“No wonder everyone is pining for Steve Jobs to return to Apple. Other executives at the company don’t seem to grasp future product trends,” Dan Nystedt writes for IDG News Service.
“The company’s chief operating officer on Wednesday lashed out at netbooks, calling them unusable due to their cramped keyboards, ‘junky’ hardware and bad software,” Nystedt writes. “‘It’s a stretch to call them a personal computer,’ said Tim Cook during Apple’s fiscal second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday.”
Nystedt writes, “If that’s what Apple thinks of netbooks, it’s an odd way to view one of the hottest new product categories around.”
Full article – “Apple doesn’t get netbooks? Too bad.” – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dan Nystedt doesn’t get Apple. Or the concept of margins. Too bad.
If it makes business sense for Apple to swoop in and teach the world once again how to remake a market, then Apple will do so. But, they will do so one their own unique terms, likely in ways that IDG News Service’s Dan Nystedt cannot fathom.
One more time, for those who unthinkingly call for Apple to produce a low-cost “netbook” to “compete” with all of the other low-cost “netbook” peddlers or who can’t grasp the exceedingly basic concepts of unit sales and profit margins, let’s try this again:
Little Mikey had a lemonade stand. Okay, it was a kiosk. He sold 100 (8 oz.) cups yesterday for 10-cents each. He spent 11-cents per cup for artificial lemon flavoring, corn syrup, and the paper cups. He used tap water because it was free. Threw it all together in a big plastic pail. He’s out a buck for all of his trouble. Boy, that was a lot of work for less than nothing!
Around the block, little Steve runs a lemonade stand, too. It’s all blond wood and very clean. He sold 50 (24 oz.) glasses yesterday for 50-cents each. He spent 20-cents per glass on fresh-squeezed lemons, pure cane sugar, spring water (mixed with the utmost care), and some very nice glassware (he buys in bulk and gets a good price). He took home $15 yesterday. He’s currently building his newest stand right where Mikey’s used to be.
