Lessons from Apple · DIGIT-ARC

Lessons from Apple
Jun 7th 2007
From The Economist print edition

What other companies can learn from California's master of innovation

Getty Images
*www.economist.com/images/20070609/2307LD1.jpg FOR a company that looked doomed a decade ago, it has been quite a comeback. Today Apple is literally an iconic company. Look at your iPod: the company name appears only in the small print. Some of the power of its brand comes from the extraordinary story of a computer company rescued from near-collapse by its co-founder, Steve Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1997 after years of exile, reinvented it as a consumer-electronics firm and is now taking it into the billion-unit-a-year mobile-phone industry (see article). But mostly Apple's zest comes from its reputation for inventiveness. In polls of the world's most innovative firms it consistently ranks first. From its first computer in 1977 to the mouse-driven Macintosh in 1984, the iPod music-player in 2001 and now the iPhone, which goes on sale in America this month, Apple has prospered by keeping just ahead of the times.

The company, which is shortly to join the S&P 100 index of leading companies, is not without its critics. The not-always-lovable Mr Jobs is still stuck in a greedy-looking share-option “backdating” scandal. The firm has come under attack for refusing to make its operating-system and music-protection software available to others (a price worth paying, Apple responds, for greater reliability and consistency). And there are grumbles about manufacturing defects and customer service.

Read more...

What can I say! Apple is on a roll...

apple does good, competitors do better

apple on a roll .... it went up and came down falling after

Yup, a company that makes overpriced junk that sells purely because its fashionable, steals ideas and calls them innovative, has to be bailed out by its chief competitor, really really good...

teknoPhobia said:
a company that makes overpriced junk that sells purely because its fashionable

bang on target ....

apple is the real innovation

contactpraven2001 said:
apple is the real innovation

...the innovation that looks ARE everything... :razz:

apple is not the best.....you will get mp3 players better and more fashionable than ipod and etc etc

In the words of my brother, "An iPod is an iPod."

He hates it that it does not come with FM Radio (and he is buying a transmitter for that) but he just cannot buy another player where you have to press buttons for scrolling through lists and changing the volume. And he is no Apple fan because he just bought a Dell craptop.

Apple products sell because people can see the quality.

ya in other words ... just look at the design and UI its so cool

aryayush said:
Apple products sell because people can see the quality.

What Quality arya? Does Apple uses Gold plated connectors or Fiber channel based interconnects between the motherboard components?

Apple just like any other company uses 3rd party components made by Asus or Foxconn.

Whatever they use, it sure survives being crushed under cars.

And I wasn't talking about the hardware.

C

And he is no Apple fan because he just bought a Dell craptop.

@Arya: Why you call everything else crap if its not apple?? (Microsoft, Dell etc..)

Chirag said:
@Arya: Why you call everything else crap if its not apple?? (Microsoft, Dell etc..)

iss duniya mein do tarah ki cheezein hain. 1) apple 2) crap<insert ur fav. brand here!>

seriously man, get over the thot that anything and everything thats not apple is crap!!!

one lesson i haf learnt from apple after the introduction of iphone. everything that has a version 1.0 label from the apple stables (be it imac,ipod,iphone whatever) is crap!

C

Really I m fed up now with the fanboyism.. Maybe apple fanboy's gonna marry gals working at Apple otherwise no marriage

Ok no offense. Won't take part in this fanboyism fight.. Sry if anybody got hurt..

aryayush said:
In the words of my brother, "An iPod is an iPod."

He hates it that it does not come with FM Radio (and he is buying a transmitter for that) but he just cannot buy another player where you have to press buttons for scrolling through lists and changing the volume. And he is no Apple fan because he just bought a Dell craptop.

Apple products sell because people can see the quality.

and we just cannot buy a player which is better than its competitors when it comes to the so called gud lucks(and that not true either *www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/images/iriver-clix/iriver-clix-main.jpg , *pics.rbc.ru/img/cnews/2006/12/13/two.jpg )
and when it comes to sound quality there are many cheaper players that can kick any ipod's ass anyday and talking about the scroll wheel,i just CANNOT pay that much moolah for an inferior player with a scroll wheel...
sorry boss but thats the truth

iRiver Clix 2 :drool:

This is the end all Portable Media Player. Support for MP4, DivX/Xvid.....what else can I ask for

...

Oh...W960i

Its just that Macboys don't look at anything beyond crApple products. When they go to buy a device or gadget or computer, they first go to Apple store, look at the UI which is the only thing so cool....pay high premium for a product which does less job then competitors product & come home to brag about it which they are pathetic in doing.

Others users go to Naja Market or Lammington Road to inquire about products, & they find better products at lower price then crApple.

Salesman said:
And I wasn't talking about the hardware.

Oh, you mean that Mac OS X, hey didn't we showed everyone the truth which u were hiding, & after seeing that all the flaws were reveled you started posting your own flaws for good measures.

Apple didn't even make iTunes, what do u expect from them.

gx_saurav said:
iRiver Clix 2 :drool:

This is the end all Portable Media Player. Support for MP4, DivX/Xvid.....what else can I ask for ...

Oh...W960i

Its just that Macboys don't look at anything beyond crApple products. When they go to buy a device or gadget or computer, they first go to Apple store, look at the UI which is the only thing so cool....pay high premium for a product which does less job then competitors product & come home to brag about it which they are pathetic in doing.

Others users go to Naja Market or Lammington Road to inquire about products, & they find better products at lower price then crApple.

Oh, you mean that Mac OS X, hey didn't we showed everyone the truth which u were hiding, & after seeing that all the flaws were reveled you started posting your own flaws for good measures.

Apple didn't even make iTunes, what do u expect from them.

Apple didn't make iTunes? Haha...I didn't know that! As for the drooling over the iRiver Clix 2, SECONDED!! 8)

A

Motion carried...

yeah rite said man...i totally support u..its not like Apple Inc. is the innovator of style..heck ther r cheaper companies in Taiwan nd China

that does better quality styling than 'CR-Apple.' dont think that iam trashing the brand but with Fanboy(dearly beloved),i think its gone 2 far

...Hey man,maybe u shud suk up 2 Jobs...u may guarantee a job 4 urself and 5 generations after u rite there in ur truly loved Apple Inc :-D

...wat say??

Apple didn't make iTunes 1, they bought it from another company which was making a software SoundJam

teknoPhobia said:
Yup, a company that makes overpriced junk that sells purely because its fashionable, steals ideas and calls them innovative, has to be bailed out by its chief competitor, really really good...

Absolutely rubbish to some extent!!!

1) The Windows Point n Click GUI that we all are so much used to was actually developed to be used on Macs (innovation) by apple [I said NOT INVENTED by Apple]. MS just USED that idea and improved on it.

2) IPod changed the idea of PMPs with the incorporation of an iinovative sleek design and extreme capacities for audiophiles. Its Still THE BEST PMP out there in terms of sheer quality of music. NO PMP Still has still gotten the better of the audio quality of IPods.

3) iPhone is a disaster and a Junk as a phone but again is extremely innovative as a PMP. (Wishing Apple wud remove the phone features and sell it as a standalone PMP ...wow!!!... I love the huge n beautiful screen... )

rockthegod said:
1) The Windows Point n Click GUI that we all are so much used to was actually developed to be used on Macs (innovation) by apple [I said NOT INVENTED by Apple]. MS just USED that idea and improved on it.

Which further means MS was better in doing this compared to Apple. Yes Apple came with a GUI first, but it was MS which made it compatible with El Chepo Pentium Pro with Windows 95

2) IPod changed the idea of PMPs with the incorporation of an iinovative sleek design and extreme capacities for audiophiles. Its Still THE BEST PMP out there in terms of sheer quality of music. NO PMP Still has still gotten the better of the audio quality of IPods.

iPhone & features? Lolz...nope they don't go together. When iPod was released then yeah, u could say that...but after iPod gen 3, it started to suck. iTunes became a bloat, ipods started lacking in features (not even recording of audio) & over priced

3) iPhone is a disaster and a Junk as a phone but again is extremely innovative as a PMP. (Wishing Apple wud remove the phone features and sell it as a standalone PMP ...wow!!!... I love the huge n beautiful screen... )

Yup, even I agree to that. iPhone sux s a phone but rox as a PMP

I dont know much abt the macs but as far as the ipod is concerned its a realy a worth buying ,no other mp3 player can deliver the sound quality that ipod can ,.............now i m waiting for the the iphone ,if it goes the same way as the ipod im surely going to buy a one iphone

gx_saurav said:
Which further means MS was better in doing this compared to Apple. Yes Apple came with a GUI first, but it was MS which made it compatible with El Chepo Pentium Pro with Windows 95

Forceful implications!!!

I never mentioned anywhere that Apple DIDN'T improve on the GUI. Apple inproved it faster than MS could. Again the positive point for MS was to make that compatible with dirt-cheap (when compared to Gs) pentiums and make it easily available to us (as u rightly mentioned) which obviously Apple couldn't at the start!!!

gx_saurav said:
iPhone & features? Lolz...nope they don't go together. When iPod was released then yeah, u could say that...but after iPod gen 3, it started to suck. iTunes became a bloat, ipods started lacking in features (not even recording of audio) & over priced

I was talking about the IPOD and not IPHONE in my second paragraph (read properly please). IPOD Gen 5 is the best... I already tested the past 3 gens of ipods... the latest gen is much improved with a bigger and better screen + improved battery life + a plastic scratch resistant cover on the face of the iPod... with as always the best music quality out there. VIDEO also ROKS!!!

My only gripe is ITUNES

THAT IS THE MOST SUCKING THING OF IT and just drag-n-drop is what i have always preferred.

There is no holy grail in the IT Industry. What worked today can turn out a flop tomorrow. IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or Apple - all had their glory in their times for hitting the jackpot. Apple is doing it now and just two years does not make it the biggest in the industry and doesn't make the rest fools.