BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows spoke with Steve Jobs to discuss Apple’s music success and where it might lead. An interesting excerpt:
Q: Who do you consider your top competition in the online music business?
A: Presently, the thing that’s determining our rate of success isn’t any competitor, because our market share is dramatically larger than our competitors’. It’s purely this transition to this new world of digital music. That’s what’s determining our growth. We’ve had some strong competitors over the past two years, and we’ve managed to come out on top.
Q: What about Microsoft (MSFT )?
A: Microsoft doesn’t make music players, and the last time I looked they don’t have a music store, though they say they’re going to.
Q: But they’ve got many partners in both hardware and on the services side using Microsoft technologies, such as Windows media format and digital rights management software [which Apple doesn’t support].
A: Yeah, and the people using their technologies have yet to be successful.
Q: Still, many companies are lining up in support of various standards. Aren’t you concerned that this could play out like the PC market, in which Apple had a superior product, according to many people, and a market share lead?
A: Whoever enters this market now, is going to enter a market that’s not in its infancy. And they’ll enter a market against a competitor that has a 70% market share — and surprisingly, that competitor’s name will not be Microsoft. It will be Apple. Now, I understand that there’s no guarantee we’ll stay on top, but that’s the situation.
Q: So you don’t believe the history of the Mac and PC is useful in looking at the music business?
A: It’s ancient history.
Q: But you must think about it. There must be lessons to be drawn.
A: [Pausing] Sorry, I don’t think of it that way. I just don’t. I got back to Apple six-and-a-half years ago. The hand was dealt [by then]. And we’ve done a really great job of building great products for the best 25 million customers any company ever had. Hopefully, more customers will decide they want the world’s best computers, too.
Full article with much more here.
Interesting read.
WOW, he mentioned Computers.
steve listens to gangster rap… word to ya mother, yo.
heehee.
He correctly identifies the unique market base that Apple has. Those “25 million” customers will buy, almost slavishly, anything that apple produces, while the rest of us do cost and benefit analysis and conclude, once again, that a new Mac, despite its mystic qualities, costs too much.
But Joe, the problem is that all you do is compare a fews specs (misleading as always). Have you ever heard the saying “a little knowledge is dangerous”? Next time when you do your cost analysis, factor in how much time you’ve spent having problems on your pc, from rebooting (my mac hasn’t crashed in three years), to having issues when you get a new piece of hardware/software (we’re talking true plug & play here), to “The blue screen of death”, to viruses (or the anxiety of the threat of viruses). Then I want you to spend some time on a Mac, and realize the OS is absolutely wonderful. After you do that, when you go back to the PC, all of a sudden it will seem kind of “junky”. No Quartz, No Dock, cheap keyboard, etc…
Now, how much money did you save?
OM McConnell’s comments are only fair when someone is considering switching. I have at least �2500 in Mac software on top of my two Macs. To throw that away and start again on Windows would mean I finally start making a saving about four or five computers in, or about six years time (ho ho). In the meantime, I am vulnerable to viruses again, and have to put up with that stapled together rubbish Microsoft considers an interface.
Of course, I could always go Linux, but I really don’t want to spend the next year compiling drivers for every new bit of kit I buy, and then I would also have the problem of actually having those file incompatibilities that Windows users like to convince themselves the Mac has.
Sorry Joe, I know you write these comments to get reactions from people like me, and I know you’re smiling in glee at the prospect that I’m paying attention, but once again, I choose the Mac. Not because I’m an Apple slave, but because I think it is a better computer. By a long way.
Even assuming that McConnell’s comments are right, and intial costs are greater. Even if TOC was greater overall with Mac, I’d still use Macs.
Why? Because I like them more.
My house cost more than I actually needed to pay for a property. It’s in a reasonably nice area, close to good schools, close enough to transport links and has room enough for guests too. This is a ‘Mac’ house. The ‘PC’ house would be in a trailer park. Sure, the do largely the same thing (keep you dry and warm), but plenty of people are willing to pay a premium to live somewhere nice. Why is that ? Are they all stupid for not living in a trailer park ?
[Those “25 million” customers will buy, almost slavishly, anything that apple produces,]
If true, then Apple would always be sold out of products, as we MacSlaves would hit stores like a swarm of locusts the instant Apple shipped products.
[while the rest of us do cost and benefit analysis and conclude, once again, that a new Mac, despite its mystic qualities, costs too much.]
Maybe the ‘rest of you’ are using ‘FuzzyMath’ to conclude your analysis.
You seem to be implying – yet again – that ‘us’ MacSlaves are a bunch of senseless KoolAid guzzlers. Well I wonder, whose ‘Koolaid’ works better, Steve’s or Bill’s?
Well, let’s crunch the numbers.
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25-30M ‘MacFollowers’ versus 250-300M ‘WinFollowers’… …
I don’t know… I value my sanity more to me than a couple hundred bucks I save buying a PC. Besides, in the long run, Macs are cheaper to own. Maybe McConnel’s sanity is that worthless?
Wintel trolls, always a sign of Apple successes. Like birds chirping in springtime
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(And like birds, the only sense to be found in the noise is the predictable repetition.)
Success does not have to mean dominating the entire computer market. I think that for most people, staying in business for twenty plus years and serving 25 million customers is success. I know I would be quite happy if my business does as well. There can be more than one “winner” right?
If I want a BMW, I wouldn’t buy a Ford Taurus.
Money means nothing when it comes to buying what you want.
Joe, my cost/benefits analysis lead straight to the Mac.
If we are slaves to Apple then why in the world does Apple expend so much effort building such amazing products?
It scares me when I find out my competitors are switching to Macs…
Hey, This morning there was an article on the Apple Insider website. about the revised Super Bowl ad. Apparenly there is a hint in the video (dates) about something happening or being announced tomorrow morning. I just went back to it and the article was taken down. Apparently, there is a hint in the video about tomorrow morning. Did anyone else see it?
“Maybe McConnel’s sanity is that worthless?”
Maybe he’s already insane:
http://www.macdailynews.com/opinion_comments.php?id=P1978_0_2_0_C
I do know that I bought a sp 1.8 g5. And many other bits of mac stuff from ebay to attach to it. I bought an ipod. I will be buying a new mac every 18 months, and a new ipod probably every 18 months too. As a pc user, I had built my own systems and upgraded them a bit at a time… always battling the molasses effect of using a pc on the net. Now… I am a typical switcher? Maybe. The consistency of quality from apple makes staying a customer a wise choice…
I just watched the commercial again, and it really is there. If you watch right before the hammer hits the screen, there is a closeup of the screen with tomorrow’s date on it, and I think the time of 9:15 AM
check it out….
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/
Is this old news and I am just late to the party?
Poor Little Joey Mc. He’ll keep believing his own writings. Meantime, my old Mac, circa 1997, is running the latest, greatest Mac OS. I do own another newer Mac, but the old one is doing just fine. I spent my $1200 or so back in 1997. It’s lasted 7 years. Joey Mc spent his $900 3 years ago and it probably won’t run the latest XP. Oh well, he’ll find another cheap computer that will last him another 2 years. That’s why he never gets ahead.
Personally, I’d spend twice what I do if that’s what it took to keep me running on OS X instead of having to work on XP, but don’t tell Steve that!
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To me it looks like 84, not 04
“He correctly identifies the unique market base that Apple has. Those “25 million” customers will buy, almost slavishly, anything that apple produces, while the rest of us do cost and benefit analysis and conclude, once again, that a new Mac, despite its mystic qualities, costs too much.”
A truly PATHETIC and ERRONEOUS observation as usual.
Only a total moron would still believe the FUD about Macs costing more.
do they still sell Ford Taurus ?
they never sold them over here.
…
Macs are cool .. only thinkg I hate about Mac OS X .. that i cannot proceed working with the system when i get an occasional kernel panic [1 in a week on average] .. like I was used to on windows with BSOD in win98
..
i am no troll. i love my mac. i even know why the kernel panic [because of USB ISDN modem draytek]. only the cost is very much true here in Slovakia .. here and also in rest of Europe .. Apple chooses to have much higher prizes than in US .. I have no idea why.
…
otherwise .. I would never go back to windows [at this point of my knowledge about computers]
Quote from Hywel:
“My house cost more than I actually needed to pay for a property. It’s in a reasonably nice area, close to good schools, close enough to transport links and has room enough for guests too. This is a ‘Mac’ house. The ‘PC’ house would be in a trailer park. Sure, the do largely the same thing (keep you dry and warm), but plenty of people are willing to pay a premium to live somewhere nice. Why is that ? Are they all stupid for not living in a trailer park ?”
Excellent! In many ways better than the BMW analogy. I’ll use it, if I may.
Mike
Yawn. Thanks dave h. you actually do have me pegged, and I appreciate your opinion. Mac users like you convince me I am missing something, dunno what yet. RVfortytwo of course on one hand says cost doesn’t matter and on the other says they cost the same, and I haven’t figured out why. It may be he doesn’t remember his old posts. His vitriol is of course entertaining.
I was in the organic food, solar power, crystal gazing, touchy feely retail business for a long time, and the companies I worked for acknowledged that we were selling “new and better” stuff to the same customers over and over. Energy put into expanding our customer base got no more results than reinventing our existing products so that our customers, god love ’em, would buy more.
I really do think that that, in essence, is what Apple does, and I think that Steve implied that in his interview. Of course Apple is a real force for the advancement of computing, not at all like the schlokmeisters I worked for…..but I don’t think the way that we look at our customers is much different.
Weigh in on my post in this other thread:
http://www.macdailynews.com/comments.php?id=P2018_0_1_0
My response was about MDN’s, not the original act, since of course the only Queens we like in the US are a third on the flop…….except for Aryugaetu, who claimed special knowledge about queens at some point. Gay bars or some such I think he said.
Anytime you guys want me to stop posting I will. I think it would be a shame, since some of you are worldy and wise enough to realise that discourse is healthy, there ya go. RV doesnt get a vote btw, and Abomb only a half.
Joe says: “Those “25 million” customers will buy, almost slavishly, anything that apple produces”.
Joe, please induldge this Apple customer in taking personal inventory of Apple products purchased:
G5 Powermac – Nope
G4 iMac – Nope
G4 iBook – Nope
G4 eMac – Nope
iPod mini – Nope
Airport Base Station – Nope
iSight – Nope
.Mac – Nope
G5 X Serve – Nope
Final Cut Pro – Nope
Soundtrack – Nope
DVD Studio Pro – Nope
Keynote – Nope
G4 Powerbook – Check
G3 iBook – Check
G4 Cube – Check
iPod – Check
Please don’t tell Mr. Jobs I haven’t bought all his stuff yet….he’ll kick me out of the club!
In the interview Steve Jobs avoids answering the question about more products for non-Mac users. I take that to mean that something is being prepared and we will know about it soon. If I had to guess I would say that it will be new displays with DVI ports and an iPhoto for Windows. Apple has always been competitive with their displays but the current models work best with PowerMacs due to the ADC cables. As for iPhoto, it will not be long before photo-browsing capabilities will be added to the iPod and when that happens Windows users will need their own version of the software to use it.