Beating Apple Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List,
Posted on 12/08/2009 11:58:42 AM PST by Star Traveler
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.
Can Apple be beat? Naahhh... we know the answer... :-)
Oh good God not another one of these articles again!
Let’s just assume then that there will be no Apple Netbook or tablets then, because other companies have already made those. Cant have Apple “rip off” others.
No iPods with HD out, already done.
No subscription music service...that is already out
No streaming music service either.
No OLED iPhone...already done. Dont expect one with a keyboard either, that isn’t original.
Apple TV...isn’t that called windows Media Center?
Safari? Apple invented the web browser too!
iWork? Hmmmmm seems like a MS Office rip off.
But they did manage to put in MMS and Copy and Paste in their phone. Couldn’t they come up with something original?
Apple store? Gateway store? Sony Style? Naaaa, Apple invented the whole idea there.
But hey, if Apple’s cheerleading squad wants to feel Apple invented everything and everyone else is just “following”, then I’m sure reality isnt something they are all that interested in anyway.
Too bad other companies that innovate don’t have a media machine that Apple does, then maybe this Apple superiority myth would not have infected so many of its users.
Too bad other companies that innovate don’t have a media machine that Apple does, then maybe this Apple superiority myth would not have infected so many of its users.
And right there is where we have the problem that you're "infected with"... LOL...
Your "idea" -- contrary to what all the various users know, plus all the Windows users streaming and flocking over to Apple products (being totally fed up with what Microsoft has been feeding them...) -- that idea of yours says that it's all "PR" and nothing more.
The users and those many Windows users have found out that the advertising is gravy on top of something that is quality, works well, and is designed for the consumer -- and not for the geek who can't get a date... LOL...
We can see where you're coming from Mr. Geek... :-)
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List,
Surely, you don't think that MicroSucks have any original ideas, do you? Gates even conned a guy out of DOS to sell to IBM, with a few lousy sheckels. IBM made the pc a standard, not MS. MS just bought companies and built their monopoly. They're caught up now with trying to beat Mac at the OS game. It won't work now, since the companies Gates MS bought and destroyed now work for anybody but Gates...
Get a Mac and you'll likely never go back!
You are aware that MS Office was developed by MS under contract to Apple for the Mac? And that AppleWorks predated MSWorks. Of course Applewrite preceded both.
“So, how’s the MicroSoft Store doing? Does it have a Dell genius, an HP genius, and a home game machine builder’s genius? How do they resolve conflicts between hardware and their software? I guess if Zune counts, they can keep busy with it’s problems. Oh, yeah, the MS iPod killer! ROFLMAO.”
That made no sense, but it made you laugh, so I guess it was thoughtful when you wrote it.
“Surely, you don’t think that MicroSucks have any original ideas, do you? “
No, of course not. “Microsucks” never came up with an original idea in there life. Not at all.
Who can argue with that level of intellect?
“Gates even conned a guy out of DOS to sell to IBM, with a few lousy sheckels. IBM made the pc a standard, not MS.”
Yeah because we all are using OS2 now on our IBM PCs, right?
Stick to using a Mac. Everything else seems way too hard for you.
Steve Ballmer -- a real "monkey"... LOL...
See him talking to a Developers conference for Microsoft... This guy is real loon!
As I recall Gateway was liquidating their inventory and closing stores when Apple begin building, now Apple may follow them, but I doubt it.
I guess I keep forgetting the part where Windows 7 called “Vista 2.0” by the brain-trust at Apple, has been purchased, and is on more PCs than there are Macs to install OSX SnowKitty.
All of those billion or so Windows users so “fed up” with “Micro$uck”?
Keep up with the PR.
My, and I thought AppleWorks and Beagle Bros. were first. :)
All of those billion or so Windows users so “fed up” with “Micro$uck”?
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...).
And then even the geeks can get off on Apple hardware, running Mac OS X, Linux and [heaven-forbid] Windows, too... :-)
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...
Awhh, can't afford a Mac, so you resort to insults of a persons intellect.
Awhh, can't afford a Mac, so you resort to insults of a persons intellect.
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...
Apple wasn’t the first to market with most products, but they often put out one of the best, if not the best implementation of many products.
That is even when they don’t include features that tech people think they need. They aren’t good at being first, they are good at watching what other companies put out and then delivering what people want in that device.
Not having MMS and copy and past didn’t seem to hinder sales of the iPhone much. Not having an FM transmitter didn’t seem to hinder the sales of iPods much.
The Apple Store would be the biggest example of this, do they still have Sony stores? I know Gateway stores are closed. Others tried it, but Apple succeeded.
By Jim Dalrymple
AUGUST 18, 2009, 6:44 AM PT
According to a new report from market research firm NPD, Apple’s iTunes Store leads all digital retailers in music sales, capturing 69 percent of the market.
Looking strictly at the digital music market, Apple’s iTunes captured 69 percent of the market in the first half of 2009. Amazon came in second place with eight percent of the market.
Looking all music sold, Apple continues to lead with 25 percent of the market. Apple’s market share is based on unit volumes of music sold at retail and includes both physical CDs and paid digital downloads. In 2007 Apple’s overall market share for music sold was 14 percent and in 2008 it was 21 percent.
Russ Crupnick, vice president of entertainment industry analysis, said digital music sales will equal that of the physical CD by the end of 2010.
“The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple’s success in holding that market, has increased iTunes’s overall strength in the retail music category,” said Crupnick. “But the importance of the big box retailers shouldn’t be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs.”
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