Apple: Change isn't always good.
Late in the evening on a October day last year, I remember sitting down to watch the evening news.
Apple had just won a huge legal battle against Samsung worth about a Billion dollars, launched their latest iPhone ( iPhone 5 ) and launched a mini tablet for the first time, iPad mini. Raking in profits as usual, for any normal organization, those would've been good times. But apple had come under severe criticism. Their share prices had dropped considerably since the 700$ peak it had reached in September of that year.
For an apple fan ,watching this unfold was quite hard. Apple seemed to be making the same mistakes it had made when it almost went bankrupt a little over a decade earlier when it tried to beat Microsoft in volumes. Only this time, apple was trying to outsell samsung. But Samsung played it smartly. Pulling apple down to its level and beating them there, giving out a sign of superiority.
The problem can't be found in the balance sheets. The solution won't be there either. The numbers will show that 5 million iPhones ( iPhone 5 ) were sold in the opening weekend. Easily apple's best selling phone at the time. The iPhone 5 went on to break quite a few sales records. And that's something iPhones generally do. And that's because they are genuinely great products. Expensive but absolutely great.
And then there is the iPad mini. A device launched, presumably, with a single intention of competing with Samsung in a market that Samsung and the others created to sell cheaper tablets. Smaller screens, slower processors and every other trick in the book to lower costs. It's what they did with the netbook market. To be fair, that worked for those companies. But by principle, apple shouldn't have gone there. Apple didn't enter the netbook industry for a reason. Because those devices were just crowd pleasers. They had no class because there was nothing new about them.
But with the mini tablet market,
Apple succumbed to corporate peer pressure. Following others blindly.
And recently, Apple made another blunder. The iPhone 5C.
What they got right though, was the other iPhone. The iPhone 5S. An absolute beast. A killer 64bit architecture processor, a much improved camera, and to cap it off, a finger print scanner for improved security. Brilliant.
The iPhone 5C is basically the iPhone 5 with a larger battery and a plastic back. Ok it's some polycarbonate material or something but it certainly looks like plastic and there's no justifying that.
If that was done to reduce cost they failed. They've withdrawn the iPhone 5 and placed the 5C in its place. Generally when apple releases a new phone, the price of the previous phone drops anyway. The iPhone 5 would've cost almost the same as the 5C once the 5S released. And the iPhone 5 remains a great phone interms of look, feel and performance. Without the look and the feel, the phone isn't apple at heart. Had they left it at the 5S and possibly released the iPhone 5 with a larger battery for iOS 7 they would've been so much better off.
Apple, for no presumable reason, has changed. Principles compromised for profits. Values forgotten in popularity. The heart, ignored in competition. The 5S has out sold the 5C by 4 devices to one. That itself speaks volumes in favour of quality over low prices.
The sooner the top managers at apple realize that, the better.
Apple had just won a huge legal battle against Samsung worth about a Billion dollars, launched their latest iPhone ( iPhone 5 ) and launched a mini tablet for the first time, iPad mini. Raking in profits as usual, for any normal organization, those would've been good times. But apple had come under severe criticism. Their share prices had dropped considerably since the 700$ peak it had reached in September of that year.
For an apple fan ,watching this unfold was quite hard. Apple seemed to be making the same mistakes it had made when it almost went bankrupt a little over a decade earlier when it tried to beat Microsoft in volumes. Only this time, apple was trying to outsell samsung. But Samsung played it smartly. Pulling apple down to its level and beating them there, giving out a sign of superiority.
The problem can't be found in the balance sheets. The solution won't be there either. The numbers will show that 5 million iPhones ( iPhone 5 ) were sold in the opening weekend. Easily apple's best selling phone at the time. The iPhone 5 went on to break quite a few sales records. And that's something iPhones generally do. And that's because they are genuinely great products. Expensive but absolutely great.
And then there is the iPad mini. A device launched, presumably, with a single intention of competing with Samsung in a market that Samsung and the others created to sell cheaper tablets. Smaller screens, slower processors and every other trick in the book to lower costs. It's what they did with the netbook market. To be fair, that worked for those companies. But by principle, apple shouldn't have gone there. Apple didn't enter the netbook industry for a reason. Because those devices were just crowd pleasers. They had no class because there was nothing new about them.
But with the mini tablet market,
Apple succumbed to corporate peer pressure. Following others blindly.
And recently, Apple made another blunder. The iPhone 5C.
What they got right though, was the other iPhone. The iPhone 5S. An absolute beast. A killer 64bit architecture processor, a much improved camera, and to cap it off, a finger print scanner for improved security. Brilliant.
The iPhone 5C is basically the iPhone 5 with a larger battery and a plastic back. Ok it's some polycarbonate material or something but it certainly looks like plastic and there's no justifying that.
If that was done to reduce cost they failed. They've withdrawn the iPhone 5 and placed the 5C in its place. Generally when apple releases a new phone, the price of the previous phone drops anyway. The iPhone 5 would've cost almost the same as the 5C once the 5S released. And the iPhone 5 remains a great phone interms of look, feel and performance. Without the look and the feel, the phone isn't apple at heart. Had they left it at the 5S and possibly released the iPhone 5 with a larger battery for iOS 7 they would've been so much better off.
Apple, for no presumable reason, has changed. Principles compromised for profits. Values forgotten in popularity. The heart, ignored in competition. The 5S has out sold the 5C by 4 devices to one. That itself speaks volumes in favour of quality over low prices.
The sooner the top managers at apple realize that, the better.
Naaaaaaice :D
ReplyDelete