Loud Thinking

“Why the iPhone matters: 8 questions for Horace Dediu” is a short but interesting interview with Horace Dediu about the impact of iPhone during these 5 years after its first launch.

I recommend reading the interview to see how Apple has changed the business model of smartphones during a short period of 5 years and how the company has applied the idea of integration to produce more powerful products with interesting features and services.

Here I quote one of the eight questions of the interview which also mentions to the Nokia’s main mistake:

In that same interview, you said that Nokia’s mistake was that “they did not think the basis of competition would change. They thought they were too big to fail. They did not challenge the core business model of hardware-first and try to find an internal disruptive business.” How would you apply these insights to Apple?

Apple changed the basis of competition from hardware as the primary value consumers paid for to a combination of hardware, software and services. Being competitive changed from having good hardware to having good hardware, good software and services — made usable through integration.

Apple has expanded its business model to include services such as iTunes, Siri and iCloud. It can remain disruptive as long as it improves along a dimension which is not good enough. What has been less than “good enough” has been the experience and that was made better through integration. Over time this becomes good enough, and so the company needs to add services (which are [currently] not good enough). Services can include solving deeper customer needs like companionship, assistance, discovery and social bonding.

Erica Albright: You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true…

It’ll be because you’re an asshole.

[ The Social Network ]

Marylin Delpy: [Last Lines] You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.

[ The Social Network ]

Gage: Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: [stares out the window] No.
Gage: Do you think I deserve it?
Mark Zuckerberg: [looks at Gage] What?
Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?
Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don’t want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.
Gage: Okay – no. You don’t think I deserve your attention.
Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try – but there’s no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention – you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.
Mark Zuckerberg: Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

[ The Social Network ]