[lit-ideas] Re: Could an academic discipline do this?

From: "Brian" <cabrian@xxxxxxxxx>

Jobs and company are obsessed with user experience and
a long time ago they saw Microsoft choose the path of commodity
hardware and lowest common denominator compatibility and they rejected
that in favor of superior architecture.
This is both true and a sad about technology: In many cases, the better solution doesn't win. The winner has a stronger sales or marketing team.
Microsoft Windows is a good example: a plodding, mediocre platform is #1 because they have superior licensing agreements. They literally blocked everyone else out of the market.
I don't know about Apple's marketing. They are very big on branding; that's clear. But their marketing is entirely 80s: it uses TV and billboards. They do apparently nothing with web marketing, which is new and innovative. Furthermore, if you evaluate their marketing in terms of sales, well, all that marketing and they still have only 2% marketshare in computers. Their marketing was a failure.
In case of the iPod, they managed to convince people that the iPod was innovative. It wasn't. The interface isn't that wonderful either; I was given an iPod and I had to look at a manual to figure out how to use it. No-name MP3 players are easier to use. No need to install software, etc. Just copy and play. Nevertheless, Apple convinced kids to go with iPods, so they have 80% marketshare.
I don't think Apple will get far with the iPhone. Too many PDAs already in that market. Plus the Apple phone has too many restrictions. And it lacks many things.
Apple had better line up the Next Big Hit. In a year or two, iPods will become stale. Sony was once the darling of pop consumer products. That's a very hard spot to own.
John's original question was whether academia could emulate Apple's style. The better we understand what Apple does, the more we also understand that academia should not pay attention to Apple. Pop academia, based on heavy marketing, without substance? The academic subject that comes to mind would be "The Institute for Paris Hilton Studies". 

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com

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