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The article says pretty much what I've been thinking: too many choices, consumers have no idea which Nokia phone is any good. However, I'm not so sure that thi

by siika2000 16y ago

The article says pretty much what I've been thinking: too many choices, consumers have no idea which Nokia phone is any good. However, I'm not so sure that this thinking is any good in the long run for Nokia, everybody says that company X should emulate Apple, it is just the easy thing to suggest because Apple is currently winning.

danilocampos 16y ago
> everybody says that company X should emulate Apple, it is just the easy thing to suggest because Apple is currently winning. That's like saying "it's the easy thing to suggest that Johnny will only win the foot race by emulating Jimmy, who is running instead of taking a bath then playing video games." As though there's more nuance to it than that. Apple is doing what is necessary to win. If someone says a company should emulate Apple, it's a shorthand for saying that Apple has consistently won in the markets they've entered for the last decade and their approach is excellent for selling consumer electronics. Apple wins through focus. Is there any argument against having focus? What is the benefit of avoiding focus and smearing your efforts around a dozen different projects? Apple wins through quality. What would be the argument for making shit instead of quality? Apple wins through integration. What would be the argument for making devices that weren't well integrated, from software/hardware perspective or a user experience/ecosystem perspective? Want to know who is emulating Apple, proving the value of its example? Look at Amazon and the Kindle. Supreme focus: Maximum of two hardware variations so far. Excellent quality: great hardware, decent software. Incredible integration, with Whispernet allowing you to buy any Amazon content anywhere in the world, tied to your existing Amazon account, which is pre-loaded onto your Kindle when you open it. Kindle is now Amazon's best-selling product.
- sethg 16y ago
  But if you look at the whole of Amazon, not just Kindle, the company is all over the place. It sells an e-book reader! It sells books! It sells other consumer products! It provides a marketplace where other people can sell products, even books! It sells cloud-computing services! If Amazon had a few bad quarters, I could imagine business pundits looking over this list, clicking their tongues, and saying that Amazon’s “lack of focus” was its downfall.
Anechoic 16y ago
> * everybody says that company X should emulate Apple, it is just the easy thing to suggest because Apple is currently winning.* Heh, too true. Just like 10 years ago pundits said that company X should emulate Microsoft.

danilocampos 16y ago

> everybody says that company X should emulate Apple, it is just the easy thing to suggest because Apple is currently winning. That's like saying "it's the easy thing to suggest that Johnny will only win the foot race by emulating Jimmy, who is running instead of taking a bath then playing video games." As though there's more nuance to it than that. Apple is doing what is necessary to win. If someone says a company should emulate Apple, it's a shorthand for saying that Apple has consistently won in the markets they've entered for the last decade and their approach is excellent for selling consumer electronics. Apple wins through focus. Is there any argument against having focus? What is the benefit of avoiding focus and smearing your efforts around a dozen different projects? Apple wins through quality. What would be the argument for making shit instead of quality? Apple wins through integration. What would be the argument for making devices that weren't well integrated, from software/hardware perspective or a user experience/ecosystem perspective? Want to know who is emulating Apple, proving the value of its example? Look at Amazon and the Kindle. Supreme focus: Maximum of two hardware variations so far. Excellent quality: great hardware, decent software. Incredible integration, with Whispernet allowing you to buy any Amazon content anywhere in the world, tied to your existing Amazon account, which is pre-loaded onto your Kindle when you open it. Kindle is now Amazon's best-selling product.

sethg 16y ago
But if you look at the whole of Amazon, not just Kindle, the company is all over the place. It sells an e-book reader! It sells books! It sells other consumer products! It provides a marketplace where other people can sell products, even books! It sells cloud-computing services! If Amazon had a few bad quarters, I could imagine business pundits looking over this list, clicking their tongues, and saying that Amazon’s “lack of focus” was its downfall.

Anechoic 16y ago

> * everybody says that company X should emulate Apple, it is just the easy thing to suggest because Apple is currently winning.* Heh, too true. Just like 10 years ago pundits said that company X should emulate Microsoft.