jonesy

Apple's Leap from Mediocre to Marvelous

Clearly, marketing and a sales force does matter, as it is obvious the Apple Stores (and not just commercials) that have helped turn Apple around. But having the best product at price-points that customers will consider matters even more.

Apple products in the mid-90s left lots to be desired (though argubly they were still better than the competition). But since Jobs return to Apple, the products have been much better thought out, the design began to be pleasing, the user experience even more so. The overall value of Apple products has grown tremendously.

Apple has great strategy, great products, great stores, and great marketing.

Apple's Extraordinary Edge

@My take: Independent thinker and Windows XP? How do those two go together?

@Marcel: Back in late 2004, many said iPod would be a commodity; not a defensible business. Over 3 years and 100 million iPods later, maybe it's commoditization is beginning. But Apple's already moving away from the classic iPod; we see it in iPod touch, and actually, we've seen it from the beginning - it was always called an iPod, not an iMusic. So back to PCs: Windows PCs are definitely a commodity, but as Callahan says, Apple's advantage is OS X, objects of desire, Apple Stores with Genius Bars working on OS X mostly for "free", and its brand. By the way, OS X is on all its future-looking products - iPod touch, iPhone, AppleTV, and Mac. This synergy will lead to agility and speed in getting its software innovations out to its whole family of products; something no other company has this, not Microsoft, Nokia, Sandisk.