Quote:
Originally Posted by Phogg
He was a marketing Genius who could accurately detirmine just which features could be jettisoned to improve durability and stability, thereby lowering warrantee costs.
He then marketed highly marked up units which were aesthetically pleasing and reliable but short on features to a market group who became convinced either that owning his stripped down units made them special, or that giving up features for hassle free operation was the right choice for them.
To replace Jobs, Apple has to find another marketing genius who doesn't leave out a feature that the gadget market decides is a must have, and they have to manage to detirmine this consistantly.
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I agree with this in part, but I'm suspicious of the idea that "jettisoning" the correct features automatically meant an increase in durability and stability, and that that's all Apple was ever really doing.
It seems to me that durability, stability and minimalism are often three separate aspects of an Apple product, especially in models designed for higher end users (read: professionals in the arts). There was a time when gamma correction was only available on the mac, as were Photoshop, ProTools and a number of other applications. Given the overwhelmingly superior amount of software available for Windows at any point, that's a distinctive little niche.
Jobs could afford to think of the features separately because Apple's products usually cost more than everyone else's. Still, I can agree that your premise applied to him part of the time.
I'm not sure that a fashion designer (and Jobs reminded me of one) decides to leave the pocket off a man's dress shirt solely to save money. That can be a minor aspect of the decision, but it's more likely they're thinking of a cleaner shape, or accentuating a fabric or tight-fitting cut.
I'm with you on certain decisions, though. Removing the disc drive: durability and cost (for Apple). Internal battery: Durability, form and the inevitability of either premium servicing at a price or built-in obsolescence in the practical sense. And that's only the beginning.