Circuit City: What killed CC was getting rid of anyone helpful and replacing them with know-nothing minimum wage people. Then, might as well go to Wal-Mart. It is the high level of customer support that helps Apple stores thrive.
Federal Government: ???
Kodak: Digital camera killed Kodak before the iPhone
Hewlett Packard: I’m sure they were hurt by their drive for marketshare by selling mainly in the low-end where there is little profit. And IIRC they’re still number one in volume.
Motorola: Too bad, so sad, Moto couldn’t deliver on providing Apple fast chips for their computers, or compete on the phone front.
Borders: Apple just got into the book selling business, so no way (or we could count all those Apple-oriented books sold)
Sprint: Sprint passed on the iPhone, their fault.
IBM layoffs: IBM also couldn’t provide fast enough chips for Apple.
Musical group layoffs: iTunes still funnels lots of money back through to the labels. Without iTunes, they’d probably be leaking money even more. However, by making wide distribution available to anyone, Apple is helping to undermine the cartel the labels have had running for the last several decades. This is a good thing.
Ericsson layoffs: Too bad, inferior products.
US Postal Service layoffs: That’s email, not Apple’s fault. And don’t forget all those Apple products bought over the mail.
Barnes & Noble layoffs: Same as Borders, although BN got the right idea later and has started competing in this century.
Blockbuster layoffs: Netflix started this, and then there was Red Box. Apple’s digital video sales and rentals have been nowhere near enough to have caused this.
CompUSA layoffs: See Circuit City.
Sony layoffs: Which department?
RadioShack layoffs: Radio Shack killed itself by becoming just another electronics store.
Microsoft layoffs: Their own fault, definitely. Lack of vision (Zune) and lack of ability (Vista) have given Microsoft a serious hit. On the plus side, the 360 is doing very well despite the billion dollar charge-off to be first with that generation of game system.
Yahoo! layoffs: No relation to Apple
Xerox layoffs: No relation in recent times, only back when Apple was an underdog. Xerox did try to sell their own tech, but priced it too high and failed.
AMD layoffs: AMD could have landed Apple’s switch to Intel, but they couldn’t produce. Apple actually had test Macs running AMD in case they went that way.
BestBuy layoffs: Uh, Best Buy is selling Apple products.
Tower Records layoffs: Okay, Apple did do that.
Trans World Entertainment (Sam Goody, FYE) layoffs: Same as CC
Gateway (Acer) layoffs: Same as HP
EMI layoffs: Same as other labels
Lenovo layoffs: Same as HP
Adobe layoffs: It’s their own fault their products have been sucking lately, and that they bought the toxic Macromedia to get an outdated 90s technology in Flash, another outdated technology in Cold Fusion, and a duplicate product in Freehand. And, don’t forget, Adobe practically owes its existence to a tight relationship with Apple.
T-Mobile layoffs: See Sprint
EMC layoffs: Same as other labels
Palm layoffs: Guilty
Virgin Megastores layoffs: Guilty
Dell layoffs: Same as other OEMs, although Dell didn’t help themselves by fudging profit numbers
AOL layoffs: No relation to Apple, another 90s business model overtaken by events, the company incapable of keeping up
Cisco layoffs: ??? More computers and networked handhelds, more demand for networking products.
Warner Music Group layoffs: Same as the other labels
Hasbro layoffs: ???
IAC (Ask.com) layoffs: No relation
Universal Music Group layoffs: Same as the other labels
However, I am sure Apple has killed quite a few jobs centered around fixing the problems in Windows.
That is exactly it.
Originally the salespeople worked on commission, knew their products and hustled.
Then the folks in the Tower of Richmond decided some of the sales staff were making too much money, so they fired the good ones and replaced them w/ hourly employees that simply pointed the customer toward the product and stood around.
Management killed Circuit City.
They followed the Sears model from years earlier.
I give the Apple and their computer operating system credit. It was, as intended a plug-in appliance, to do a function.
With Windows/DOS it was different. Users were required to have a sub career, a level of Geekdom and a degree in computer science to diagnose and keep it running. Remember the old computer shows where the computer geeks went to soup up their DOS systems? My first real computer was an Apple 2 for which I would write Apple Basic programs. It was Microsoft henceforth, because that’s what the business world used.
Apple and Windows created a different customer base.
Nice summary.
I worked for Motorola when they were partnered with IBM for the PowerPC fiasco. T was assigned to work the back-end for Motorola’s production support. In short, “the first liar didn’t stand a chance”. Each company bid on quantity and delivery date for the PowerPC product, as a consortium, the price was pretty much fixed. IBM would promise August, Motorola would promise July - then neither company would have anything until the December. Saw this over, and over again. Apple would have a product ready for release for “Back to School”, or “Christmas”, or just a simple refresh - and they would miss the date because their “Partners” could not maintain professional integrity on any level, any level whatsoever.
So, Apple did what it had to do; they told the PowerPC consortium to take a hike, and joined the rest of the world in the x86 realm, where they had confidence that chipsets, die shrinks and product would be available in accordance with their agreements.
From the inside view, this was 100% predictable.
Nice summary.
I worked for Motorola when they were partnered with IBM for the PowerPC fiasco. T was assigned to work the back-end for Motorola’s production support. In short, “the first liar didn’t stand a chance”. Each company bid on quantity and delivery date for the PowerPC product, as a consortium, the price was pretty much fixed. IBM would promise August, Motorola would promise July - then neither company would have anything until the December. Saw this over, and over again. Apple would have a product ready for release for “Back to School”, or “Christmas”, or just a simple refresh - and they would miss the date because their “Partners” could not maintain professional integrity on any level, any level whatsoever.
So, Apple did what it had to do; they told the PowerPC consortium to take a hike, and joined the rest of the world in the x86 realm, where they had confidence that chipsets, die shrinks and product would be available in accordance with their agreements.
From the inside view, this was 100% predictable.