The Biz of Coding

What Makes Apple Cool?

by Ujwal Tickoo on April 5th, 2006

This post continues from my previous post Apple Boot Camp software — run Windows XP on Intel Macs

I have always wondered why Steve Jobs does not make Apple the Design Center for the rest of the world. Think about the following questions for a moment:

• Question 1: What was the coolest thing about the Macintosh?
• Question 2: What was the coolest thing about iMac?
• Question 3: What is awesome about iPods?
• Question 4: What hurts Apple the most?

Answer 1: The PC was already there. Apple did not create the Personal Computer. The coolest thing about the Macintosh was the Graphical User Interface Design and the Mouse. Macintosh was in many was the first "personal" computer used on a large scale.

Answer 2: The boring gray colored PC was already there. When Apple created the fruity colored Mac, PCs got to hear the words "delicious" "sexy" and "wow"! iMacs were compact and they were way cute.

Answer 3: Sony’s walkman and generic MP3 players were all over the place. Apple designed iPod in a way that "hip" "hot" and "cool" sighs could be heard the moment users saw them.

Answer 4: The moment Apple introduces a software or hardware design innovation the whole world wakes up and takes notice. Then various companies get busy and mimic Apple’s design and sell their software and hardware products cheaper than Apple’s. Steve Job’s openly flaunts this. However, Apple does not benefit because it charges a premium for its design innovation and once that becomes a commodity, Apple loses sales.

Post 2 of 3. To continue…

POSTED IN: Apple, Design, Mac, Macintosh, Steve Jobs, Strategy, iMac, iPod