Apple has spent 15 years optimizing the company and it’ll take competitors 15 more years to catch up. That’s how bad things are for everyone but Apple right now. There are folks like Google who are playing a different game entirely but anyone that wants to sell PCs, Phones, MP3 Players, Tablets, Netbooks, Music, Movies, Apps and the entire end to end customer experience has absolutely no chance. Everyone else is playing with peanuts and it’s disappointing because I wish Apple had more competition.
There’s a reason why “[Insert Apple Product Here] Killers” have never been able to actually kill the product mentioned. Nothing killed the iPod or iPhone or MacBook Air or MacBook Pro or iMac or iPad or any other product. There’s the notion that Google has murdered Apple’s .Mac & MobileMe but Apple says those were missteps and is now ready to play hardball starting by making MobileMe Free, renaming it iCloud and quadrupling what it can do.
Let’s review what makes Apple so far advanced than each and every competitor to the point where each of them must start at zero in order to catch up:
- Apple’s Unibody Enclosure hasn’t been matched by a single competitor within a competitive price range
- Apple’s Multi-Touch trackpads have been the best trackpads for 5 years. Mac users know that PC trackpads utterly blow. Most PC users with notebooks use external mice. Why do PC trackpads suck so much?
- Apple has the thinnest built in webcam that is capable of high definition video
- Apple is the first major PC maker to incorporate Thunderbolt (Now included in nearly every Mac sold)
- The iPhone has the best touch screen experience and the best touch interface of any other phone
- The iPad is the tablet with the most 3rd party apps of any other tablet and it also has the longest battery life
- The iPhone has the most apps of any other mobile phone. Android is catching up though.
- Apple has the most User accounts with credit cards (225 million) than any other online retailer
- Apple is the #1 seller of music (physical and digital)
- Apple is the #1 seller of software (even more than physical stores)
- Apple is the #1 seller of phones and MP3 players (when compared to other single devices. Android is an OS. iPhone is higher sales than any single Android phone)
- Apple has the thinnest computers that are not netbooks that are full fledged, full keyboard sized computers)
- Apple has the largest retail presence of any other electronics company in the world.
- Their retail stores sell more per square foot than any other retailer (of any kind). When I worked there in 2005, we were already the #1 per square foot retailer. That’s skyrocketed since then
- Apple has the largest selection of Movies and TV shows
- Apple is neck and neck with Amazon in the amount of digital books available
- White is the only color earbud you see when you’re out and about. White is Apple and they own the front pocket.
- Apple is the #1 manufacturer of computers that cost over $1,000. They own that market. Why would you want to own the el cheapo $299 market?
- Apple is #1 in customer satisfaction globally
- Dell has admitted that they’d love to sell Mac OS on their machines. Everyone wants Mac OS but they can’t have it. Want Macintosh? You have to buy an Apple computer
- Apple has millions of customers locked in to their DRM music, movies, apps and books. Switching away from Mac would be very difficult for many
- AppleTV is the smallest and least expensive way to get Netflix and millions of titles (music and movies) onto your television. No one has matched the $99 price point with such a huge library. Roku has come close but not close enough
- Apple sells the cheapest 27″ Dual/Quad-Core desktop in the world
- Apple is known for simplicity, ease of use and “it just works”. It’ll take a long time for anyone to come close to that kind of brand capital
I can keep going on and on and on.
I really feel like a company like Dell or HP or Sony will have to have this exact same round up in order to truly compete with Apple. As an example, why buy Dell’s smartphone or HP’s phone if you can’t use it with a Mac? Why buy a Mac ? Well, because it works with the best smart phone, tablet and operating system in the world. If I buy Android, I won’t have integration with iTunes which is where my music is. If I buy a Dell computer, I can’t take it to a cool place like an Apple Store to get fixed. If I buy a Motorola Xoom, I won’t have all of those cool apps that the iPad does. OR, I bought the iPad because a lot of my iPhone apps will work on it. Buy once use everywhere. If I buy Android, I won’t be able to natively video chat with all of my Mac and iOS friends..
It’s just a sick and weird place that Apple has us. You either buy everything Apple or deal with the fact that you are stuck in a really crappy computing experience. Your day to day life will suck if you don’t go all in on Apple.
Of course, I use Windows at work but I have to keep that computer completely separate from my home office. I have to tweak my Airport Extreme routers to work with it and I have to only use it for work because I have issues with it integrating onto my very Apple-y home network. Honestly, I simply wouldn’t buy a Windows computer these days if I had a choice. As much as I tire of the Mac OS and prefer Windows, the truth is that they have me. Their iMac is beautiful and iTunes integrates so well with my AppleTV, iPad, iPhone and Airport Extreme / Express network. My Apple Displays look beautiful and no PC has such a tool as a Magic Trackpad with an OS that completely supports multi-touch gestures. I have Office for Mac so I’m not out of luck and Snow Leopard supports my work Exchange server. I can work all day in Macintosh and get everything done I need to but I’m required to use a PC. That’s really it but Apple just owns me now.
It would cost too much money to stop using Apple’s products. It’s cheaper to keep buying their products than to switch to PC. I would put up with 5 years of Miststeps from Apple before I switched to something else.
Read that again. I would keep giving Apple $1,000-$5,000 a year for the next 5 years even if they kept screwing up only because it would be too expensive to switch. That’s a crappy and scary situation to be in but it’s the truth and I feel bad for anyone that isn’t Apple.
In Steve I trust…because I don’t really have a choice in the matter.