The secret to Apple's success is to stick to the business plan: ensure high margins, fight commodization. The price points must be smart to upsell the customer to the better/more expansive product (little iPod to bigger iPod, Mac mini to iMac…) and they'll try to make people drool with bigger screens (17-inch PowerBook, 20-inch iMac G4, 24-inch Intel iMac) or anything they can think of (PowerBook with backlit keyboard, black MacBook, weird form factors for the iMac). Every product must be stylish, impossibly thin, sometime you may think they put form over function.
When necessary Apple will bend the rules to reduce costs (no screen for the iPod shuffle, no monitor, keyboard and mouse for the Mac mini, no antiquated floppy, no fricking modem…).
They try to find new revenue streams (iTunes+iPod, frequent OS X upgrades, iLife, dotMac), Apple online and retail stores can generate a higher level of direct sales. They play with secrecy to generate hype and develop the brand to build user loyalty, etc. It has nothing to do with intuition IMO, it's all hard work in every part of the organisation, sweat and chutzpah. :-D
by Tawky Tawny — Sep 09
When necessary Apple will bend the rules to reduce costs (no screen for the iPod shuffle, no monitor, keyboard and mouse for the Mac mini, no antiquated floppy, no fricking modem…).
They try to find new revenue streams (iTunes+iPod, frequent OS X upgrades, iLife, dotMac), Apple online and retail stores can generate a higher level of direct sales. They play with secrecy to generate hype and develop the brand to build user loyalty, etc. It has nothing to do with intuition IMO, it's all hard work in every part of the organisation, sweat and chutzpah. :-D