“It wasn’t long ago when Apple Computer transitioned to Apple, Inc. and the iPhone set the smartphone world fire. Nor was it long ago that Apple ran their award winning ‘Hello, I’m a Mac’ ad campaign, positioned as the little computer that could,” Mark Reschke writes for T-GAAP.
“But today Apple lives in a world where they are no longer the little tech company that finds its niche, rather, Apple is now the largest company in the world, achieving such success that only Steve Jobs could have envisioned,” Reschke writes. “With this success — and mammoth size — Apple has new marketing and advertising hurtles to tackle, as the atmosphere at the top is much different.”
Reschke writes, “Apple is now in an advertising position of being the thousand pound gorilla… Whether a few, or a few dozen, tech firms join the Apple bashing, the biggest effect on Apple will be how Apple handles that attack and transitions its marketing into being the market leader, and being able to defend its territory.”
Read more in the full article here.
Apple has stated it welcomed competation. Just use your own designs.
The author of this article does clearly not understand Apple’s motivations. Strange that these people continue to either misconstrue what they hear from Apple at every turn, or simply ignore it, writing it off as unbelievable.
More traditional media thinking… as if Apple is just like any other company. As if Apple is Microsoft…
This is nothing new for Apple. iPod was released way back in 2001. After about three years, when the 4th gen iPod was released along with full and equal support for Windows users, iPod was the undisputed king of digital media players. And the iTunes Store became the worlds largest music retailer.
Apple creates products that are highly desirable, with user experience that is difficult (or nearly impossible) to replicate (copy). That is how Apple “defends its territory,” one product line at a time… But defending what Apple already has is not the core of Apple’s long-term strategy.
And that is how Apple continues to grow with the “underdog” mentality. Every three to four years, Apple releases a completely new product line that has been “in the works” (secretly). When Apple releases a new product line, it is not “the thousand pound gorilla” defending its territory. It is the “startup” going into NEW territory. But it’s a startup venture with essentially unlimited funding, and direct support from Apple’s existing product lines and services.
The good news for the future of Apple. There are still MANY “new territories” to enter and conquer, and some don’t even exist yet.
How will Apple survive against a marketing genius like Ballmer? Oh yeah, we’ve already seen the result.
With class and dignity.
…and real innovation.
You don’t understand the point of the article.
Until ten years ago, Apple was rather small (smaller than DELL), and nobody paid attention. There were the legendary Mac vs. Windows battles in online forums, with rabid fans on both sizes, but other than that, it was just one of the many tech companies out there carving its space. About the only meaningful difference was that it had somewhat outsized mindshare, compared to its actual size.
Today, Apple is like Exxon-Mobil. If you are an investment firm on Wall Street, you can no longer build a serious portfolio without including AAPL in it (much like you can’t build one without GE, XOM, IBM, MSFT and such). Way more eyes are observing Apple, and way more people are cheering for it to fail. This is what Apple has to learn to deal with, as it will certainly present heretofore unseen obstacles and problems.
When you are this massive gorilla, standard business practices aren’t sufficient anymore. You will be attacked simply because you are big (and we’ve seen a lot of that already).
I’m sure smart heads at Apple are aware of this. Apple should be fine, but we should definitely expect many more assaults on them, and from many directions.
I don’t like the “defend” mentality. Apple needs to move on to the next great thing and if it takes down it’s own product, better than to have someone else do it.
I agree with you. Apple isn’t you typical large company. The culture of Apple is in its history. This is taught at Apple and will not be forgotten. Everthing Apple does (and doesn’t do) is with purpose. Apple’s ability to maintain focus is evident in their ability to keep projects secret until the time is right to launch a product. Yes, we get leaks of products a few months before introduction but did we know the iPad was in development years before the iPhone in 2007? The genius is not in the technology but making technology simple and doing this takes time.
Other companies announce vaporware while Apple announces new products. New MacPro the exception – given the update time span and restlessness of the Pro market this needed to be done. I am personally hoping one of the surprises is a 4K media server with 4K content in iTunes. Here’s to the crazy ones.
“This is what Apple has to learn to deal with, as it will certainly present heretofore unseen obstacles and problems.”
And that is why exactly why Tim cook was chosen by Jobs and will handle expediting the next chapter that Apple will reign. Anyone who cares to research his meticulous methodology and professional savvy, will quickly notice that he is a force that understandably was cultivated and prepared for stewardship of Apple.
You know what’s pretty screwed up in the stock market? Brokerage houses like Needham Research. Yeah, they cut Apple today because of too much competition. But wouldn’t you know they upgraded LinkedIn because, well, I’m not really sure why, except the price has doubled this year. Naturally a company with a P/E of around 684 is such a low risk buy for investors. With an EPS of .35 the money isn’t exactly rolling in but its current share price is worth more than half of what Apple’s share price is. C’mon, be reasonable.
Anyone who thinks LinkedIn is going to make enough revenue in the next five years to warrant the share price, please raise your hands. No one. You’re right. The stock market is a scam because there’s no way LinkedIn is going to monetize whatever it has to that degree. Apple could buy LinkedIn for chump change. The hedge funds are having a field day with some stocks by fluffing them up with air. Don’t get me wrong. I think LinkedIn is a fine and useful company but I honestly don’t think people are going to actually pay for their services to reach almost 700X the current share price. It’s very perplexing to listen to hedge fund managers and analysts punk Apple and then back a company like LinkedIn like it was solid gold. Yeah, I know it’s all about growth but they’re just stretching it way out of proportion.
Surely they meant Hurdles and not Hurtles.
If you can’t write you shouldn’t.
That last sentence could use a little help as well.
to answer the headline question:
the same as any other crumbling empire. first with denial, then with excuses, and finally with cynical acceptance.
luckily for Apple, the company is still relatively young. It takes a long string of empty-suit leaders before the tipping point is even recognized. The USA hasn’t had a responsible executive since Eisenhower, and it still thinks it runs the planet.