“For all of the credit Apple (AAPL) receives for its innovative ideas, whether it’s the iMac, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iCloud, etc., it deserves equal respect for being clever or even sneaky,” Cameron Kaine writes for Seeking Alpha.
“Its story is widely known and all of the acclaim and accolades are well deserved for what the company has essentially created and what I now call the ‘iWorld’ (patent pending),” Kaine writes. “But Apple does not get enough credit for what has become a recent pattern of running a shrewd business operation – or better yet, the puppet master of its competition.”
“The company systematically does things – whether through its words or the projects that it has chosen to take on – and it forces the competition to react – often in a manner that throws the competition off of its core competency,” Kaine writes. “Case in point: Last August I told you that I felt Apple forced Google (GOOG) into a panic purchase of Motorola Mobility (MMI). When I first read the news, the first question that entered my head was, what does Google know about hardware? This was one of the shoulder-shrug moments where the only answer defaults to the ever popular “we have to wait and see.” But the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. By doing this deal, not only is Google risking putting some of its software and services advantages in jeopardy, it had essentially become the competition to several of its partners by now becoming Android’s second biggest manufacturer.”
Kaine writes, “Apple forced Google into this deal by seizing a significant portion of the smart phone and devices market by leveraging its advantages of having a unified platform – or controlling both the hardware and software.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James M. Gross” for the heads up.]
I believe it’s Apple’s “iWorld” that has the most impact. There are accessories galore for iPod, iPhone, iPad. From cases, to music systems, to stands, to keyboards – if you want it, someone makes it.
Nobody, not even the colossal Micr$oft can force that kind of ecosystem onto the market to support it’s devices.
The accessories are a small part of the story. Integration is the bigger part. Pundits talk about it in passing, but rarely pause to consider the full implications. The iPhone is analyzed only in relation to other smartphones, the iPad to other tablets, the Apple TV to other set-top boxes. But often the reason someone buys an iPad is because it runs all their iPhone apps and automatically syncs all their iTunes music. And then they buy an Apple TV because of the ease of pushing photos and videos from their iPad.
iTunes –> Mac –> iPhone –> iPad –> Apple TV work together to create one virtuous cycle that keeps customers happily “locked in”, because the products work together so well to make their users’ lives so much more easy.
——RM
“Google… had essentially become the competition to several of its partners by now becoming Android’s second biggest manufacturer”
Not necessarily. Google could just be after a patent portfolio, and could shut down the hardware division of Motorola mobility. Not a wise use of $12+ billion, granted…
Steve was going thermonuclear with Google. Unfortunate for Google, Steve was moving the pieces together to build the “Google Thermonuclear Device.” Google “is” the bomb and Apple will have the detonation code. LOL
eWorld launched at MWSF back in 1990 I think.
iWorld has so much more going on than eWorld ever did. The “e” stood for empty, while the “i” stands for impressive or important.
I still have my old eWorld t-shirt from the launch. Anyone want to buy it, cheap?
There’s really very little “sneaky” or “clever” about it. Apple seeks to create the best experiences in consumer electronics. Period. The shitshow reaction from the pretenders is more about their inability to innovate than it is about Apple forcing any kind of response.
Apple may have maneuvered Google into making bad decisions regarding Motorola. However, Apple has been playing puppet master to Microsoft for a much longer time, and that story is more interesting…
Apple ridiculed Microsoft into abandoning the ambitious “Longhorn” project, by making fun of the aging Windows XP, especially with the “Get a Mac” ads (“Mac” and “PC”). Apple succeeded in making Windows XP look old and pathetic versus Mac OS X; Microsoft gave up on the many years of effort on Longhorn and did a rush job on Vista (to get “something” new out there), which provided an even richer source of ridicule for Apple.
Meanwhile, Apple was secretly working on iPhone. Microsoft was too busy scrambling with Vista (and then Windows 7) to notice that they were seriously neglecting Windows Mobile. When iPhone was released in 2007, Microsoft went from having one of the leading mobile platforms to basically starting over from scratch.
After an initial “denial” period, Microsoft panicked and put full effort and focus into Windows Phone 7 for the next two years. Meanwhile, Apple was secretly working on the REAL prize for the next decade, iPad. When iPad was released in 2010, Microsoft had a PDA-class mobile OS and a bloated desktop OS, and nothing in between that was suitable for tablets. So NOW, we have a mad scramble to release “Windows 8,” which is supposed to be optimized for tablets.
Meanwhile, Apple is secretly working on… (I can’t wait to find out.)