Apple Tempts the Fates
You have to love a company that is so full sure of itself that it can get up in public and say something like this:
"If we offer something that has
tremendous value, that is sort of this thing people didn’t have
in their consciousness — it was not imaginable — then I think
there’s a whole bunch of people that will pay $499, $599.”From the Bloomberg article here.
Not in my conciousness? Not imaginable? It’s a cell phone for God’s sake. Sure, it’s got some cool features but don’t try to tell me it won’t live or die based on it’s success at doing one thing – making phone calls. That’s all people really want. Forget the other fluff. If it can’t do that one thing well, game over.
Is it inevitable that market power translates into unbearable hubris? Or is it really just a reflection of who’s running the show? Personally I think it’s the latter. Quick, who’s the CEO of Proctor & Gamble? Of course you have no idea. Forget the fact that P&R have immense market power. They’re a little more humble.
Apple has come a long way over the past few years, cheered on by the weary, MS-oppressed masses (including me). They used to be the radicals. But now, their autocratic attitude is starting to feel very un-Apple. Like Google, it they’re not careful, they’ll lose the prestige they’ve always enjoyed as the underdog.
