Wisedigs

I try to find logical arguments for both sides of a story. Sometimes I find myself in no man’s land because at times that is best. Other times I find myself partial to one side. Then as time goes on that changes to being heavily biased or the complete opposite.

The story of Apple. Truly a company that has done wonders. Not in it’s technological advances, certainly many before have accomplished something very similar, but in it’s tactics in increasing market share and hijacking customers and building a huge fan-base. No one even comes close to the strides Apple has made there. Their strategy wasn’t very complex at all:

• give the users something nice to look at
• give the users choices, but not too many choices
• give the users freedom, but not too much freedom
• give the users belief that they have the best, then release something better

Few can blame Apple for this. How many companies have this much control over so many people? None. When you are in a position like this, what do you do? You milk it for all it’s worth. As a smart business man you realize that what goes up must come down. In Apple’s position you want to make enemies. Enemies unwittingly produce allies. Not any sort of allies. The sort of strong, strongly opinionated ones that believe they have their own reasons for their decisions, unlike the others.

Ethically speaking, you can argue Apple’s tactics are disgusting. Things like purposely disabling features to await a future release of a product. Or handicapping older hardware to highlight advantages of owning the latest model. Or cutting corners during the manufacturing process to maximize profits. Or have the confidence that you can charge customers whatever you desire, knowing that they will buy in regardless.

How many people would buy the exact same laptop twice, or three times? What if you were to release a laptop without video output or a DVD drive, and then release one later on that has video output, then one yet again with both? Given enough time, the dedicated consumers will eventually buy all three.

Eventually users will catch on. How long will it take? Who knows. People can’t be stupid forever.. or can they.