‘The Limits of Innovation’

A long-time DF reader put forth this January 2004 Fast Company feature by Carleen Hawn as the best (i.e. worst) Apple claim chowder of all time. I wouldn’t go that far (the top of my all-time claim chowder list is mostly filled with 2007 iPhone doubter pieces), but this one does deserve consideration. It’s not comically bad, but rather a profound misunderstanding of where Apple stood a decade ago. A taste:

“Companies that rely too heavily on creativity flame out,” [Howard] Anderson says. “In many ways, execution is more important. Apple is innovative, but Dell executes.”

And:

Without the iPod, Apple is in trouble. That’s why recent releases of competing portable music players take on great significance. Selling for as little as $299, the Dell DJ is about $100 cheaper than the iPod with the same 5,000 song capacity. (A $500 iPod holds 10,000 songs). A third product, a 20-GB unit made by Samsung to work with Napster 2.0, costs $100 less than the 20-GB iPod, or about $300, and boasts a lot more features, including a built-in FM transmitter — to play songs on a car radio — and a voice recorder.

Monday, 9 September 2013