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> Can you explain why millions of customized variations are required? For the same reason that car manufacturers offer different models for the same product (p
by jcfrei 12y ago
> Can you explain why millions of customized variations are required?
For the same reason that car manufacturers offer different models for the same product (personal transportation): like the A, C, E, S class (in the case of Mercedes). These classes allow a producer to differentiate between consumers with different spending power. If you offer just one product at one price you can't capture the whole market (ie. you sell too little / too cheap to rich people and can't sell to poor people).
Apple recently started going this way as well with the introduction of the Apple watch. If you look at all the models and options they can cover a very broad price range. Differentiating between the watch sport, the watch and the watch edition. Add to this the different sizes (38MM and 42MM) and the different bands and you get a very nice price continuum between 349$ and 17000$.
- r00fus 12y agoAnd yet, the key tooling (chipset/OS/form factor) for those numerous combinations is a handful of choices in total. Add in the fact that it's not millions of variations (really only a couple dozen now). Tim Cook famously said in some conference a while back that all of what Apple sells can be fit in on a table in front of him. I don't think that guiding vision has really changed. Furthermore, it's not clear if the Apple watch will be successful. I wouldn't use it as a guideline for a successful product strategy - yet.