“Let’s all agree that Apple makes some rip-roaringly good products. The iPhone, the iPad, and the MacBook Air are all massive successes. And there are ceaseless rumors about the forthcoming iPhone 5,” Sam Grobart writes for Businessweek. “But Apple makes many things, and it stands to reason that some of their products are better than others. The problem for Apple (and it’s a problem many companies would like to have, no doubt) is that when the bar is set so high for the good stuff, the merely adequate starts to look unacceptable.”
“That’s why Apple should consider the Jack Welch approach to product management: Just as the former General Electric chief executive officer would close or sell business units that did not place first or second in their industry, Apple should look at some of the laggards in its product portfolio and ask some hard questions about whether they have a future at the company,” Grobart writes.
Here’s where it could start:
1. Safari: Safari has never cracked 10 percent of browsers in use.
2. Game Center: I’m sorry, but what is this? I just know it as the annoying thing that pops up before I want to play Angry Birds.
3. Pages: For most people, there’s Microsoft Word, and there’s Google Docs. One’s bloated and powerful, the other’s limited but streamlined. Nobody needs another word processing program.
4. Numbers: Numbers is Apple’s challenge to Microsoft’s Excel, but for better or worse, Excel is the standard here.
5. Mission Control/Launchpad/Dashboard: Apple keeps pushing these different ‘views’ of your desktop. Most people know them as the weird screens that pop up when you accidentally move your cursor into a corner of the screen and then have to figure out how to get back to what you were working on.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
1. Smartphone/Tablet Browser Share, August 2012: Safari – 66.43%
2. Just because you don’t know what it is, Sam, doesn’t mean it isn’t useful and fun for those who do.
3. Pages for iPad is the world’s #1 word processor for post-PC devices. Grobart lacks understanding regarding Apple’s mobile iOS devices to desktop/portable Macs strategy.
4. Numbers for iPad is the world’s #1 spreadsheet app for post-PC devices. Grobart lacks understanding regarding Apple’s mobile iOS devices to desktop/portable Macs strategy.
5. As with the 4 previous items, Grobart doesn’t know enough, or anything, about the products he advises Apple to “stop making.” Mission Control displays open documents and their apps. Launchpad shows available apps in iOS style. Dashboard runs widgets. They aren’t three “different ‘views’ of your desktop.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “John C” for the heads up.]
