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People keep saying that but it is not true.
You can keep looking at Wikipedia all you want.


It is true - We have a legal decision that was linked a couple of pages ago. It is well known - without linking to Wiki, that Non-compete clauses are unenforceable in CA - along with many other states.
 
Currency (trade) is an expression of value, which in itself is always perceived. It has no material existence. My reading of Zunjine's (extremely well-argued) posts are that Apple have stimulated an impression of value in their products, through some complex union of design, marketing, customer service, etc., that is commensurate with the price they charge for them.

In my view, value is a composite of all of the things you mention ('emotional attachment, fandom and marketing influence') and more, and thus is precisely the word we should be using in this (rather tangential) discussion. Yet I would argue that value, in and of itself, is completely intangible; it is only the responses to value (i.e. exchanging several days of physical and mental labour for an iPhone) that are tangible.

This is of course, however, also my personal opinion :)
Again, all that I am arguing is that the "value", or rather the illusion of value can be mostly attributed to Apple's effective marketing (in my opinion). What I've also argued was that some people buy Apple products regardless of that "value" (loyal following, fandom, people buying those products "just because they're Apple", something I can't relate to my understanding of "value"). I think we spent too much time on explaining one another what we mean by value.
 
I'm glad to see Scott go.. he is the past, part of the old Apple that went with Steve Jobs. That Apple was very arrogant and had poor communication with its consumers, i.e., the issue with the antenna in iPhone 4.

He refusal to sign the letter apologizing for Apple Maps sums up his attitude. Clearly there were ( and still are - those are being fixed ) large flaws in Apple Maps, especially outside the states.

Apple have become more open towards its communications, not just blame the consumer.

No body likes managers who are hard to work with, either. No value added to organization, in most cases.


Personally, I dislike skeuomorphic features in both iOS and OSX.. so i'd be happy to see them go.
 
i always thought having cook as leader was a mistake. He is going to become the next sculley.

Hardly - he has already been in a position of leadership for a couple of years (including Steve's two leaves) - during which he has led several successful and very profitable quarters and has been lauded by pretty much everybody as a worthy CEO.

Forstall on the other hand was not. Firing him was a necessity given he was very antagonistic with other employees - heck many of the senior staff refused to be in the room with him. That is a sign of bad things. At least people wanted to work with Jobs when he was around despite his flaws. Scott was the opposite.
 
You're going a bit off-topic with this truisms. I guess the word "value" can have different meaning in different contexts.

That's what we can both agree on. However in my opinion the "value" you speak off is mostly marketing and loyal following/brand attachment, which I have mentioned at the beginning of our discussion. So we're back at square one.

There's no need for the attitude. If what I've been saying are just a bunch of "truisms" then it reflects badly on you that you're still struggling to understand them.
 
Just out of curiosity, has Ive got any experience in interface and user experience design? I thought he's just a specialist in product design?

He probably has, after all it´s not much different from hardware. And I guess that Apple has a truckload of specialized UI designers doing the 'heavy lifting'. With his responsibilities in hardware design, he´ll likely just decide what to do and what not to do until Apple finds someone else to take over UI design. Still a good move by Tim Cook, I think.
 
I don't think Steve would have apologized about Maps, either.

I think he would have fiercely defended it and stated why it's way far beyond anything google maps was at its inception and that it's only going to get better.

My guess is Forstall felt the same way.

Either way, I'm looking forward to Ive UIs.

It's easy to make something that's better than a competitors product when it first came out. I mean Apple only had forever to make a map app. Sad thing is I can care less how good you product is compared to another products version from years ago. I care about now and the fact that google maps is a better product still stands.
 
He probably has, after all it´s not much different from hardware.
It is very, very different from hardware (product) design.
And I guess that Apple has a truckload of specialized UI designers doing the 'heavy lifting'. With his responsibilities in hardware design, he´ll likely just decide what to do and what not to do until Apple finds someone else to take over UI design. Still a good move by Tim Cook, I think.
Perhaps it will be more about his taste rather than experience.

----------

There's no need for the attitude. If what I've been saying are just a bunch of "truisms" then it reflects badly on you that you're still struggling to understand them.
I am not struggling to understand what you are saying, I am merely discussing the differences in our interpretations of things as summarised in my previous post. Truisms were your remarks about going to the cinema etc..
 
i always thought having cook as leader was a mistake. He is going to become the next sculley.

After these incidents though, I start to think otherwise. I used to perceive Tim as weak and a watered down Jobs.

Tim is doing this for the better of Apple. He knows that Apple cannot keep their old ways to compete. He wants Apple to move forward. From these incidents you can start to tell his true passion for the company. Although he is pretty bad in speaking compared to Jobs, I am starting to feel that the Apple under Cook is going to be a lot better. Tim's Apple has just started.
 
Just out of curiosity, has Ive got any experience in interface and user experience design? I thought he's just a specialist in product design?

So someone that does hardware can't do software (or vice versa)? Maybe it was Steve's decision to silo him in hardware and now he's finally getting to broaden his experiences. If you read Adam Lashinsky's book Inside Apple it's clear that Jobs management style was silos, people very good at what they do but focused on a specific task/area and that was it. No branching out, no doing other things. Ive has been doing industrial design at Apple for 20 years. Maybe he's been ready to do other things, take on more responsibility and with Cook he's finally able to do that. Just a guess on my part...
 
I think maybe Scott expected to get the top job when Steve died but even Steve knew he didn't have the right personality for the position. So Scott started behaving like Steve but Steve could get away with it because well he was Steve and most people at Apple idolised him but Scott was just a ******.

Tim has done the right thing before the company was driven apart by management fractions and different camps. Jony Ive is the spiritual successor to Steve not Scott. Let's not forget that Scott presided over Siri (which is still not fixed) and the Maps fiasco. iOS 6 looks the same as all the previous versions and is starting to look stale. I'm not sure Scott had the creative vision to change it.
 
I am definitely happy that John Browett left. But Forstall, not so much. Yes, I do hate the old fashioned calendar, but how do we know as the public that Forstall hadn't been part of more than just the design of those specific apps?

I feel like forcing someone out for doing a job that Steve Jobs wanted them to do is not something that Apple should do.

Just my thoughts...

He showed incompetence in that roll in many ways, poor quality releases, serous bugs in every release, god awful UI design decisions and stagnation of iOS. Steve made mistakes and promoting Forstall to head of iOS was one of them, he clearly was struggling to cope with that level of responsibility.
 
Again, all that I am arguing is that the "value", or rather the illusion of value can be mostly attributed to Apple's effective marketing (in my opinion). What I've also argued was that some people buy Apple products regardless of that "value" (loyal following, fandom, people buying those products "just because they're Apple", something I can't relate to my understanding of "value"). I think we spent too much time on explaining one another what we mean by value.

I agree that it's pretty academic, but my point (and I believe Zujine's, too) was that, in the context of the original remark (Apple sustaining high profit margins because they have 'created value'), your means of gauging value is irrelevant, as is mine and Zujine's. What's relevant is the market's (i.e. the aggregate) notion of value. To say that this is generated by marketing (undoubtedly true to an extent, but not the entire story) is hardly a breakthrough idea, and so we might conclude that it is you who is stating 'truisms' :p

Marketing creates perceptions of value. Obviously. But if value is all perception, which unless you can point out a new and existentially novel element on my periodic table, seems irrefutable, then I don't see how this 'understanding' of value is any different than one derived from appreciation of an iPhone's ergonomics or its utility as a masturbation aid when what's in question is sales.
 
I think maybe Scott expected to get the top job when Steve died but even Steve knew he didn't have the right personality for the position. So Scott started behaving like Steve but Steve could get away with it because well he was Steve and most people at Apple idolised him but Scott was just a ******.

Tim has done the right thing before the company was driven apart by management fractions and different camps. Jony Ive is the spiritual successor to Steve not Scott. Let's not forget that Scott presided over Siri (which is still not fixed) and the Maps fiasco. iOS 6 looks the same as all the previous versions and is starting to look stale. I'm not sure Scott had the creative vision to change it.

Perhaps, he refused to apologize for the Swiss Railway clock fiasco as well. That may've been the last straw. ;)
 
It made for great fodder for parlor tricks and late night tv jokes but was never a real issue for the dozens of iPhone 4 owners I know. Do you notice how nobody ever talks about it anymore? Did all those phones just magically heal themselves?

I do know literally dozens of people with iPhones, and not 1 of them, not 1, has ever complained about dropped calls or antennae issues.

The only reason Apple felt forced to have to respond was because of the press which just salivates like a hungry dog for any negative Apple press they can blow out of proportion.

People eventually stopped talking about it because Apple offered a free solution, and bumpers/cases for iPhones became the norm. People stopped talking about it because Apple acknowledged the issue. It was not a parlour trick, until I got a case I had to change the way I held my phone. After 4S they solved the issue.
 
Sculley = Tim Cook
Steve Jobs = Scott Forstall
Apple got in trouble in 10 years = Apple will get in trouble in 5 years
Came back in 10 years = Come back in 5 years
 
Well I suppose with Ive doing the UI things will be much much cleaner since he isn't one for skeumorphics (often times cheesey). So lets see, possibly we wont see the following things we're used to when we open iOS:

- iCal wont have the fake leather and stitching and ripped rimnants left behind across the top when you change months.

- Grey Fabric back grounds will not be there?

- Tiled icons/apps wont mimic actual items i.e. youtube wont be a TV, contacts wont look like an actual address book, notes wont look like a tab of lined paper. Sheesh dang near the whole mobile UI.

Well everyone who complains about ios looking dated and old now may get their wish..

Skeumorphics is the one major elements heavily used in ios that kepted it looking same since 2007.

I get it now, Scott = sheumorphics, and Scott is no longer there.
Things (ios7/ xos 10.9) are about to get very interesting looking.
 
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