DISQUS

Mathew,
Great comments. Take it one step further, though: in this economy what Apple needs is excellent operations. Meaning logistics, inventory, parts, streamlining everything in the process to cut costs and increase margins. Being disciplined and being lean. That's why Tim Cook is a perfect choice right now. He gets this. He lives this. He is the best of the best at Operations. He will increase the balance sheet while Apple products sell themselves.

All Apple need concern itself with is making sure they don't get sloppy. No way that will happen with Tim at the helm.

MSFT needs to fire back? With what? There are three things that are making Macs more attractive right now: no viruses, spyware or botnet infestations; UNIX OS made by the same company that made the better-designed computer for tight integration and hassle-free computing (usually); better marketing, ads and stores.

MSFT cannot deliver on any of those fronts. They are not hip, they have a broken OS that is still being targeted by the Russian Mafia and they don't care about design. So is it any wonder why Apple is selling a record amount of Macs?

Is the author of this blog thirteen years old? Geeze. What some people will do for a hit on their website.

Hey Andrew! Come up from the basement. Your mommy has cookies for you.

Leaning? 140K viruses for Windows vs. maybe four proof-of-concept on the Mac? I agree OS X needs to STAY secure, but there is no comparison with Windows. Those who think because the Mac market share is growing and in turn that viruses will grow along with it are uninformed or fooling themselves. This isn't an argument, it's the facts when comparing how the foundations of the OSes were built. It has been beaten to death. Windows was never meant to work on the Internet and with email. We can debate it all day. But where are all the viruses, malware, spyware and trojans for the Mac? Or Linux? Or Unix OSes?

I manage 55 Macs where I work. None of them run any AV software. Why waste money and processor cycles? Better yet, stay off the porn sites and pay attention to the emails with links, and 99.999% of these trojans will never land on a Mac.

I'm not unrealistic. We sit behind a firewall on a managed network. But until there is a real virus in the wild taking down hundreds of connected Macs, this is all just frivolous talk.

Scoble,
You paid for a product (Leopard) and it had issues. So take it to the Apple Store and have them look at it. Or try a reinstall. That's why they have Apple Geniuses there. To help users. I could see your complaining if they didn't offer support. But they do.

Sorry, but the ad IS funny. I also think it's funny how the Mac has, what, 8% market share? And you'd think they had 90%. Windows users must really be on the defensive if they are going to worry about little old Apple.

They're not worried, are they?

Andy,
Point taken about Nike, Dell and SW Airlines. But I still have a gut feeling that corporate blogging is a fad. Time will tell.

Thanks.

Andy,
Why do you believe Apple (or any company for that matter) has to join the social media phenomenon? What evidence do you have it does any good (increased profits, customer loyalty, etc.)? Ford tried this a year ago with its Bold Moves site. They tried to act like they were exposing themselves in regards to who they were behind the scenes, and they failed. They closed the site down after less than a year.

Apple on the other hand has the best customer loyalty on the planet. They have realized long ago, about the time Jobs came back, that if they micro-manage the marketing and PR, and produce fantastic products with great design and usability, they don't need an outlet for their customer's opinions/rants/feedback. You think they care about what someone thinks they need to design and build? Ha! Jobs knows what a lot of people want, even if they don't realize it. Doesn't mean he doesn't fail, and it doesn't mean his products are for everyone. But after 120M iPods, the most Macs sold in any quarter and millions of iPhones sold, who is going to argue with him? The facts are Apple's market share, market cap and stock price, though it has fallen a bit with the rest of the market, is at an all-time high. And you think now they need to blog?

I can tell you they monitor a lot of the Mac-centric sites. They know what their customers want and how they feel. Apple is not a closed ecosystem. And the only reason MSFT has been so open lately is because they have close to the worst consumer brand image in the tech industry. They have to talk about upcoming products because their consumer offerings are financial failures. Even the XBox has yet to make a profit when you include the $1B they had to fork out to fix a third of the devices. When a company is failing, of course they want to do whatever they can to make themselves look better.

Frankly, when you look at the numbers, Apple doesn't need to. And they won't. The exception is the iPhone rebate. And even that was closely managed to appear to be a "sorry" when in reality it was also a slick plan to get their customers back in the store. Not saying it was right or wrong. Just that it was pure genius.

If you look back at 1997, a year when Apple lost over $1B, they still had lots of people who wanted Macs. The problem was the lack of product focus, logistics issues and selling crappy Macs at Sears. Jobs has fixed that. Now they are a company that is bringing great new technology to the consumer, and they are being rewarded.

Just because they don't blog doesn't mean they don't listen, that they don't "get it," and that they are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.

And how certain are you that corporate blogging isn't just a fad? It sure was with Ford.

You're right, Scoble. Apple came out with just another phone when they made the iPhone. They hardly *thought different* at all. I mean, activating your phone from home, synching data through a Mac or a PC, unlimted data plans, touch interface, the real Internet, no keyboard; just lame. I can't understand how they sold 270K in 30 hours and another 1M in less than 90 days.

Yeah, the iPhone is just like any other cell phone out there. Shame on Apple.

Scoble wrote,
"Who is going to build 1,000 games? Apple?

Hah!"

The iPhone NEEDS 1000 games? I think not.

"Who is going to build corporate applications? Apple?

Hah!"

I can't stress enough how Apple, is not, repeat, not, going after the enterprise, and once again, it doesn't have to in order for the iPhone to be successful. It just doesn't. Yet, we have a few iPhone users at work who are already getting email from our hosted Exchange server. Yes, the host has IMAP turned on, to my surprise, and they have to wait 15 minutes to get new emails. So what? It works when all the ZDNet pundits said it wouldn't, and Apple just HAD to work with MSFT to get it to. Where are they now? Not a peep from them in a week. Thanks for that feature, Apple!

"Who is going to build productivity apps? Apple?

Hah!"

Let's see: iLife, iTunes, Keynote, iMovie, iDVD, Final Cut Pro Suite, iCal, Mail (Apple relies on Office for Mac, just like everyone else does)...how many do you want? You act like Apple can't write good apps.

You talk features, features, features. Did the iPhone not come with any features or software? And Apple has a built-in upgrade system (iTunes, brilliant move!) to put whatever they build right onto the iPhone seemlessly.

This is 2007, not 1989. I just don't get this MSFT mentality to all things computing. It's like there is no other way to be a successful company other than to "own the desktop." I guess since Apple doesn't, they are doomed to fail.

Good luck with that philosopy.

Why is the thinking that Apple (or anyone else) has to have the majority of the market? Apple just pegged a profit of probably >$250M and someone says they are going to lose in the long run? From what? MSFT? Are you kidding? This is about satisfying customers, and they did in spades. MSFT can't sell Zunes if they gave them away, and now they are not only losing money on the Xbox but taking a $1B charge! I am so tired of hearing about how every company needs to do exactly what MSFT does. It is obvious at this point they are lost, incompetent and unfocused. Look at their eroding cash horde over the last 3 quarters. Apple seems to make their own rules, and look what is happening to their stock price. Can't argue with that.

"Nothing exciting, huh? Well, Outlook 2007 is still better than Gmail. It’s the one thing that’s keeping me in Windows."

Are you kidding? I use Entourage at work where we use an Exchange server. I can set up the configuration in a minute, including the LDAP config. Now, I may not be a Windows geek, but it took me calling tech support to set up the Exchange connection in Outlook 2007 on a Windows XP laptop.

I have to go to the Mail icon in the Control Panel first? It was ridiculous.

And I am sure Outlook has a lot more "features" than Entourage (well, blame MS for that), but it is a confusing jungle trying to just get mail. I would rather use Entourage any day of the week. I can't even pass my pointer over anything in Outlook w/o getting some stupid pop-up box. It is unbelievably frustrating. The very reason I use a Mac, because it leaves me alone.

Outlook is what is keeping you on Windows? Good luck with that.

Some people have short-term memory loss. I remember good and well what Apple went through with the press during the mid-90s and even as near ago as 2001. The entire press industry was saying Apple was doomed! Now the tables have turned and all the Windoze users want to complain. Boo-hoo.

What will it take for Dell and HP to realize that their laptops, as an example, look bloated and unsleek when placed next to an Apple MacBook Pro? They don't get design and never will because they don't make it a priority. Now everyone is using the same chips, so they have no excuse.

Apple is not perfect. They spin their marketing differently and they have that right, even if it means no one at Apple is blogging. Blogging is not the answer to all our problems, but some people who live on the net can't understand that, I guess. Besides, Dell and HP would LOVE to sell a laptop w/o Windows, but they are stuck. Stuck with one OS they can't alter. They have no choice and are afraid to look elsewhere because they know they will lose even more market share. If Dell had ballz they would ditch the Win platform and create their own, buy Be from Palm or go with Ubuntu. Nope, they are stuck, even if they improve their designs. I would not want to be the CEO of Dell right now. They are dying a slow death.

And Apple almost always comes out on top when it comes to quality surveys, overall. Is Apple buying the press? I think not. They just have better design, and few would argue they don't have more compelling products. Give them the credit they deserve.

Millions of customers did this last year.