“The quality of a user experience has no ceiling. As nearly every other consumer industry has shown, as long as there is a clear delineation between the top-of-the-line and everything else, some segment of the user base will pay a premium for the best,” Ben Thompson writes for Stratechery. “That’s the key to Apple’s future: they don’t need completely new products every other year (or half-decade); they just need to keep creating the best stuff in their categories. Easy, right?”
“The fundamental reason the company has thrived even with Jobs’ untimely death, is the total commitment to building the best possible personal computers (all of the iOS devices, including the Watch, fit here). Being competent at wildly disparate businesses just because you have the financial wherewithal to do so is in direct opposition to this ethos. It is a perfect example of trying to kill the goose laying golden eggs,” Thompson writes. “Low end disruption is real, and it is a threat, and Apple’s only defense is to be the best. And being the best at anything requires total dedication and yes, focus.”
Our goal isn’t to make money. Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant, but it’s the truth…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, and if we are operationally competent we will make revenue, but we are very clear about our goal. – Jony Ive
Thompson writes, “what if you took Ive at his word? What if you realized that Apple, for its entire 38 year existence, has been focused on building the best possible personal computers?4 Sure, those computers have become ever more personal, but the drive to be the best is a constant. Would you really advocate something different [such as buying Tesla, Twitter, and/or Pinterest]? If so, then, I guess, and despite my reputation, you are a far greater skeptic of disruption than I.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]