“With news leaking out that Apple will soon introduce a lower-priced iPhone, many investors, managers, competitors and observers are focused on how this will boost Apple’s market share, especially in emerging markets,” Sydney Finkelstein writes for The BBC. “Perhaps of even greater interest to me, however, is what this means for Apple as a company, and more generally, whether corporate cultures are fluid enough to accommodate abrupt shifts in strategy.”
“A company that breaks the rules, changes the world, and does it all with panache and coolness is a tough act to beat,” Finkelstein writes. “That is, until it starts cutting prices. Companies that compete on the basis of price become commodity sellers. That the company Jobs ran could be in a commodity business is almost unfathomable. The next thing you know, they’ll be offering coupons in newspaper supplements for phones that are ‘new and improved.'”
Finkelstein writes, “We should expect many employees to leave, unhappy to work in a company that is no longer changing the world. We should also expect Apple to bring in new talent with backgrounds from the P&G’s and Unilever’s of the world.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Filed under “Vapid Idiocy.”
5C maybe only exists to have 3 4″ devices in production. They’ll probably kill all the 3.5 devices.
Apple will follow the same pricing and marketing strategy that they did with iPods. Nothing to see here. “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”
Exactly! Wow, the fact that I bought an iPod Shuffle must have WRECKED Apple’s work culture. Horrors.
All we keep seeing from these worthless AnalCysts is wishful thinking of Apple’s doom and gloom. It’s called APPLE ENVY.
Just deal with it, self-destructives. Try being positive about yourself and watch it change the world around you. Those of us who have already figured out positivity are not interested in your evil plans to destroy the world in your deformed image. Got that?
I believe what Finklestein was actually trying to write is Apple iPhones are iconic, not a commodity. A simple slip of English.
MDN: you are being too kind.
Finkelstein. Remember this name.
It’s Alive! 😛
I love how these articles that draw these grand conclusions get published before anyone actually knows what the f**k Apple is actually going to do. Who needs facts?
True dat. Level-headed reason, objectivity, and rationality are impossible features to find among the fanboi elite, too.
Level-headed reason, objectivity, and rationality are impossible features to find among the fanboi elite and the assholes that stir up those fanbois.
There, fixed up your hate mongering.
Bingo, we have a winner, er, loser, that is. Congratulatons!
Nothing agitates a fanboi more than an alternate opinion that deviates from their narrow minded ideologies and hypocritical nature. Your latent insecurities are obvious when some who doesn’t share your pathologically predjudical and intellectually dishonest interpretations are “hate mongering”.
Congratulatons!
Fanboi hate aside, learn how to spell.
Wow, MacFraud, swallow a thesaurus or something? All those long words, trying to look clever?
You intended to say MacFreud, correct? Funnier.
First the iPod nano at a price lower than the original iPod.
Now an iPhone at a price lower than the original iPhone.
When will the madness end?
Hit Whore!
Weird, article not available in the UK?
It’s all rubbish anyway, in denial of facts, history and current, yet to be released devices.
The sky is …. Ah fuck it!
Spontaneous speculation.
This guy’s a moron. Just because Apple produces a lower cost iPhone does not mean Apple will sacrifice innovation or quality. In fact, it may well be that the 5C IS very innovative in how it is designed to lower cost but still maintain a high level of features, quality, and ruggedness. Something other phone makers can’t copy easily.
great points
Exactly. Look how well it worked out when they brought Sculley in from Pepsi. Marketing genius.
What a way to make a living – spewing out nonsense for the anti-Apple crowd.
Perfect example of “there is no way you can please the analysts”.
As many past readers have posted over the years, Apple could announce an iPad that folds up to the size of a phone, be a phone, have an energy matter producer to make Twinkies when you want them, have a built in hologram projector to watch sports games on your coffee table and cost $5.00 and the’d still bitch.
But, but it’s missing a USB port… bla bla bla.
MDN, please add an edit button.
…and they’d still bitch.
I think iPhone 5c will sell very well, increase the user base and put a real dent in the Android market. This is war. And Apple will prove that innovation goes deep into design and engineering of excellent quality products – Like battery life and user experience, that gimmicks and apps are only a small portion of excitement of phones… but ultimately what Apple will prove is Samsung is not the leader but an Assembler. A factory to build and gather parts on order not a innovator but a copy cat.
in addition,
I wish to point out… that none of the competition ever created a product better or cheaper to Apple.
The prices stood about the same.
Now Apple changes the game – the competitors could not build a better or less expensive tablet or phone. But Apple will. This is Innovation. Innovating both on engineering and design with a less expensive phone. If in fact, it remains equally high on quality, functionality, security, reliability and beauty… Apple will do wonderful. And in its self be competing with itself. A test to see what people want. Will you be traveling business class or economy class. Choice has arrived.
OMG, they are going to start selling sugar water! Bring back Sculley!
Sounds like the BBC is starting to use commodity reporters.
Sydney’s penetrating analysis may seem far-fetched and his conclusion foolishly extreme because it is based on a patchwork of rumour and supposition, cherry-picks history, and ignores the dynamics of the markets Apple’s playing in.
Sydney’s real flaw is that he speaks up three years too late. Apple debuted its new “slate” device with a $499 price tag, halving the consensus prediction of the experts. Never mind disruptive, never mind revolutionary—Apple’s been competing on price since 2010.
Google gives away the OS in a way to circumvent the Microsoft monopoly and uses the same commodity OEM’s. Google then offers it’s apps for free, further loosening the grip of MS, BB, Apple or anyone else. How can anyone compete with a business model that does not rely on profits from the products they release, but the ads that run on them?
Well, for starters you do not sit on your ass and let history repeat itself, you offer better products and services and YES, offer competitively priced products too. When it comes to an OS, market share matters. In the long run it dictates whether you live or die.
If market share matters you had better tally to Google. They have absolutely no access to well over half of the Android devices on the market.
What’s more, Google makes far more money from ads on iOS devices than they do from ads on Android devices.
Seems to me that market share doesn’t mean a damn thing to Google.
Finkel is Ehinhorn 😀
Apple is doomed! *yawn*