News and observations from the BNET staff
August 7th, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Even seemingly untouchable companies stumble, and that can lead to a downward spiral. Apple already knows this — all too well. For the moment though, Apple is getting lots of things right, which you can read about in BNET’s latest feature package, The Science Behind Apple’s Magic. But just because the company has it together now, doesn’t mean something (or some competitor) can’t knock Apple down.
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ArticlesFind
I think Apple will do very well even if Steve Jobs were to die tomorrow. Google is eating Apple's dust in the cell phone arena and serves as little or no threat. I think Apple is going to be very strong for the forseable future.
S.Howard-Sarin
Apple made music better with the iPod and iTunes Music Store, but they have failed to duplicate that success with movies. The content is there, but the Apple TV box is a joke, normal people will not connect a computer to a TV, and the folks who like most to watch movies on a laptop screen are not going to pay for the content. Apple's famous success in creating an integrated, easy-to-use system for music just didn't happen for movies.
But other companies are doing better. Netflix most notably with a subscription service and now fully digital access. The cable companies VOD systems are bad only in their lack of content (which Apple also suffers from), and now the cable channels are starting to align around "TV Everywhere" so that a Showtime, Starz or HBO subscriber will be able to watch their shows and movies on th living-room TV (they can today) and their laptops. There's no special place for Apple in any of these setups.
And Apple doesn't succeed unless it has created a special place where it's product integration is safe from interference.
(Full disclosure: I work for BNET, which is part of CBS Corp., which recently signed on to participate in the TV Everywhere trials. I know only what I read in the papers about this effort.)
Pprofpopp
its cult of secrecy and paranoia - the scientology of
companies. I LOVE their products but would hate to work for
them. Sometimes the 'create a buzz' is just irritating, eg, I'm
waiting for a batch of new iphones reaching the shops in
Australia. The stores are forbidden by Apple from putting my
name on a waiting list or even from calling me to let me know
when stock arrives.....
ric822
With Apple, it is about the software. Much like the Coke vs. Pepsi battle when Coke put all it's eggs in the "New Coke" basket and Pepsi took advantage to gain market share, Apple is taking advantage of Microsoft's mishandling of the whole Vista mess.
However, Apple is expanding far to fast (more and more Apple Stores) and much like another Giant in another industry (Starbucks) it will soon find that it has overplayed its hand. Because eventually, Microsoft is going to swerve into producing a good OS that will somewhat steam the flow of Apple converts.
dkawalec
When Steve Jobs leaves Apple (however that happens), the next CEO will be tempted to allow other computer manufacturers to sell OEM machines running Mac OS. While I think that this could be made to work, I think that more than likely it will get bungled. That could ruin Apple.
arkanaut
@ArticlesFind: I'm glad you feel such confidence in Apple, but
take a moment to consider the succession. When Jack Welch
left GE, he had not one but three top-notch candidates
for his successor (although Bob Nardelli's reputation has faded a
bit since then). Steve Jobs's footprint on Apple is at least as
big, but can you name even one other executive from the
company?
igerard
When Steve Jobs will be left, the risk is what I name in French : "le
syndrome des ap?tres"
I would translate this in english simply : the apostle syndrome
I mean, the thing that follower do traditionally when the leader is out, is
to follow the old rules, without the capability to reinvent themselves...
You know, when SJ left Apple in 85, the guy was not able to reinvent the
OS...
Sometimes leaders are able to invent new rules, because they don"t
follow any rules by themselves, they invent them...
I hope that my english is well enough to be understandable...
Anyway, this series of articles are very very interesting, thanx you a lot 
Lea44
I agree with ric822. He hit the nail on the head. Apple is tryng to expand faster than they should and this will lead to poor business decisions. If they do not pull back soon, Apple will crash much like Starbucks and end up closing stores and cutting back.
arozwilliams
Apple's sole partnership with AT&T for iPhone!
RobFinlay
Apple will loose their premium position in consumer's minds if
they continue to lock customers into their products and
services without offering standard based capabilities. For
instance, their DRM music is far inferior to Amazon's open
format. The fact that you have to ditch your whole product
(ipods and iphones) when the rechargeable battery dies
(because Apple doesn't allow you to replace batteries) is
preposterous. Consumers might not be that savvy now, but
as they learn that these "locks" are not in their favor, they
will increasingly ditch Apple in lie of more open services and
products.
Burlyman
Rob Finlay,
Your entire post is completely unfounded.
First of all, Apple ditched DRM last year in favor of
non-DRM .aac format. It's much more efficient and better
than Amazon's outdated .mp3 format.
Next, you don't have to ditch your product. There are
hundreds of places to buy replacement batteries online, and
ipods are very easy to open up. Sure, the average user
can't do it, but they most certainly DO offer to
replace your battery for you, for a reasonable price.
Never has anyone been "locked" in to an Apple product.
dboymorris@...
They don't offer any actual value/feature for dollar over any competitive options on the market - ever. Marketing and "draw you in" industrial design have done more than might have been imagined for Apple - good for them! But, this will all be the reason for their demise. After all, there is no substantive reason for their success. There is now "use", no "value" in their products (they work but so do their competitors' - sometimes better, always less costly), for a thoughtful consumer. But, of course, thoughtful consumers are rare. So, I guess Apple is smarter than I and smarter than the people they extract dollars from. Seems, most everyone's happy with that so I guess we're all good then. Seriously... "they got nothing!!?!"
igerard
@ dboymorris
Wow, what a post, are you kidding ?
I am impressed by this one : After all, there is no substantive reason
for their success
Look at the industrial design of the last unibody macbookpro, look at the
last dev tools and toolkit they made... and go back to the discussion
Maybe it is just troll and it does work....
salemcopty
Please dont make this about whether Apple is awesome or not really I think we are all sick of those arguments.
I dont think they neccessarily have an achilles heel in the terms that neither of those things will actually substantially hurt the company. Apple will be aroudn for a while and they will strong leader for at least a couple of years.
I am not a big apple fan but no one can deny that they have been very smart about marketing their technology specially in the field of revolutionizing(simplifying, at that) the technological Interface and how people interact with their everyday technology.
RCSC
I agree with arozwilliams. The iPhone/AT&T deal was the worst
they could make. So much for being that independent computer
company that produced for everyone and gave us the freedom
to use the software that WE wanted to use.
rajesh_rs
I guess Apple's lack of focus in countries like India and China, which are big markets in the future, will probably be a cause for concern. Apple needs to focus on selling their products at less than the humongous premium that you have to pay to buy their products in India.
Other than this, the cult of Jobs is something which may not inspire confidence in his successor, and this may lead to someone wanting to either outdo Jobs after succeeding him or sticking to Jobs' principles. Hopefully the succession plan isn't simplistic or unplanned as it can be in some cases - even the greatest of empires sometimes had their Achilles' heel because the successors of their most successful and prolific kings weren't up to scratch.
Marc_B
Apple's pricing and over-expansion will eventually doom the brand. In addition, I've always found their devices' over-reliance on their proprietary software to be a major nuisance. Apple almost feels like a cult at times.
GenoaMom
I agree with some of the others here: They should NOT limit
themselves to certain platforms or services. I would have
had an iPhone a long long time ago if they had made it
available to all, and not just AT&T users. And now, enough
time has passed that when (and if) they ever do expand their
availablility, I don't think I would want to mess with it.
Especially the battery end of things!
Their computers seem to have a following, though a bit rich
for my pocketbook. Same goes for the iPod; I have mp3
players, none are Apple.
So yes, I think cost and service limitations will doom them
eventually, because it's already doomed them for me.
morgancanada
Apple's software and hardware uses to be well developed and
mostly bulletproof. And it's stores and customer service were
fast, helpful and courteous. But as they have grown post iPod
the Apple ownership experience has changed from exceptional
to normal, which for the loyal feels simply bad. It seems like
Apple is expanding far to fast (more and more Apple Stores
and product diversification) to stay inherently "Apple."
Mr. Thompson
Many have forgot that Steve Jobs is the key behind the whole operation. If you can remember between 1985-1997 when he left, Apple sales fell through the floor. Upon his return in 1997, he brought many groundbreaking innovations. Then a fews years later he took some time off from illness. The same thing happened, sales declined until once again Steve Jobs returned. Even this last year when he was out for surgery, rumors said he wasn't going to return. Well he did, and Mac lovers got a new iPod and updated iTunes and a more "smarter" Genius. Steve Jobs is arguably the Achilles Heel. -or the metaphorical hair of Sampson.
Tendo847@...
I laugh that the highest poll option right now is "Apple has no Achilles heel". I am reminded of the line from Pirates of Silicon Valley when people were going nuts for the Macintosh: "Is this supposed to be a computer or a religion?"
When Jobs is no longer with Apple is when its all over, everybody sees him as the sole genius behind Apple, which is kinda blasphemy because he is a MARKETING genius but Woz was the actual electronics genius that helped them start it all.
Whether the new CEO can live up to Jobs or not, or even become BETTER, won't matter, people will only care that Jobs is gone, especially with how bad Apple did the first time he left. They have become far too attached into being fooled that Jobs is the only one who can run Apple and will not even consider anybody else, I have seen Apple fanatics admit THIS VERY THING on a documentary about the history of the Macintosh once.
Apple makes products for pretty much the OPPOSITE of me anyway, I prefer the user being in control, function over form, I care about what it can do and how much control you have over it, and don't care at all how it looks. Apple is the exact OPPOSITE, they treat the user like they are utter morons and lock them out of anything and everything they can, and will willingly sacrifice useful features that are even STANDARD on other products just to make their product physically look better.
iPhone debuted in a world where video-recording, mms, 3G, GPS, and other such features were common even on the cheapest "free with contract" type phones.......... never mind smartphones. Yet, people were utterly insane over it, now everybody has stopped bothering with any other phone to use this broken mockery that STILL is lacking basic smartphone features like running more than one app at once or BEING ABLE TO REPLACE THE BATTERY! If Anybody else released this exact same phone, nobody would care, but just because it has an Apple logo on it, people are going nuts. Hell, if the RAZR had an Apple logo on it people would probably think it was the greatest phone ever created.
In fact, I will be glad when they are humbled, they really helped the computer industry in the beginning and I am thankful for that, but now, they are doing nothing but HOLDING IT BACK. Constantly releasing product after product and format after format that breaks all standards, and usually is missing many features others have, and what happens? Just because it has a damn Apple logo on it, everybody goes nuts over it, so then the rival manufacturers have no choice but to start making products that work with these backwards standards that Apple started imposing and screwing the consumer out of a top-notch product.
Their latest crime being the iFrame format. In a world with very well designed and thought out formats, like 480p, 720p, 1080p, etc, Apple comes out with a propitiatory format that BREAKS all of these and is WORSE than all of them except 480p.... barely. Its the wrong aspect ratio, its barely even ED standard, much less HD...... and its being touted as their new big format that iMovie will default to. Result? ALREADY we have 1080p high-end HD camcorders THAT DEFAULT TO THIS FORMAT! Yes, camcorders designed for 1080p.... defaulting to a format that is below 720p and practically SD.... JUST because Apple wanted to create yet ANOTHER propitiatory format for no reason instead of playing ball with everyone else..... and why? Because iMovie was inherently broken, it is a mess to work with actual 720p and 1080p video with it, so rather than FIX their mess, they impose a broken standard on everyone else that they are now forced to follow, and everyone WILL follow it because Apple is popular, ruining it for everyone else. For crying out loud... 1080p camcorders defaulting to near-sd resolutions that are of a broken aspect and resolution, JUST because Apple said so so they don't have to fix their broken crap! To hell with Apple!
Glenn Johnson
Apple will continue to innovate, the fact that I don't see
mention of the tablet the way I do on other stories on the
company speaks volumes to the level of engagement we are
looking at here. The fact is yes, Steve Jobs succession
continues to plague the brand and they would be well served
to continue to bring additional people to the fore for the
brand, however in the end the product and the brand POV
continues to steamroll over the competition.
Yes, AT&T wasn't great for the consumer (the new Verizon
'there's a map for that' offer a brilliant play) but in the end
there is a great divide between a PC user and a Mac user.
The interface is simply more aesthetically beautiful and
seemless, no other smartphone can match the iPhone.
Kudos to Jobs and all the design gremlins behind the frosted
glass--keep up the great work!
And--kudos to the editors at Bnet for this engaging series--
excellent reporting!
JasonJD48
I think when Jobs leaves it may be tough to maintain the momentum for a long time, Jobs for all his faults has a vision that people subscribe to and that lead to some good products. Even a CEO that gets the technology right might not have the 'artistic' vision that Jobs has, and it will erode the die-hards over time. As for the non-diehards that find Apple cool, they may leave even sooner for Google or others, they tend to be more fickle.
morgancanada
Apple's Achilles heel is responding to rapid growth. I have
been a fan since the original Mac Plus, and have suffered
the occasional bad machine, poorly developed bit of
software or out of whack pricing in the past, but generally
the good has outweighed the bad. But now I find that the
combination of strong growth of Apple stores, rapid product
development and release, and the over-riding success of the
iPhone/iPod has lead to a combination of short-sighted
product features, less than stable than usual operating
system, 3rd party support lagging behind, price fixing and
very, very, very (Yes 3 very's!) poor customer support. The
good news for Apple though is that there really isn't any
strong competition for those Apple loyalists and design
professional who expect a combination of great design,
features and performance. Yet.
jdroleskey
Honestly, why isn't this an option to begin with? Windows 7 is gaining a lot of good reputation. Give it a few more years, and i can see the Zune becoming just as popular as the iPod.
ddgb27
people are quick to point out all of the iphones faults, and the faults of all of apples products, but the bottom line is, even though the first iphone lacked some basic features, it had the best web browsing experierence, and the best media experience of any phone on the market at the time. and it made using a phone simpilar then any other phone on the market. everyone wants someone to come out with a perfect product, but people who want that clearly dont understand the market place. companies come out with imperfect products so when they release an update for the first product, people will go out and buy the new one. do you think apple just forgot to add mms and a video recorder??? of course not. they just wanted people to see how easy the first iphone was to use, and see the amazing media player that it had, and then go out and buy the iphone 3g released. even though it lacked some basic features, it packed in a lot more features that few other phones had (multi-touch, touch screen, app store.) is the iphone perfect no but no phone ever will be because that would defeat the purpuse. and its not just apple. look at the new motorola droid. they did a huge "droid does" campaign to bash the iphone, and made it the first phone to use andriod 2.0. so motorola clearly is putting the droid directly against the iphone. why would they not take the time to give it a better keyboard??? i guarantee you that when the next droid comes out, the keyboard will be improved. Why?? so people who didnt go out and get the first one becasue of the keyboard will go out and get the next one that releases in a year, and the early adopters will be stuck in their contracts for a year. double the customers
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