| Saturday, May 18, 2002 |
11:27 - I've got some blue face-paint around here somewhere...
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/05/Warriorengineeringandsold.shtml
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There's a chastening article at USS Clueless about how innovative Dell and Microsoft are-- just that where they excel is in manufacturing and in marketing, respectively, rather than in engineering. And because I'm an engineering geek, I (and other Mac advocates) tend to focus on engineering innovation when we compare Apple to these companies.
Lots of good points, and the "warrior-vs-soldier" metaphor is pretty apt (Steve looks ridiculous on stage even to us, but dammit, those presentations are just fun, pure and simple). But:
Of course, Microsoft is also ruthless and voracious and relentless, but deep down all companies are (though perhaps not to as great an extent). The real point is that at Microsoft engineering serves marketing, rather than the other way around.
That is Apple's biggest problem: the engineers are in charge. First we come up with the next big thing which is insanely-great. Then we figure out who we're going to sell it to. Or maybe not; maybe we just wait for the world to beat a path to our door. (World? uh, World? Hey, where are they all?)
That's the warrior mentality: prove how cool you are, and wait for people to follow you. That's not how soldiers work, though, and soldiers will beat warriors nine times out of ten.
First you figure out who the customers are and what they want. Then you design something to satisfy them, and you ship it. That's why WinCE is a success and the Newton is a dusty memory.
Yes, that's true-- but, again, this is using examples from a decade ago, when Apple was floundering. The Newton was a solution-looking-for-a-problem, to such a degree that the world greeted it like a helicopter landing in ancient Rome.
But Steve Jobs wasn't anywhere in the neighborhood when the Newton was developed, and the nature of Apple has fundamentally changed since he returned. Now, they come up with things like multi-colored computer cases (can't say that didn't catch on-- even the hideous "Flower Power" one actually sold very well, to women), DVD burning (adoption is slow, but ramping up), adjustable-neck LCDs, wireless networking, and the iApps (which they know from experience are the bread-and-butter of computing today). The Xserve is a perfect example-- they went into the market very humbly, by going to all the potential customers and finding out what each one wanted, writing it down, and building to those specifications. When Steve took the stage to announce the Xserve, it was the most horseshit-free keynote he'd ever given-- he listed specifications, he showed off the innards, he talked about service, he held a Q&A session. He knew that it was a market that wouldn't swallow the typical marketing line that sold other Apple computers, and he wanted to prove that Apple could play the numbers game too. It's a field where Apple isn't taken seriously at all, because of the historical geek-driven "cool" of the rest of their product line.
With machines like the iMac, Apple is now accused of developing products in which function takes a back-seat to form; but you know, those products sell.
Whereas Microsoft now seems to be in the business more and more of inventing solutions-looking-for-problems, even more so than Apple. Like that tablet PC-- introduced in the same week that Sony discontinued their existing one due to poor sales. People had been expecting Apple to bring out a tablet PC for a year or two, but they didn't-- because they realized nobody wanted one. There have been tablet PC prototypes running around inside Infinite Loop ever since the first PowerBooks; there are always all kinds of weird one-offs in the labs. But they only develop the ones that really seem to have the potential to sell. Instead of the tablet PC, they brought out an MP3 player that now seems to have become archetypal. Similarly, Apple has stayed out of the PDA market lately, saying that "I'm not sure that's a very fun place to be right now"-- and I don't blame them. They have engineers with PDAs. They've seen how people use PDAs for two months and then you never see them again. Instead, they've made it so people can use their iPods as contact managers-- which is the killer app of PDAs anyway.
Sure, they still make mistakes (Cube), but their track record in recent years has been a whole lot better than it was in the Dim Years.
Now, this is still solving a different problem from the one den Beste points out-- that Apple is still acting like "warriors" rather than "soldiers":
But that's still working on the level of trying to use engineering to win rather than using marketing.
They're becoming more sophisticated warriors. They're still not soldiers.
And my response is to draw a parallel with which I'm rather uncomfortable, but which I've been dancing around now for months: When you're outnumbered twenty to one, you'd better be warriors and not soldiers-- it takes different tactics. Al Qaeda didn't march into New York in regimented units, and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade don't confine themselves to IDF military targets.
If Apple behaved like soldiers, they'd be a distant memory by now-- not holding their own against an industry in which they're barely a radar blip, and turning a profit too.
Maybe that means the best destiny for which they can hope is a glorious death in battle, or something. But I do know Apple is still with us, after being "irrelevant" and "going out of business" for fifteen years running. And maybe there are some freedom-fighter rebellions that are worth fighting...
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