Apple and Consumer Choice

http://johnloeber.com/w/apple-choice.html

by loeber • 9 years ago

35 23 9 years ago

johnloeber.com

yupyup• 9 years ago

Cue "this wouldn't have happened on Jobs' watch".

As an Android user myself I think choice is good but also think Apple should strive to offer as few choice as possible.

It's one of their main strengths.

aczerepinski2• 9 years ago

I don't think Jobs would keep the MacBook Air either. Why does it exist, and why does the "air" suffix make it significantly heavier than the laptop called just "MacBook"?

And if selling too many models is the new way forward, please introduce a regular desktop computer more powerful than the mini, and less expensive than $3000. I don't get why (excluding the $3000 trash can pro) Apple's focus is on making desktop computers crazy small. Is there a market that carries a Mac Mini around with them like a laptop?

sneak• 9 years ago

The $999 MacBook Air is Apple’s #1 best-selling computer.

The cheapest MacBook is a few hundred dollars more expensive.

It does not make sense to discontinue your biggest volume model in the line unless you are sure that your other models can pick up the same amount of slack; I assume Apple believes that the added cost of the MacBook (and it’s a lot slower than the Air, I might add) would prevent that.

lotsofpulp2• 9 years ago

The MacBook Air is one of the most polished products I've ever used. It's my go to when suggesting a computer for anyone who doesn't need raw processing power. It's cheap, lasts years and years, and does its job perfectly.

jochung• 9 years ago

The Air strategy was imo how they should've handled the new Macbook Pro.

You've got a new product that has some experimental novelty (emoji bar) and makes some very future oriented design decisions (usb c only) that most people are not ready to sunset on yet, and which poses its own challenges and constraints (only offering 4 ports because each has to be a fully functional thunderbolt, while losing 1 for power).

Solution: MacBook Touch. They can gauge the interest in the new stuff, manage transitional issues and not leave everyone else out in the cold for whom the limitations are unacceptable.

Instead I'm now faced with an upgrade that cuts the number of ports on my machine in half, destroys my ability to hook up with common devices, and gives me something I do not want or need in return. My only hope is that they come to their senses by the time my current one gives out. Given the headphone jack fiasco, unlikely.

harryf2• 9 years ago

The touchbar on the most recent MacBook Pro wouldn't have happened on Jobs Watch.

zaptheimpaler• 9 years ago

Its really just part of being a more global company. iPhone 6S happened because Asian consumers expect phones with big screens.

Apples roots are luxury brand, but we are seeing it slowly go after other segments of the market. Very natural progression as economies of scale grow and they can bring the same product at lower prices.

Even if it means a small hit to consumers in the west, its worth it to start reaching the 2-3 billion people in the rest of the world.

Its a classic case of luxury products becoming commodities, and its how a global giant is born.

ComputerGuru2• 9 years ago

iPhone 6S happened because Asian consumers expect phones with big screens.

I think you meant 6+ ? (it would be funny if it weren't sad, how this proves there are simply too many models to keep track of)

gilgoomesh• 9 years ago

The continued availability of the last two years' iPhone models has been common practice since the iPhone 3GS remained on sale alongside the iPhone 4S. The fact that the iPhone 6S is still available now has at least 6 years of precedent. I think the article is more than a little off base in searching for another explanation here.

The oddities this time are that the iPhone 8 isn't called the iPhone 7s (even though that's what it so obviously is) and Apple's also announced (but hasn't yet released) the iPhone X.

internet20002• 9 years ago

It's pretty curious he picked the headphones jack of all things to justify the 6s still being on sale, when the most plausible reason is the one you just mentioned, keeping older devices available for cheaper.

The author could've selected screen sizes as the premise for Apple offering more choices than before, and the article could've been kept mostly unchanged. Mentioning the headphones jack is just fitting the data to what he wants it to mean.

loeber• 9 years ago

"Keeping older devices available for cheaper" does not quite solve the issue, because Apple is also currently selling the iPhone SE. Both the SE and the 6s are down-market, legacy devices. In my view, there shouldn't be more than one down-market, legacy device.

glenra• 9 years ago

The oddities this time are that the iPhone 8 isn't called the iPhone 7s (even though that's what it so obviously is)

The "s" generations always physically looked exactly like the prior non-s. They would keep the same exterior design while improving stuff under the hood. But the 8 needed a glass-back design to better enable new charging methods. Thus, it is identifiably a different phone than the 7, which makes it obviously not a 7s.

ComputerGuru2• 9 years ago

Meh, this has been the problem from day <del>1</del> 2 with the iPad lineup. I'm a developer, I've watched the keynotes, and I couldn't tell you what the current iPad models are or which moniker describes which iPad or which size came first or what model is bigger or which has the latest features just by the names. Pro? Mini? Micro? 2? 3? X? Air?

pls2halp• 9 years ago

I think it’s just the regular iPad and two or three different Pros. I know the Mini and Air are depreciated.

deergomoo• 9 years ago

I’d say the current line of iPads is fairly simple. They did have the issue iPhones currently have, where there are far too many poorly differentiated models. But today, you have the mini (which considering it’s now only available in a strangely priced 128GB variant, is likely heading for a quiet discontinuation), the “iPad” which is a lower priced, plain-Jane iPad for the vast majority of people, and then two sizes of Pro, which are differentiated by their higher quality screens, beefier specs, four speakers, and Pencil/keyboard support.

I’d go as far as to say it’s the simplest major product line Apple currently runs, as while it’s very similar to the MacBook line, that has the problem of the 12” MacBook, the Air, and the Touch Bar-less 13” Pro all filling basically the same role. Although let’s face it, the only reason the Air still exists is so Apple can say they have a $999 laptop. That thing is starting to become an embarrassment.

harryf2• 9 years ago

consumers fundamentally do not know what they want.

From quite some years in software development I've found this quote of that other one about Henry Ford and faster horses is usually pre-cursor to someone about to explain a "brilliant product idea" for which they haven't done enough research.

Consumers fundamentally DO know what they want. They want life to be easier, faster, more convenient, sexy even. They just aren't collectively any good at expressing it in terms which are useful to a product designer.

internet20002• 9 years ago

If you reduce the idea that much, it becomes meaningless. Of course people want things to be better. Consumers fundamentally don't know what will make things significantly better for them, though.

socceroos• 9 years ago

If you reduce the idea that much, it becomes meaningless.

Conversely, the idea that consumers fundamentally don't know what they want is reducing consumers so far down to their lowest common denominator that it becomes meaningless.

The truth lies in the middle.

Fnoord• 9 years ago

"Apple has become an industry leader not by catering to the conscious wants of its customers, but by delivering products that improve their quality of life, thereby defining what the users want. ""

I find this a bit double edged. If the customer can't get what they want, they ultimately don't stay/become a customer. They move to a different company/product, and are no longer an Apple customer.

If its perceived as a trend by the trendsetter, well, the industry will follow. Take for example laptops. You can't even open and replace hardware like RAM and SSD nowadays. The customer doesn't know they want to open the device, its only a minority who do, but now the industry standard has become laptops which are slim and difficult to open. I'd say that is a wolf in sheep's clothes. Or, take the 3.5mm headphone jacket for instance. Do customers want this as well? Or is it rather that the customers are herded into liking that change?

Apple also sometimes gets credit when it isn't due to them (I wonder if they'll get the credit for small bezels). That is because they're regarded as the leader. How many people believe x86-64 is due to Intel instead of AMD?

The above explains why even non-Apple customers care a whole lot about big decisions by Apple (such as the examples in the article, as well as bezel example, 3.5mm headphone example, and slim size laptop example).

tempodox• 9 years ago

I keep wondering what kind of person would benefit from reading this article. If I'm a product guy, I think about these things all the time anyway and it's not news. If I'm not a product guy, well, I couldn't care less. And beyond all that, Apple notoriously doesn't give two bits what any of us think.

Apple and Consumer Choice

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