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Originally Posted by Dean Roddey  I keep trying to make the point that I'm talking about moving forward. They have only just reached the point where they will be subject to these forces. They have only very recently become a huge company.
And, as pointed out above, they are now exactly what Apple said it wasn't for all those years. How much are you 'thinking different' by buying an iPad? You are just part of the herd, and that is at odds with much of the basic appeal that Apple had for so long. How can you remain hip if you are basically driving the same minivan as everyone else?
There are too many contradictions there. They can't continue to position themselves as the alternative, since they are the status quo. They can't position their users as the insider elite, since they are the status quo. People will want something else just to not be one of the herd at some point. They are like the revolutionaries who finally win the war and become the government. |
For this premise to work the assumption must be that the reason people buy Apple products is to stand out from the crowd.
While this might be the case for the computers, it certainly doesn't seem to be for Ipads & Iphones. Rather it seems people buy these products
so as to be part of the crow
In 95 people bought a pc when they needed a computer, if they'd heard about Mac it was too expensive and practicality prevailed.
Steve Jobs created a need where there previously wasn't one and because of this it's impossible to compare this situation to Apple pre-Jobs.
Apple will certainly fail at some point but I doubt it'll be because of a corporate David & Goliath scenario.
It seems more likely that lack of product innovation and the fact that the competition do make products that fulfil the need of both design and function (equally as well as they do) will be the main reasons for their, likely, future loss of market share.