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"The development costs and development times of everything from those first iPods to the new line of Apple watches were far higher and far longer than any other

"The development costs and development times of everything from those first iPods to the new line of Apple watches were far higher and far longer than any other company in the sector might tolerate. And AS A RESULT the revenues from those products are far, far higher than any other company can dream of." [My emphasis] I call post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this therefore because of this). While possibly just some lazy copy editing, I think everyone who's backed a hardware Kickstarter is well aware that blown out costs and development times do not normally result in far greater revenues. Apple, in so many ways, is the exception not the rule. And in general this "fanboi" piece does a good job of highlighting some of their exceptions.

seiji 11y ago
> Apple, in so many ways, is the exception not the rule. I think Apple follows traditional device manufacturing rules pretty closely. It takes 3-7 years to get a new hardware product market ready. The exceptions are startups or crowdfunded doodads that are able to launch in 18 months. Nobody's going to crowdfund on 3-7 year timescales though, so you end up with a lot of optimistic lies (even the creators lying to themselves about how quickly things can get made).
- digi_owl 11y ago
  More recent Kickstarter stuff is likely all done with R&D by the time they hit the site. This because after the initial year or so Kickstarter put into place a rule demanding a working prototype. Before that you had a mess of CAD renders and such being peddled. If you go over to Indiegogo you still find all those CAD renders and such, and i think that site has had a much lower success rate on delivery.
jamesrom 11y ago
Obviously, taken in context (that other companies might not tolerate higher costs and longer development times), the "as a result" line does not imply that higher costs and longer development times are the cause of far higher revenues in general. The "as a result" line implies that for Apple, higher costs and longer development times has yielded more revenue. The subject of the line is Apple, not the other companies.
klum 11y ago
There's another piece of the puzzle, which, in Apples case, may be attributed to the long and costly development process--that after this process, great products (which are not too late for the market) are released. If the hardware Kickstarter managed this, they probably wouldn't do too badly.
TrevorJ 11y ago
The reasons for blown out costs matter though: on kickstarter it's likely due to lack of experience with the manufacturing process. Kickstarter companies also likely do not have the marketing or global retail network to recoup sunk costs in many cases.

seiji 11y ago

> Apple, in so many ways, is the exception not the rule. I think Apple follows traditional device manufacturing rules pretty closely. It takes 3-7 years to get a new hardware product market ready. The exceptions are startups or crowdfunded doodads that are able to launch in 18 months. Nobody's going to crowdfund on 3-7 year timescales though, so you end up with a lot of optimistic lies (even the creators lying to themselves about how quickly things can get made).

digi_owl 11y ago
More recent Kickstarter stuff is likely all done with R&D by the time they hit the site. This because after the initial year or so Kickstarter put into place a rule demanding a working prototype. Before that you had a mess of CAD renders and such being peddled. If you go over to Indiegogo you still find all those CAD renders and such, and i think that site has had a much lower success rate on delivery.

jamesrom 11y ago

Obviously, taken in context (that other companies might not tolerate higher costs and longer development times), the "as a result" line does not imply that higher costs and longer development times are the cause of far higher revenues in general. The "as a result" line implies that for Apple, higher costs and longer development times has yielded more revenue. The subject of the line is Apple, not the other companies.

klum 11y ago

There's another piece of the puzzle, which, in Apples case, may be attributed to the long and costly development process--that after this process, great products (which are not too late for the market) are released. If the hardware Kickstarter managed this, they probably wouldn't do too badly.

TrevorJ 11y ago

The reasons for blown out costs matter though: on kickstarter it's likely due to lack of experience with the manufacturing process. Kickstarter companies also likely do not have the marketing or global retail network to recoup sunk costs in many cases.