I think this was well said by Tom Krazit @ CNN about Apple:
“Its secretive nature creates a mystique around the company when the products are excellent, but that same communications strategy makes it appear aloof and indifferent when customers are angry over product glitches. (link)”
That is exactly how it works.
On a related note, Daniel Lyons (aka Fake Steve, now a retired blog btw) who recently moved from Forbes to Newsweek, writes that Steve Jobs is a monopolist at heart. Someone told him so. But I think it makes perfect sense. It’s the flip side of doing everything yourself so the results can be perfect. In marketing, Apple often uses the claim that it makes both the software and the hardware, and therefore they can offer a unique and smooth user experience. As long as their marketshare is small, this seems fantastic, but as they grow larger – and they do, now besting Google in market cap – they start to look more and more like a monopoly.
I have a friend who is somewhat upset that Apple is becoming ‘a money machine’ who ‘owns parts of our lives’ with the iPod and iPhone and their computers and software. He says we spend a huge amount of time with Apple’s products every day, and we have become dependent on them. The products are great, of course, that’s why we choose to use them, but he has a point. We are dependent on them, maybe more than we think.
There are also some who are really angry at Apple for the way they treat other companies.
My claim has always been that Apple is focused on doing business by enabling people to become creative. That’s a fine value to me. They get my money, and I get a machine that inspires me and makes me happy. What’s wrong with that?
But still, thank God for the open source movement! With all it’s tendencies to slow reaction and shaky support, it still is a balancing force if nothing else. It would be great to see commercial giants like Apple embrace even more the altruistic enabling of people to do great things. Even if it would take a chunk out of their income in the short term, it would be a great thing for the world, and it would earn them a lot of respect.
I’m not saying they should give away money, but they could help train people in becoming more creative without keeping the copyright, open up new areas of business without hogging them for themselves, or why not let their employees do cool cooperative projects with people from other inventive companies. It might look like they would loose something by doing this, and maybe they would at first, but it would be such a fresh and good thing to do, that I can’t help dreaming about it. And I’m pretty sure people would love them for it, and go out and buy their cool products too.
This might be a future feature for businesses, to become creative in giving away. Share the wealth not by giving it away, but by investing it into more creativity.
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