“There’s a great scene in my favorite Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street, where a Macy’s sales manager is shocked to overhear the department store Santa Claus send a distraught mother to a competitor to buy a toy,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “But what starts as a fireable offense ends up becoming a marketing strategy, as Macy himself realizes that, counterintuitively, there’s a benefit to being seen as a store that cares more about its customers than its profits.”
“Apple, it seems, has taken this philosophy to heart. The company has always put forth the image that it cares more about surprising and delighting its customers than about cold hard cash, and on occasion it seems to make decisions that would otherwise seem counterintuitive to the capitalistic idea of simply raking in as much money as it can.,” Moren writes.
“This year’s WWDC announcements were no exception: the company showed off more than a few features that seem as though they go against the grain of the company’s business model,” Moren writes. “But, as with Apple, there’s always a method to the madness.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Keeping users happy and sane after they’ve already purchased your products is in Apple’s best interest, as such customers will be inclined to buy more such products later.
“Counterintuitive” …. I don’t think so!!
Why, you may ask?
Because they want as many people in the world as possible using their devices, feeling secure about using these devices and generally not feeling pressured into using these devices because of undue pressure from large companies trying to keep you on line as much as possible to mine your data and throw advertising at you!
Why?
Because they are making a huge and growing amount of cash from Services.
iPhones , iPads, Apple Watches and Macs sell themselves.
Go figure.
> The company has always put forth the image that it cares more about surprising and delighting its customers than about cold hard cash,
This is wrong. It charges cold, hard cash for Mac Pros and Mac Minis that are -well- out of date. It charges ever higher amounts of cold, hard cash for MacBook Pros with poor keyboards, MacBooks that are underpowered and MacBook Airs that have out-of-date screens.
It also charges cold, hard cash for necessary cables to connect the iPhone X to a new MacBook – due to their having different USB cables.
It seems as if Apple really is trying to screw every last piece of gold from us.
Sometimes Apple products have been well ahead of their time and competitors offerings and, sometimes, Apple product cycles lag a bit. Consumers decide whether or not Apple products are worth the money at any given time.
Since you feel screwed by Apple, buy something else.
Lag a bit. Do you mean by -years- ?
Great business model, btw, encouraging people to buy something else. I can see why you’re not running a major business.
There is nothing wrong with selling computers, even ones as long-in-the-tooth as the Mac Minis – no one is forcing anyone to buy one. Should they be updated – absolutely. The fact that they haven’t means that Apple is rethinking it’s headless strategy as they have said.
Also, the capitalist system does not make one inherently greedy. Greed exists in all forms in every society. Greed shows up big on Black Friday. It also shows up with the extreme wealth garnered by the politicians in communist countries and despotic nations. In those countries, the average individual cannot show greed because it’s beaten out of them until they have no hope save for the crumbs that the gov’t might throw their way.
Headless strategy? – No pun intended I presume…
> There is nothing wrong with selling computers, even ones as long-in-the-tooth as the Mac Minis
-nothing- wrong? Nothing – not one thing?
Hmmm. Doesn’t seem to fit with this:
“Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products. We trust that if we are successful people will like them… we are very clear about our goal.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9438662/Apple-design-chief-Our-goal-isnt-to-make-money.html
Selling long-in-the-tooth computers doesnt sound like “great products”.
Even long-in-the-tooth computers can be great … just look at the others!