Esta entrada me recuerda a esta otra, propia, de 2012… la duda de dónde y cuándo se va a fallar
“successful companies do blunder”
Once upon a time, Apple offered an easy-to-understand business model.
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All of Apple’s other services and accessories had but one raison d’être: raise the sales volumes and margins of the company’s personal computers.
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The iPhone caused a substantial change, not in itself but because it caused the birth of the App Store.
Origin: Monday Note – Apple Business Model: A Naive Nostalgic Look
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The magical iPod deserves more appreciation for its role in Apple’s subsequent fortunes. Its amazing success burnished Apple’s image at a time when there were questions about the Mac’s future.
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Culturally, it created a taste for miniaturized devices; technically, it drove the Supply Chain Management discipline and connections that would become essential for the success of the iPhone.
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iPhone happened and Apple insiders had an almost religious epiphany: iPhone apps are digital files, not unlike a song in the iTunes Store. Somehow, everything had been preordained to work for an Apple store: The infrastructure, the payment system and, just as important, customer behavior.
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quarter ended in March 2021, Apple’s Services reached $16.9B, exactly as much as the $16.9B number for the combined Mac and iPad revenue, although still far form the $48B iPhone revenue for that quarter. … This changes the business model’s “center of gravity”.
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What becomes interesting is how Apple leaders jumped on the App Store explosion to shift the company’s finances away from the old hardware-centric design that Wall Street didn’t like. … Perfect: a buffer against hardware seasonality and comfortable environment that tends to keep users tied to products and services, the famed Apple Walled Garden.
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What happens to priorities, to company culture? What will be sacrificed and what will be preserved? For example, if budgetary restrictions are needed, what will be prioritized: the next Ted Lasso or the next Apple Silicon processor? … In reality, a crisis tends to be something no one could have imagined, otherwise it would have been handled preventively.
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I don’t have immediate worries for Apple’s culture. But I’m old enough to have seen strong companies lose their way as their priorities changed and they lost sight of their strengths.
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As many have remarked, history doesn’t repeat itself, it stutters. HP’s mistakes aren’t a model for Apple’s possible missteps. But one can look at the company’s weak Cloud story or the missed Siri opportunity to see areas where mistakes were made
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I naively hope Apple won’t lose its device-centered culture, where the sharpest tech candidates still dream of working on the next iOS version or the next Apple Silicon processor, as opposed to working on Hollywood deals.
