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Having a market share as large as Toyota's doesn't mean that you can't make great products. Who says they have to be related? It seems to happen in practice, bu

Having a market share as large as Toyota's doesn't mean that you can't make great products. Who says they have to be related? It seems to happen in practice, but I can't figure out any good reasons.

adamnash 15y ago
Apple seems to have proved your point, but they seem exceptional in that respect. Typical reasons are that the broader you make the audience, the more you have to dial down exceptional features for cost, scale and broad appeal.
- gbhn 15y ago
  One of the key things I feel like I learn from Steve Jobs is that while he may have been niche-focused at one time, he seems to me to have either intuited, or rapidly learned, that actually there's a very broad audience that values high-quality products. It's easy to forget that the "cheaper is better" pessimistic view of consumers is very strong, and that can become very cynical in a product company. Deciding to trust the good judgment of your customers and put faith in your ability to appeal to their sense of value, rather than simply their cost-watching ability, is a brave and bold move. I think it is awesome that it turns out to pay off.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    It helps when you have a product like iPod with enough universal appeal and innovation that you can quickly come to dominate the market and then use that purchasing power to drive down costs from suppliers.
  - sethg 15y ago
    His genius move was turning Apple’s engineering talent to making sub-$1000 products that were not personal computers and therefore had profit margins comparable to the Mac’s. PC manufacturers went with the strategy of “we used to be able to sell a machine with these features for $1000, and now that components are cheaper, we can sell it for $800”... and then they got into a price war that destroyed one another’s margins.
sunchild 15y ago
Toyota is an awesome company. Simply amazing, by any standards. If you visit Nagoya, you will meet a few million Toyota fanatics – and they have something epic to pride themselves on. Honda, likewise, is a powerhouse of innovation, and the only Japanese manufacturer with essentially a singular brand, excluding the Acura name used in certain countries. Both are phenomenal lessons in how to dominate a key market. Both were brilliant at motivating employees – galvanizing a willing workforce by turning convention on its head. The OP's point about Steve Jobs is that he brought his team in for a huddle, and gave them the play, and some of them are still running it, even after leaving Apple, and after Steve left us.
lsc 15y ago
The thing is, if you've owned both a Toyota and a BMW that are outside of the manufacturers 'free maintenance' window, well, you'd know that Toyota makes a vastly superior vehicle. I think this supports what Jobs said rather than diminishes it. People love the BMW for the image, and for the performance in certain rare cases. (The BMW is superior to any Toyota I've driven once you get above 100Mph) People love the Toyota because it's an economical, reliable car that performs quite well at the speeds you normally drive. The mac has a certain image that people love. I mean, that image, personally, does not appeal to me, but that was Job's point. If you can make a product that resonates with a small portion of the market; and if that product resonates to the point where they are willing to pay a large premium, you can make quite a lot of money. Maybe even more money than selling a lower-margin, higher-quality product to the masses.
thewisedude 15y ago
I agree. IPhone is clearly a great smartphone and I pretty sure it has a very good market share... can somebody quantify this please?

Having a market share as large as Toyota's doesn't mean that you can't make great products. Who says they have to be related? It seems to happen in practice, but I can't figure out any good reasons.

adamnash 15y ago

Apple seems to have proved your point, but they seem exceptional in that respect. Typical reasons are that the broader you make the audience, the more you have to dial down exceptional features for cost, scale and broad appeal.

gbhn 15y ago
One of the key things I feel like I learn from Steve Jobs is that while he may have been niche-focused at one time, he seems to me to have either intuited, or rapidly learned, that actually there's a very broad audience that values high-quality products. It's easy to forget that the "cheaper is better" pessimistic view of consumers is very strong, and that can become very cynical in a product company. Deciding to trust the good judgment of your customers and put faith in your ability to appeal to their sense of value, rather than simply their cost-watching ability, is a brave and bold move. I think it is awesome that it turns out to pay off.
- philwelch 15y ago
  It helps when you have a product like iPod with enough universal appeal and innovation that you can quickly come to dominate the market and then use that purchasing power to drive down costs from suppliers.
- sethg 15y ago
  His genius move was turning Apple’s engineering talent to making sub-$1000 products that were not personal computers and therefore had profit margins comparable to the Mac’s. PC manufacturers went with the strategy of “we used to be able to sell a machine with these features for $1000, and now that components are cheaper, we can sell it for $800”... and then they got into a price war that destroyed one another’s margins.

sunchild 15y ago

Toyota is an awesome company. Simply amazing, by any standards. If you visit Nagoya, you will meet a few million Toyota fanatics – and they have something epic to pride themselves on. Honda, likewise, is a powerhouse of innovation, and the only Japanese manufacturer with essentially a singular brand, excluding the Acura name used in certain countries. Both are phenomenal lessons in how to dominate a key market. Both were brilliant at motivating employees – galvanizing a willing workforce by turning convention on its head. The OP's point about Steve Jobs is that he brought his team in for a huddle, and gave them the play, and some of them are still running it, even after leaving Apple, and after Steve left us.

lsc 15y ago

The thing is, if you've owned both a Toyota and a BMW that are outside of the manufacturers 'free maintenance' window, well, you'd know that Toyota makes a vastly superior vehicle. I think this supports what Jobs said rather than diminishes it. People love the BMW for the image, and for the performance in certain rare cases. (The BMW is superior to any Toyota I've driven once you get above 100Mph) People love the Toyota because it's an economical, reliable car that performs quite well at the speeds you normally drive. The mac has a certain image that people love. I mean, that image, personally, does not appeal to me, but that was Job's point. If you can make a product that resonates with a small portion of the market; and if that product resonates to the point where they are willing to pay a large premium, you can make quite a lot of money. Maybe even more money than selling a lower-margin, higher-quality product to the masses.

thewisedude 15y ago

I agree. IPhone is clearly a great smartphone and I pretty sure it has a very good market share... can somebody quantify this please?