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91 Comments
- gjd131, on 10/12/2007, -3/+56I think the saying is "Hindsight is always 20/20"
- yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+55Where the heck is digg mirror when you need it... anyhow here's the text. Forgive me if this is long, but I would rather have a long comment on digg than my site crushed under the weight of clicks.
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At the time Apple announced all of the following, the Mac faithful gasped, asked if hell had frozen over, or wondered what reality Steve Jobs was distorting. But in retrospect, all of these seemingly stupid Apple moves were actually brilliant.
iMac
iMacI remember when the iMac came out, many thought Apple was washed up, and it was too little, too late. Computer experts mocked its translucent candy color, lack of power, expandability, and absent floppy drive. Beige was so much more practical and powerful. And what was with the lowercase “i”? Was Steve Jobs on iCrack?
But in retrospect it was an awesome move. People loved the retro all-in-one idea, snapping up nearly a million units. Suddenly the PC world wanted to get rid of floppies, work in colored plastic, and add USB. Lastly, with the iMac’s success, Apple was back in black and could start innovating again.
The Lisa
LisaThe Lisa was a cool computer but way too expensive at $9,995. John Sculley thought the high price was necessary in order to recoup Apple’s investment in the project’s development. Sales fell off quickly and eventually Lisa computers were buried as landfill.
But it set the stage for the Macintosh in 1984, and the Lisa sticker-shock made the original Macintosh look like a relative bargain. At the time it had to be proven that a GUI and a mouse was the future of computing (both ideas inspired by Xerox PARC and the Alto workstation), and the Lisa helped pave the path for the Mac.
Sacking Steve Jobs
Jobs and SculleyFiring a founder is always going to look stupid. But if Steve Jobs hadn’t been canned from Apple by the soda-water guy, there would be no NeXT and therefore no OS X.
The humbling experience of being fired made Steve Jobs question his values and what he really wanted to do with his passion for technology. It likely inspired him to try that much harder the NeXT time.
If Steve Jobs had remained with Apple through the nineties, it’s quite possible Jobs would have joined Apple on a slow slide into confusion and oblivion and now be a subsidiary of HP.
Buying NeXT
NeXTIn the mid nineties, Gil Amelio was desperate to save Apple and needed a next-generation operating system. Apple nearly purchased Be and its BeOS, which already ran on PowerPC chips. But instead Apple chose NeXT, with the Unix-based NeXTSTEP and the bonus prize of Steve Jobs.
At the time, many thought Be was a better fit. People worried that Steve would be impossible to work with. Many doubted Apple had the resources to get NeXTSTEP working on PowerPC based Macs. And probably the most idiotic part was that Amelio had just hired himself out of a job.
Needless to say, after a few nearly disastrous “public betas” and the wishy-washy title of “iCEO” the NeXT purchase turned out to be a brilliant move. OS X is now considered a step ahead of Microsoft’s Vista. Steve Jobs has proved to be a master promoter and his insane demands for quality raises the bar on everything Apple touches.
Killing the clones
CloneIt was once assumed one reason for Apple’s troubles was their unwillingness to open up their hardware to other manufacturers as with the PC. So during the mid nineties, Apple allowed other companies like Motorola, UMax, and PowerComputing to make Macintosh clones.
When Steve Jobs returned, he killed the whole deal, saying the clone companies were canniballizing Apple’s sales. A lot of people were pissed because for a while, they were able to buy powerful, fast hardware at a cheaper price than Apple could develop. But this vision of cheap boxes didn’t fit with Steve’s plans for Apple.
In retrospect, killing the clones was the only way for Apple to survive in the short term. And luckilly, they went on to make awesome, beautiful, quality hardware. Today, people pay a premium for Apple’s great design.
Working with Microsoft
GatesWhen Bill Gates’ huge visage towered over Steve Jobs at a keynote, many thought Apple had made a pact with the devil. Microsoft was the enemy. Taking money from Bill Gates… nothing good could come of it.
But this great move bought Apple time to get back on its feet. Gates thought he would win either way, because the more Macs sold meant more software sales, plus Internet Explorer would come on every Mac and help Gates beat Netscape, which at the time, he probably thought was a more dangerous adversary. Who would have thought Apple would come back so strong?
iPod and the iTunes Store
iPodWhen Apple’s iPod came out, I first thought it was interesting but no big deal. Apple hadn’t proved it could manage a consumer electronics product - their strength was still in computers.
When Apple began selling music online via the iTunes Music Store, many doubted it would ever fly. People already had too much pirated music. Nobody would pay for compressed sound files. Everybody hated DRM. But Apple had worked really hard on making it the purchasing process easy.
The same doubters floated the same theories with television shows, and are now repeating the same arguments against downloading movies. But in the long run, all these moves will likely be right on the money. There has to be some money to be made selling content for 60 million iPods.
The Cube
CubeThe Cube was considered a masterpiece of design but it didn’t sell well. It was priced in a strange place, more expensive than an iMac but cheaper than a PowerMac, lending people to wonder why not pay less and get an iMac with a monitor built in, or pony up a bit more and get a PowerMac with expansion options. Sales sucked and the Cube was toast.
But consider how the knowledge of building a compact computer influenced all of Apple’s subsequent projects. The flat panel iMac, the PowerBook, and eventually the Mac Mini. Lastly, if you stack two Mac Minis it’s basically the shape of a Cube.
Note: What’s with Steve Jobs and cubes? The NeXT logo, the NeXT black cube computer, and a huge glass cube sitting outside Apple’s Manhattan store. Only the Borg has more cube love.
iPod Shuffle
iPod ShuffleWho wanted an iPod with no screen and only enough storage space for a few CDs? The answer: tons of people who didn’t want to pay more than $100 for an an iPod.
The shuffle feature was also initially looked down upon as more of a limitation with marketing spin. Maybe so, but my first iPod was a Shuffle and I feel the compact size made up for any feature limitations. Second, without a screen, I didn’t worry about scratching it. Eventualy, when I wanted more features, I upgraded to an “actual” iPod. So in the most cynical sense, Apple got an extra $100 out of me because I bought a Shuffle. Brilliant!
Moving to Intel
IntelIn 2005, the move to Intel created more questions than answers. What if people bought Mac hardware and ran Windows on it? What if people bought Dell computers and ran OS X on them?
But new possibilities for Apple soon became evident: Boot Camp, not waiting for Motorola and IBM to come up with a G6, more appeal for potential switchers, or being able to ditch hardware in the ultimate exit strategy.
In fact, the stupider move was probably way back in the early 90s when Apple moved to the PowerPC chip. An Apple move to Intel back then would have saved Apple years of development time, and a lot of stress waiting for other companies to deliver.
In conclusion, I hope this post demonstrates that through, luck, serendipity, or business genius, sometimes stupid is smart. After all, according to Steve Jobs, you can only connect the dots in hindsight. - unloud, on 10/12/2007, -23/+58No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
- afex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+33perhaps you mean guerilla?...
gorilla marketing: "bananas, the other yellow fruit." - thegreyfox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23Just in case someone doesn't get it.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257 - paulryan21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15People people people - if you don't want to read apple stories - don't click on the BLOODY LINKS !!!!!
I just don't get it !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a nice day - and go find a PC story to click on :) - AssProphet, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19@ junkmail02
Whoop-de-freekin-do. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Hey, flag, this is failed under the Apple category, right? What kind of stories do you expect to find here - about roses and bunnies?
- chucker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Is it really that difficult for you to simply disable the category?
- gharding, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I expect to find serious political debate and breaking international news under "Apple"!!
- ZergyPoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I'll expand on that: it's digg and this article has "Apple" in the title. You should have known better.
- sakuraz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13http://www.duggmirror.com
Moved it up. (Too much scrolling needed)
Oh what the.....it doesnt seem to be working even for me - cmiller1, on 10/12/2007, -11/+20Oh come on! He's making a jab at /., it's totally topical, and its funny. Digg him up!
- nicheplayer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Hear, hear! Nobody's cramming this stuff down your throat.
- flipmeat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"they have very very little market share."
So does BMW, but I don't hear people whining about their market share. - raid517, on 10/12/2007, -14/+19Mmm... there's a suspicious amount of Apple love on Digg today...
- Buttercup, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13@junkmail2
so... did you have to change your underwear afterward? - appleswitch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7"Won't happen. Kevin Rose is a big Apple fan."
you know... that and the fact that It's a stupid idea that underminds everything digg is about... - CLucas916, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So um...instead of telling us about it, why don't you just remove the apple category?
- xportz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4http://www.duggmirror.com
- mateo60, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Your front page doesn't have to look like mine. Go to your profile and uncheck the Apple box and you don't have to see an Apple story again.
- noqualities, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"But new possibilities for Apple soon became evident: Boot Camp, not waiting for Motorola to come up with a G6, more appeal for potential switchers, or being able to ditch hardware in the ultimate exit strategy."
Motorola didn't design the G5, IBM did. IBM would probably have designed the G6 too, if Apple hadn't switched to Intel. - gharding, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is why you should seriously cache.
- d4rthsid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2like stories about Kevin Rose?
- flipmeat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Too much apple love? Who wants to post 'Stupid Apple Moves that were Actually Stupid'?
Despite being a Mac (and cross-platform) guy, I have a bunch. Feel free to copy and paste.
1. Giving Truetype away to Microsoft. This was done pretty much just to piss off Adobe when they were a single source of fonts for laser printers, IIRC. But if Apple had just negotiated for a nickel, or a penny per copy... $$$
2. Building a giant corporate campus in the 90's. This move kills off a lot of companies, and almost killed Apple. Good thing Apple would never be stupid enough to do it again... wait, what?
3. Not getting the Internet sooner. Just think, they could have hot-rodded Hypercard, and Digg would be a stack! :-P Come to think of it, this might be one of the genius moves.
4. Making printers. They weren't bad, but focus, people!
4a. Imagewriter LQ. Anyone have a trebuchet I can use?
5. In the stores, the Geniuses (lolz0rz) have a red Hotline phone. This phone is not in an acrylic cake holder, and does not light up. Such a missed opportunity... :-) - nicheplayer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Not really. I made the mistake of putting the word "veyron" in a blog post about a month ago. Take a guess at which search term brought the most people to my blog since then, by a loooong shot. Do you think any of those people even own a veyron? Same phenomenon. Apple is cool and sexy, so people get excited about it.
- kelly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Macs make up 3% of the market share. NOT install base.
What I find so funny is that whenever you have sites such as this that are governed by the community rather than a handful of so called journalists, Mac news is especially prevalent. Rather than assuming its a vocal minority, perhaps you should consider the fact that the loud voice is actually the result of a large group.
Am I saying that you've been wrong about Apple and its size?
In a word. Yes. - zang74, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9Yes, it would be nice if we Apple users were nice to Flag564 the Apple-hater and didn't digg stories in the Apple section to sully his technology page! Oh wait flag, you can ignore Apple stories y'know? Why don't you do that?
- yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I notified my hosting company when all this was going down; they did disable access to the domain because of the traffic.
I liken the Digg effect to lighting a firecraker, realising it has a short fuse, and throwing it away quick. Then you realize the firecracker landed in your house. Lastly it explodes and everyone stands around wondering what were you thinking? - yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I can post the text here if need be.
- ThinkFr33ly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2BMW does not target somebody looking at a Honda Civic. BMW targets people looking at similarly priced cars, such as Audi, Volvo, Mercedes, etc.
Apple, on the other hand, *definitely* targets people looking to buy a Dell. Their target markets are *identical*.
It is silly to suggest that Apple doesn't try to expand its market share into the Wintel territory. They obviously do. They have an entire line of "switch" ads to prove it.
But people don't switch. Their market share remains small. This is due to many reasons, and price is one of them. - whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -12/+13Well, that's it!
I am now tired of hearing about apple. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Keep in mind, that most people can't or simply don't think "outside of the box". For those who do, it's like swimming against the current when you want to do something "different"... unless you're in a position to do what you chose, as Jobs is. Of course when a person, who understands that drastic change is sometimes required, makes a move outside of the norm, the complacent masses don't see that change as good find it to be utterly crazy. At least until that move becomes the norm and then the masses laud it as genius and other such titles.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+8Macs make up maybe 3% of all the computers on earth, but 95% of all the tech news on DIGG. Isn't that strange?
- Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"BMW does not target somebody looking at a Honda Civic.... Apple, on the other hand, *definitely* targets people looking to buy a Dell."
You can look at it that way. Or, you can look at who they *actually* sell to ... which is people who are willing to pay more for *something* about the GUI, the design, and the (often) quality.
After using Macs for 15 years, faced with the demise of my clone last year, I tried a PC, XP and PC software for 3 or 4 months. Then I went to the Apple store and got a G5. One year later: no hardware problems, and the sweetest Mac experience in my life. No viruses, no crashes, absurdly simple installations, and a lot of great software for my purposes.
When you use a tool a lot, it pays to get a good one. - incongruity, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Sucks to be you.
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>Or people could just deselect Apple stories from being in their front page in the prefs, but that's apparently too difficult to do.
They do hate Apple after all... - Twango, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"What kind of stories do you expect to find here - about roses and bunnies?"
;-> Where are the stories about roses and bunnies again? - zonk3r, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2http://duggmirror.com
Crap, doesn't seem to work on this article... - yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Okay.... I had no idea this story would get this high... now my blog and server looks like it's going to implode.
noqualities that is my mistake. I will correct it as soon as i can. - jk_baller23, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It's Digg, expect the worst... :P
- cthellis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0killinger appeal to no one
(Seriously dude, mellow out.) - bushy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Absolutley agree, too much Apple.
People are worried about a lack of objectivity if Digg were bought by Fox, but the Digg users, through Diggnation cheerleading, have already been bought out by Apple, Ubuntu, and Google. - kenthomson799, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You see the majority of market is Microsoft, so they dont need to form such silly 'groups' to promote anything, everyone of us already knows that without Windows nothing productive would have been possible in the last decade (for the desktop user). But these Apple fanatics, are silly little brats, that are gonna shout their mouth out only to dissuade people from buying apple products.
Stop marketing Apple here! :( - cthellis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Not many people, they have very very little market share."
Compared their profits and market capitalization to Dell lately? There is more to life than market share.
(Of course, the iPod will mention that you can perfectly well leverage market share, too. ;-) ) - CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3No wait! Don't complain about the incessant Windows fanboy whinging. When Vista *finally* ships there will be truckloads of puff pieces in the news and blogs with drooling testimonials about the amazing cutting edgeness of Vista. We'll be buried in "Vista Outperforms OS X" articles. THAT is when Mac fans can unite and whine about all the Windows stuff on the front page. Then digg will find true balance...
Or people could just deselect Apple stories from being in their front page in the prefs, but that's apparently too difficult to do. - Fridrik, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The Apple market share is rising, and here's why.
I know quite a few people here who would have an Apple computer if they didn't cost a fortune. Now that you can run Windows on them, price is the only real reason not to switch.
If their price was competitive, there would be no reason not to buy Apple computers. You could just boot Windows up by default, but at least have the added possibility of running Mac OS.
Currently, Apple's simply a different class. Some can afford the added functionality, others don't, yet others simply don't need it.
But the share is increasing dramatically, because the saying is true; "Once you go Mac, you never go back." Except of course if you went Mac in 1987. - CLucas916, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@Gofel:
OMG...PONIES!!!!! - ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3If you want to know why you are being dugg down it si because you hijacked the thread to tell us you met kevin and that he is a human being. Wow, if you startd a blop no1 would digg it, nodoby cares that you met him. What if blogs got frontpaged once a week where the topic is "I met kevin rose OMG, he is a person!!"
- pinky24, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1stupid windows cant even handle a simple website...
It's taken like 20 minutes to load!! -
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