Apple can be copied, but can it be beat?

The Loop ^ | Tuesday, December 8, 2009 | Jim Dalrymple

[Star Traveler]

Apple can be copied, but can it be beat?

By Jim Dalrymple
DECEMBER 8, 2009, 8:15 AM PT

Apple has some of the best selling computers in the market, it’s the No. 1 music distributor, it sells movies, TV shows, iPods and it’s changing the mobile space with the iPhone and App Store. It’s also one of the most copied companies in the world, but can anyone beat them?

It’s almost funny to watch companies line up to put out products that mimic Apple’s look and functionality. Apple puts out a new iPod and all of a sudden there are iPod clones all over the place.

It’s not just small companies looking to make their mark — big companies have resorted to blatantly ripping off Apple’s ideas. One of the most obvious examples recently is the Microsoft Store.

Companies have copied the iMac design and have tried to mimic the functionality of the iPhone, but everyone is coming up short. Nobody seems to be able to create that product that sets Apple back on its heals, leaves it reeling from the pain of being outdone.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this, which help explain why Apple will not be beat in the markets it competes in.

First and foremost, the companies that compete with Apple are competing with the product that it just released. Apple releases something, companies scramble to copy it and get it on store shelves.

Unfortunately for them, Apple has already moved on. The product they released is old and they are working on the next version of software and hardware to make it even better.

There doesn’t seem to be anyone with the vision to outdo Steve Jobs and the talent he has been able to attract at Apple. In order to beat Apple, you have to know what Steve is going to do next year, the next three years and the next five years.

Without that knowledge, competitors will be left copying Apple’s products.

There is no doubt that Jobs is a unique individual, and he is probably one of the greatest tech visionaries there is, but he’s also smart enough to surround himself with the brightest people in the business.

The talent at Apple is second to none, period. With the vision of Jobs and the talent of the employees, it’s hard to imagine that another company could outthink or outperform the innovative products.

Most of the products that try to compete one-on-one with Apple lose. The iMac clones failed, the iPod clones failed, there is nobody even close selling as much music and every smartphone on the market is compared to the iPhone.

Even Nokia is giving up the fight with Apple’s retail store in London, England. They just weren’t able to compete.

Apple is taking on all comers and at this point, it’s hard to see anyone that can stop them.

[WVKayaker]

When I bought my first Mac, it came with productivity tools (MacDraw, MacWrite, MacPaint), and worked right out of the box. The cabling was all clearly labeled with icons to help connect everything up.

I had a FatMac, with an internal 5meg HyperDrive, and used MacDraft as my biggest tool. I set up my first Mac and printed a rough floor plan within a half hour of getting it out of the box! Of course, I printed it on a 24-pin ImageWriter, which I later replaced with an SE and an HP Inkjet. I was (almost) in heaven!!!

These days, I have a home network using different iterations (Intel, PPC) and different OS's (OS9, 0SX 10.4, .5, .6.2) with a G4 340 as a server. I don't play games, but do have Windoze so I can use the only MS product I like... Flight Simulator X. I still used the old one which worked up until Mac Sys 8, but with the intel chip, can use the modern product...

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Flight Simulator X. I still used the old one which worked up until Mac Sys 8, but with the intel chip, can use the modern product...

I fiddled around with the Mac version of Flight Simulator back then. I even remember crashing into the World Trade Towers a few times when "flying" over New York... ooops...

Apparently I wasn't the only one with that idea...

[WVKayaker]

LaGuardia approach, down the East River past Manhattan, often ducking under the Bridges, then ... T/L ... Me, too, but never thought as a target. I always flew past.
<p.I remember one visit to NY, for real, standing on top of the TC. It was still and I watched planes flying “down river”. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. That was then... and now ...

[VanDeKoik]

Well, the Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Russians and East Europeans will keep stealing it... but the ones in the U.S. are flocking over to Mac OS X..., so much less pain with viruses for one thing (not the over 100,000 for Windows, but maybe four or five for Mac OS X in the last decade...).”

Really?

So All or most of the Windows users “stole” it? And “all of the US users of Windows are “flocking to OSX?

Yet again Windows7 has sold more copies than their are Macs...but people are abandoning Windows. Gotcha.

” But, do stay around with Microsoft, they’re gonna need a few supporters in the next few years...

The rest of us will be having fun with Apple Macintosh, Mac OS X and the other Apple products they put out...”

Sorry if this seems like a personal insult, but are you just trying to play dumb on purpose? I seem to remember every year for the past decade was supposed to be the end of “M$” but it seems that all of the “superior” choices seem to never add much above 9%.

Have fun with your Mac.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

I seem to remember every year for the past decade was supposed to be the end of “M$” but it seems that all of the “superior” choices seem to never add much above 9%.

Getting to 10% over the last decade means that the next step is the 20%, and on an increasing curve, the times shorten. So, it's 20%, 30% and so on... on the way up.

Windows has nowhere to go but "on the way down"...

It's much better to have a lot of room to expand and grow, like Apple has been doing for over the last decade than to have nowhere to go... like Windows. It only has the bottom to look at ... LOL...

---

Have fun with your Mac.

Yeah..., Mac desktops and laptop, iPod, iPhone, AirPort Extreme, iTunes, and so on...

I know that I and the rest of the Macintosh universe is having loads of fun, not having to deal with the crappy "trashware" from the other side of the fence. :-)

[VanDeKoik]

Oh..., I think he can afford one, because it’s no problem to someone who knows what their own time is worth.

It’s just that some people figure that their own time is worthless (you know..., the ones who can’t get a job, so what is their time worth? LOL...) and/or they really don’t have anything else to do except fiddle and fiddle with their computer to keep it working — so in that sense, a Mac would be “very strange” to them... They would end up with way too much time on their hands, with a Mac, and what would they do? LOL...”

Wow, nice classic Apple user snotty response.

You obviously dont have much knowledge of computers if you seriously think because I use PCs that I spend my time messing with computers to keep them working, while some guy with a Mac never once has to ever service it.

Which is odd because Apple stores have “genius bars” to fix machines that supposedly are issue free, and I also suppose all of those pesky stories of DOA iMacs and other issues you find on many Apple help forums are just figments of our imagination.

And for the record, I owned Macs in the past. Gave one (G4) to my mom as a matter of fact. The thing never worked right, and had to replace it with a PC.

I guess the Mac was junk. Glad I knew the value of my time and switched her to PCs?

Isnt that the “logic” you guys use?

Like I said, keep your Mac, and the RDF you guys are high on 24/7.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

I guess the Mac was junk.

Ummmm..., maybe the person operating it? :-)

But, fortunately, these kinds of people are in the minority...

[Star Traveler]

Nokia closes flagship Regent Street shop as Apple retail's star continues to shine

Tue, 12/08/2009 - 2:22am — Jonny Evans

Nokia is shutting down its posh Regent Street shop following its failure to grab the hearts and minds of consumers.

The company apparently spent £4 million on the shop, which aimed to spread Nokia's brand and message at the hordes of Apple consumers at the flagship Regent Street store on the other side of the road....

On its opening two years ago, Simon Ainslie, Managing Director Nokia UK commented, "In championing our brand, Nokia Regent Street will be dynamic, original and beautifully designed. The store will provide world-class customer service and deliver a unique experience enhancing our customer's lifestyles."

A spokeswoman confirmed that the store will shut down in the first quarter of 2010. Nokia cited poor sales and poor footfall at the shop, which opened two years ago among much pomp and ceremony with a packed journalists junket, so it's not like it didn't have some support from London's "media types".

The store was intended as a showcase for the company's latest technologies...

Ben Wood, an analyst with CCS Insight, told The Times: “There was no question that the store was trying to replicate what Apple had done and build up the brand rather than shift devices. The question in why that strategy has worked for one company and not for the other.”

We think we know the answer; and it is interesting to reflect that Apple's Regent Street store across the road is now the most profitable (in terms of yield per square foot) in central London.

[Star Traveler]

An interview of Jim Dalrymple, a radio/podcast show. Listen to his interview below...

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MacNotables #953: Jim Dalrymple on iPhone App Approval, Apple’s LaLa Purchase and the Importance of the iPod touch

Posted by Chuck on December 8th, 2009

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop discusses the firestorm he started on Twitter by agreeing with Apple’s Phil Schiller on the iPhone App Store approval. Acknowledging that the process is far from perfect, Jim makes the case from Apple’s side by using easily understandable comparisons. Apple is purchasing the cloud music service, LaLa, and Jim comments on why it happened, Apple’s balance of acquisition vs. internal development, and speculates on some of the possibilities it brings to the table. We also talk to Jim about why the iPod touch may insure Apple’s smart phone dominance in the future, and get the latest updates on his music project.

[altair]

Nobody seems to be able to create that product that sets Apple back on its heals

Um, I like my Macs and all, but they are NOT medical devices.

[Star Traveler]

The 7 Principles Of Apple

I’m not sure that Apple has anything as stupid as one of those Mission Statements cobbled together by marketing and PR Suits who believe hollow, pretty words = reality.

What I do think is that if we were able to overhear conversations at Apple, we’d be able to tease out the things that make that company do what it does. But we don’t need such eavesdropping power, however, because we can also derive Apple’s principles from its actions.

1) We can charge more because we offer more. It would drive the Microsoft fanboys crazy, this. They’d trot out article after article denigrating Macintosh configurations vs. PCs. You don’t see much of those anymore. Why? The iPhone killed that line of propaganda. Here were people lining up to pay six hundred dollars for a cellphone:

Why were they doing that? Because the iPhone offered more than anything else in cellphone history. And it still does.

2) Nothing else out there is good enough. I don’t have to cite the iPhone for this. This goes back to the original Apple-out-of-a-garage days, with Wozniak and Jobs cobbling together the original Apple I computer. This is the company’s bedrock DNA. When they became a company, the Apple II looked like nothing else out there. It was sleek and friendly-looking.

People who bought it felt as if they were bringing home an artifact from the future they’d seen in movies and TV.

3) Simple equals effective. I don’t know that this needs much explanation. Apple popularized and streamlined the Graphic User Interface — and then reinvented it altogether with the iPhone. But this has been part of Apple from the beginning too:

Look at the iPhone compared to all other phones: one button on the front versus up to six for the latest Android phones.

4) We create the future we want. Apple came out with the first mass-market computer that used a floppy disk drive instead of a cassette recorder. Then it dropped the 5.25″ disk for the 3.5″ disk with the Macintosh.

Then it dropped the floppy altogether.

5) Seize chance. Anyone familiar with the creation of the iPod knows its origin was not at Apple. But Steve Jobs saw its potential — given him, he probably saw in one blinding flash the complete ecosystem that could evolve from it. Instead of saying, “Nice, but we didn’t make it, we’ll pass” — which is what any other company would do (the Not Invented Here syndrome) — Apple jumped on it.

The result? We’ve all lived through The iPod Decade.

6) STFU and deliver. Apple’s secrecy is legendary. People think this is part of the Apple mystique. But that’s only a side-effect of what Apple does: creating history-making products that leave competitors frustrated and consumers delighted.

Apple doesn’t talk about what it’s going to do. It shows what it’s done.

You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.

– Steve Jobs

7) Help people create. When the original Macintosh was introduced, it came with a program called MacPaint. While the rest of the computing industry was focused on word processing and spreadsheets, Apple took the next step: marrying creativity to computing.

From that small start began the desktop publishing revolution which overthrew traditional production processes and continues to this day.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

– Steve Jobs

All of these things sound really simple, don’t they? You would think that any company that follows these would have inevitable success, no?

But how many times have we seen leaders of companies stand on a stage and prattle about things that have absolutely no relation to the crap they eventually release into the market?

That’s because there is one thing Apple has. It’s Apple’s secret. It’s Steve Jobs.

He will say to his engineers, “This isn’t good enough. Make it better.”

And he’s a CEO who will also say something like this:

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

Um, I like my Macs and all, but they are NOT medical devices.

LOL...

Well, the guy who does a spelling checker that works in "context" is going to make millions... :-)

[Big Giant Head]

It looks like you’re getting 29 frames per second, flying over dense city? What kind of hardware it FSX running on there?

[WVKayaker]

Not mine. Google image

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"I’m sure reality isnt something they are all that interested in anyway."

Why bother with mere reality when you've cornered the market in iReality?

[antiRepublicrat]

Every company can be beat.

[Swordmaker]

Um, I like my Macs and all, but they are NOT medical devices.

I have several medical and dental professional offices whose doctors would strongly disagree with you...

[altair]

Sorry, but whoosh!

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Stick to using a Mac. Everything else seems way too hard for you.

And there is the crux of the matter! PC enthusiast revel in their technical ability and look down their noses and those who don't care to continuously tinker with their computers. The best analogy is those who like to tinker with their cars and those who like to get in them and just drive away.

[VanDeKoik]

So in essence you are so high on you happy Apple dust that the idea that a Apple computer simply not working very well...is the fault of the user?

I can see why I keep finding parallels between Apple and Obama supporters.