result. iPhone Q3 sales lagged more than the year before because global rollout is faster and in 2011 they had the midyear CDMA and white iphone launches to buoy Q3. The Galaxy S3 may have outsold the 4S some months and some devices surely will in the future but the claim that it did so in July/August was not supported by much data.

tapertaper 14y ago

Any organization rewards its most productive members. If Apple's marginal dollar of profit starts coming from litigating rather than Innovating it's not just bad for consumers, it's bad for Apple (over a longer horizon). Who do we want to have higher status, Jony Ive or Noreen Krall? http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/10/apples_chief_counsel_profiled_as_field_marshal_in_fight_against_android http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/10/apples_chief_couns...

zmmmmm 14y ago

This is the real problem I see with Apple's litigation streak; it poisons the very belief system essential to the creation of the products they need to make to stay ahead. Apple's belief system is that making super high quality, ground breaking products will lead them to success. But that is incompatible with the idea that all their competitors can trivially produce equally good products just by watching what Apple does. Even while the law suits are trying to send the message that Apple's innovations are protected, they actually send the opposite message: Apple is under threat because the qualities that make Apple's products great are easy to replicate. Once Apple internalises this idea, that what they do is easy to replicate, how will they be motivated to create amazing new things?