“In the end, consumers want things simple and some handholding when things go awry,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions.
“I am convinced that this is really at the heart of Apple’s success,” Bajarin writes. “They have one phone–the iPhone. They have one tablet–the iPad. They have two laptops but except for sizes and optical drives in the Pro models, they are actually all the same. And they have one major desktop–the iMac. Even in the iPod line, they have streamlined it to the iPod Touch and the Nano. If a person needs help, they have their Genius Bars and 24-hour hotlines in which the people on the other end actually now how fix your problem.”
MacDailyNews Note: No, the iPod shuffle hasn’t been killed off. It’s still very much with us.
Bajarin writes, “By comparison, there are now over 80 Android phones to choose from as well as at least 5 versions of an Android OS to deal with. And in the PC space, if something goes wrong, people don’t know who to go to for help… While we can point to Apple’s powerful OS, industrial designs and ecosystems of products and services as key to their success, I actually think, that at its heart, the real reason for their amazing success is Jobs’ own mantra to his team, which is to keep things as simple and intuitive as possible.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Note: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. and the markets are closed. As usual on such trading holidays, we will have limited posting today.
Yup
Yeah, what he said.
The reason for ’s success is they strive to make the best products they can and don’t worry about making money. Making money happens as a result.
Well they do but then they sell them at the highest sustainable price so as to maximise the profit return.
SJ once used a simple graphic when explaining his future strategy. A single vertical line with two horizontal lines making a two column grid. Left column headed by consumer and right column headed by Professional. Then below the laptops and desktops. The whole product range simplified. This was before iPods of course.
Not really. If they didn’t care about profits, they’d sell their (arguably superior) hardware a lot cheaper. In the end the bottom line is what matters to all businesses, it’s just how you get there that’s different. Apple has chosen to take the high road of building quality products that people don’t mind paying a little more for a superior experience, rather than making shitty computers and selling them as cheaply as possible and not really giving a crap about design or user experience (just moving A LOT of boxes that are all pretty much the same between vendors, so the only real difference is price).
Of course they care about profits, it is just that they care about what they make more than how much money they can rake in and it all started at the top with Steve’s $1/year salary.
Years ago, I saw an interview with the the then CEO of General Motors. He said something like (paraphasing) “We don’t make cars, we make money”. How did that work out?
Master Cylinder,
How did you make that Apple sign in the text? Just curious.
Shft+Opt+k
Terry,
Alt Shift G
Only on a Mac™
I don’t know if you have a Mac or not, but every Mac comes with a built-in Keyboard viewer so you can find those symbols very easily. Not to mention the built-in Character viewer where you can find thousands more symbols to insert into your text. Just trying to help, that’s all.
What is this keyboard viewer of which you refer? How do I find it?
MenuBar and try Help
Open the Language & Text Preferences and under Input Sources, check the box next to “Keyboard & Character Viewer”. Also check “Show Input menu in menu bar” to get the icon on the Menu bar if you don’t already have that option checked.
Before Steve Jobs returned I shuned Apple because they had so many different models of computers that it was confusing. I didn’t trust it.
Amen!
Where’s the love for the iPod Classic? It is alive and well also. Use mine in the car all the time.
MDN, you’ve made the same faux pas as Tim Bajarin; you both forgot the iPod classic.
Apple has mastered the art of simplicity. Just look at their bottom line to see the results of this creative approach.
NOOOOOO!
Apple succeeds because of the intense hype created by their marketing departing!
You know, those all those free concert tickets Apple gives away to draw people to their store openi …
Uh, I mean, those Apple TV commercials where the robot turns into a race car with lasers which turns into an iPho …
… Wait.
WHAT?!
Right! I also have it on good authority that Apple succeeds because of voodoo marketing and an army of brainwashed isheep who will buy anything shiny with an apple logo on it.
And I want Apple’s competitors to keep telling themselves that until it’s TOO LATE…
“onsumers want things simple and some handholding when things go awry”
who do i contact to get safari to stop refreshing all the time?
The page you have open may refresh at certain intervals to add information or rotate advertisements.
It’s a function of the page you have open, not Safari.
Safari refresh may be created by a faulty or non-supported contextual menu item. Look in the Contextual Menu folder in either your Main or User Library. Remove any items there and restart Safari.
It seems curious that the company which offers the most restricted choice should be an American one. As a visitor to the US, one of my first impressions was that Americans seem to be obsessed with having infinite variations. Even the simplest foods are offered in a bewildering number of styles and flavours.
It has always surprised me that an American company, indeed a Californian company, has been the one that has made such a huge success of limiting choice in the computer market, where multiple choices have traditionally been the norm.
Their success has not been by “limiting choice”. It has been by making insanely great products that people want to own. Money flowing in is the result, and of course they work to maximize that.
I do not look at it as Apple limiting our choices. Rather, I see it as Apple providing a number of great choices by focusing their efforts on a reasonable number of device models. Those simplified product lines cover most needs very well.
I must say, however, that I have been disappointed at Apple’s pullback from the pro crowd. I believe in bidirectional loyalty, and the pros helped keep Apple in business in the mid- to late-1990s when many others were writing them off. Apple has the money to provide this support, even if it is not directly profitable to do so, and the company definitely has the obligation. I could understand the Xserve decision if Apple had done a better job of providing alternatives and a new path forward prior to making the announcement. But the lack of progress in the Mac Pro really bothers me. It is the only truly expandable Mac on the market and it used to be the flagship workstation, the Mac that could take on all comers toe-to-toe and do it with a workmanlike, but highly refined, design. When I had a Mac Pro on my desk, I kept it on the left hand side because that made it easy to pop off the side panel to show the uninitiated what a computer should look like inside. I was proud to do so because *no other vendor* had anything like it.
Using a variant on Steve’s analogies, Apple may focus on making cars and motorcycles, but people still need trucks. And Apple trucks ought to be the strongest, fastest, toughest darn trucks on the planet. Don’t forget your roots, Apple, or you will eventually wither.
There are over 300 Android devices and most of them are crap and they are fragmented even if eric schmidt claims it differentiation and not fragmentation.
“No, the iPod shuffle hasn’t been killed off. It’s still very much with us.”
and even the classic is still with us
Hopefully, they have not gone a bridge too far. Those of us who are content creators and/or developers have been barraged in the last few months all of the changes in Lion which require a huge change in the way that we work.
Many of us, myself included, have 50-100 applications that we work with on content creation, and since 1988, I have never seen a greater number of separate learning curves in both the operating system and the apps.
Lion works fine for the casual user with a few basic apps. For the rest of us, there are so many changes that are not well documented. I could go into it in excruciating detail, but that is a better topic, if you are interested, at http://www.macintouch.com/ , where a lot more developers and pro users gather.
Many developers are behind the curve, and I don’t believe its their fault. The Law of Unintended Consequences are running wild having to do with workflows and how files are handled. Its becoming more Windows -like in that you have to adapt to the computer, rather than the computer being used to adapt to your workflow.
Apple is attempting to use the iOS metaphor for the Mac, and I think its a bad idea. I know my labor cost per project is much higher in the last few months.
Not saying the alternative is better, but there is a huge amount of change for the sake of change that is going to cost those of us who make our living on Macs a lot more to produce our work. I am an iOS developer, and I just don’t see the benefit, and a lot of bad things in trying to merge the way you work on two platforms. Cars have 4 wheels for good reasons, and bicycles have two for a good reason. 3 wheel cars are frankly just stupid. May not be the perfect analogy, but the best I can think of.
And no, I cannot and will not take the time to get into a big argument about this. Just do some research before you conclude that the future is totally rosy.
I posted a few sentences above supporting the pro crowd. I sincerely hope that Apple uses a tiny slice of their assets to ensure dedicated support for the pros and to improve communication and planning going forward. I also hope that Apple begins to lavish more attention on the Mac Pro. Even if I do not need one at home (or cannot justify the additional cost), it is nice to know that the flagship workstation is in the field doing the heavy number crunching for the creative pros, scientists, and engineers. Apple used to publicize the power of its desktop…
Kill android.
How is it Microsoft can sell deals for windows8 phones running Android?
1) Android is from Google and is free – no?
2) Windows8 is it hardware or software?
3) Nokia didn’t need Windows8 phones they make phones already – Android is free – right?
4) Microsoft has legal rights to license Google Android – wait a minute – I thought they hated one another – yes?
5) Oracle is enjoying this situation and soon will slam Microsoft with a huge lawsuit – good?
6) Wrong, excite holds no patents closely relating Siri – the games over.
Hmm! I actually agree.