Posted on 03/19/2014 7:40:51 AM PDT by harpu
Apple is not going to like this new book about Apple.
The title -- "Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs" -- pretty much says it all. While author Yukari Iwatani Kane does say on page 336 of her 338-page book that "it's not too late for Apple to dazzle the world again," by that point she's made her conclusion clear -- Apple's long slide began the day Jobs died.
Without him," the former Wall Street Journal reporter wrote in her book, which hit stores Tuesday, "everything changed. The dilemmas multiply and deepen. Solutions slip further out of reach."
"Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs," by former Wall Street Journal reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane. Kane is certainly not the first to predict the decline of the Cupertino tech giant. And she fails to drop any bombshells, other than a quote from Jobs calling television "a terrible business," suggesting an Apple TV may not be in the company's future after all. Instead, Kane serves up anecdotes from other books and press accounts, along with some original reporting.
...BIG GIANT SNIP...
"Apple used to be exceptional," Kane writes. "Not necessarily in its behavior, which was often predatory. But certainly in its ability to inspire. Those days are waning."
(Excerpt) Read more at siliconvalley.com ...
In related news, sun comes up in the morning, in the East.
Well frankly I agree, but then again I am not a big Apple fan.
Apple is outsourcing virtually their entire production.
At some point, America will want to start producing things once again. I believe that time is approaching rapidly.
Apple will have all their production in China.
Not good.
But then again, I am not an Apple fan, so take that for what it is worth.
Not entirely true - I think one of the lessons learned from the Thailand flooding (*cough* Western Digital *cough*) was that having all of your production sourced in a single geographic location is too high of a risk. Apple is shifting some of their production to other places, like Brazil and even Texas.
Only time will tell if the author is correct in the assessment of Apple, but it reads like the typical doom & gloom headline bait that flies in the face of quarter after quarter of record profits.
The new CO is a dunce, but they’ll get rid of him.
I’m an Apple fan, but unfortunately, I agree. Samsung is starting to really pull ahead in tablets and phones, despite Android’s flaws. Apple almost seems tentative, now.
As I’ve said before, a committee made up of individuals each of whom is three-quarters of a Steve Jobs will not be able to synthesize a whole Steve Jobs, no matter how hard they try, no matter how beautiful is the meeting room, or the building in which the meeting room is located.
Committees can handle a scale-up of the process by which the fruits of innovation are delivered to a mass population. Committees are not visionary.
Steve Jobs demonstrated a consistent talent for seeing what was next, for turning that vision into a buildable design, for manufacturing that design at an affordable price, and for packaging the result in a form that literally everyone would want.
Committees cannot reach outside the box. In order to reach outside the box, you have to be willing to fail - as Jobs clearly was - and, after failing, try again.
Committees tend to hang failure on an individual, and then eject that individual.
Sometimes partnerships are able to reach outside the box, but there have to be very strong bonds of family or friendship between the partners. Bonds of trust so strong that failure will be dealt with without fear of ostracism. This is rare, although there are some famous examples of it (the Wright brothers, for example).
So? Nothing to replace it and what they do have works spectacularly well.
Quite frankly, unlike when the writing was on the wall for Microsoft, you could see Apple in the rear view mirror. There is nothing coming up behind Apple.
It would be exceptional if they didn’t begin to fade. Getting to the top is a combination of hard work and some good luck.
Staying on top is hard work and drawing to an inside flush, again and again. It is amazing what Apple has has been able to accomplish.
Owned two Apple IIs, bought a Mac three days after they were released, ran an entire business in the 80’s on Macs. Apple got behind on a new version of the Mac operating system that would have BURIED the PC (system 10) and brought back Jobs to ‘save’ the company.
Jobs returned, cancelled system 10, and proceeded to develop throw away plastic consumer junk. Me and Apple parted ways then.
As far as I’m concerned, it was Jobs return that killed the remarkable and truly innovative Apple.
Quite the stretch of a prediction, when you look at what happened to Apple between Jobs’ tenures.
“Well frankly I agree, but then again I am not a big Apple fan.”
I’m not sure how you can know in advance, but time will tell. Nothing lasts forever.
“Apple is outsourcing virtually their entire production.”
And... this makes economic and business sense.
“At some point, America will want to start producing things once again. I believe that time is approaching rapidly.”
You may be right about the desire to produce.
All America has to do to accomplish that is change the ridiculous number of laws, reign in the ridiculous number of slimy lawyers, change the legal system to loser pays, overturn the requirements of obamacare, alter the tax code, reign in the EPA and 20 other gov’t agencies that make rules by fiat and reign in unions... or it makes no economic sense to set up manufacturing here. I don’t see those things happening, despite what many desire.
Money always goes where it is wanted and appreciated. It is penalized here. Once the money is made there, it doesn’t come back here because of the high corporate taxes.
“Apple will have all their production in China.”
No doubt manufacturing will continue to follow low costs around the world. China is no longer the least expensive place. Other countries are coming online now.
“Not good.”
Perfectly normal and to be expected. It is the history of manufacturing.
I think one day history books will record the downfall of Apple as a legal catastrophe. Apple decided to patten rectangles, multi-touch screens and hired more lawyers than engineers. They became defensive rather than innovative and sought to protect market share rather creating the best most innovative products to gain market share. They would not play well with the non-apple world. I-tunes became regulator of all media and limited the sources to protect Apples media royalties. In mobile devices Apple refused to support flash, removable storage and file systems to protect their Apple user monopoly. They won their lawsuit against Samsung and in doing so lost a partner and gained a competitive giant. Apple became a law firm and has now become a political advocacy zealot, profits are not that important to the company any more, neither are customers at least if they are conservative. If the iphone 6 does not dazzle they clear the way for more android dominance and the return of windows in the mobile device market.
Jobs returned, cancelled system 10, and proceeded to develop throw away plastic consumer junk. Me and Apple parted ways then.
In other words you are criticizing Jobs for ruining the company while admitting that you basically have no experience with any of Apple's products for the better part of the last 17 years,
Apple was always in the business of selling steve jobs as their cool factor. The replacements think they are in the computer device business.
Apple won’t be the first computer company to go down this road after the death of a founder.
DEC didn’t survive after KO left.
Wang didn’t survive after Dr. Wang retired. He came back after being sick to try to re-start the company after his playboy son did a good job of running it into the ground, but it was too late.
Can I get this book on my Nook?
It hardly matters what you see in the rearview mirror if your engine dies.
steve jobs was the engine, and he he is dead, and he didn't rise from the dead on the third day.
All well thought out AND - well said!
Yeah, of course Microsoft makes their computers in the USA.
Oooppsie...Microsoft doesn't make their computers, they outsource them too!
Well, aren't all the companies they outsource to located in the good ol' USA?
Well?
crickets...
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