3 ms·
I once felt that way about Zenith, RCA, Timex Sinclair, Acorn, Atari, Commodore, IBM (especially them), the old HP, DEC, SCO, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft.
by runjake 2mo ago
I once felt that way about Zenith, RCA, Timex Sinclair, Acorn, Atari, Commodore, IBM (especially them), the old HP, DEC, SCO, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft.
In other words, all things have their end.
- Taikhoom2010 2mo agoYes, but Apple has two-sided lock-in, in terms of a brand and consumer pricing power, as well as ecosystem lock-in through services.
- runjake 2mo agoSeveral of the companies I mentioned also had this, some rather notoriously, such as Sun, IBM, and Microsoft.
- Taikhoom2010 2mo agoHow so? None of those were directly consumer companies.
- runjake 2mo agoI guess you'll have to define what you mean by "none of those were directly consumer companies" because I disagree, with the exception of Sun.
- Taikhoom2010 2mo agoAs in apple has a consumer brand which creates a sense of status, and then a developer ecosystem which has to develop for Apple since they have the highest paying consumers, and a they have services which create switching costs if you try leaving the ecosystem as a consumer
- runjake 2mo agoYou just described Acorn, Atari, DEC, Nintendo, Commodore, HP, IBM, SCO, Sun and Microsoft in certain decades. A few of those aren't strictly consumer, I suppose, but my point is: all empires decline.
- Taikhoom2010 2mo agoYes, but what would lead to Apple's decline? Sure, you can say that everything can decline; all I am doing is articulating why they can be around for a very long time, considering the competitive dynamics surrounding the company.