Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Does Apple have a secret recipe for business?
- Thread starter neutrino23
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The original cube didn't sell well because it offered too little for too much money. But all Apple remembers is that people didn't buy a cube shaped computer even though the shape wasn't the real issue.
But now Apple is all about making everything as thin as possible. Proof is the new mini. Instead of going bigger and offering more it got thinner. So a cube just doesn't fit into Apple's design philosophy.
But an Intel cube is something I'd beat down the door to get. The case would be large enough to have a optical drive, 2 hard drives and enough space on the case for an SD slot on the front and plenty of room for front mounted USB and Firewire ports to go along with ones in the back. If would meet my needs perfectly. Oh well.
I wouldn't say a "secret recipe" per se, but it's obvious that Jobs and Apple realize and understand their unique position in the tech-electronics industry and have figured out how to leverage that position to differentiate the brand and the products from the competition. The key here is differentiation, which includes vertical integration of the software stack and industrial design of the hardware.
Essentially, Apple has found a niche and then they dominate it with a closed system that they control inside and out. From there, they keep growing the niche while having the flexibility in the gross margins so that they can lower it when they need to gain market share. Once they've created more demand than supply, they can cut costs and raise the price if necessary to get the margin they'd like to achieve.
It's a great business model but a company has to be able to differentiate with value-added features that customers are willing to pay for and a brand name that is highly desirable. Very few companies in any industry have the ability to do this.
Essentially, Apple has found a niche and then they dominate it with a closed system that they control inside and out. From there, they keep growing the niche while having the flexibility in the gross margins so that they can lower it when they need to gain market share. Once they've created more demand than supply, they can cut costs and raise the price if necessary to get the margin they'd like to achieve.
It's a great business model but a company has to be able to differentiate with value-added features that customers are willing to pay for and a brand name that is highly desirable. Very few companies in any industry have the ability to do this.
In part meaning that everything can be hooked up to your computer in one form or another. Meaning that without a computer that people want to buy the vertical integration is meaningless. Compare Apple to a car company. I'll use Dodge as an example. You can buy a Dodge and then you can buy Mopar brand accessories to dress it up and make it perform better. But Dodge has to have a car you want to buy before all those Mopar accessories are going to look attractive to you. I'm not about to buy all the iGadget accessories if Apple doesn't make a computer I want to buy. I own a Jeep Cherokee. A good all around can do a little bit of everything type of vehicle. A Mac mini tower would be the Jeep Cherokee of Apple computers. That is what I'm looking for, that is what would fit my needs. Then all those iGadgets might start looking attractive to me.