‘The Critical Juncture’

Re: the previous item, on expanding the iPad market with the $399 iPad 2, recall this analysis from Steve Jobs, in a 2004 Newsweek interview with Steven Levy:

If that’s so, then why is the Mac market share, even after Apple’s recent revival, sputtering at a measly 5 percent? Jobs has a theory about that, too. Once a company devises a great product, he says, it has a monopoly in that realm, and concentrates less on innovation than protecting its turf. “The Mac user interface was a 10-year monopoly,” says Jobs. “Who ended up running the company? Sales guys. At the critical juncture in the late ’80s, when they should have gone for market share, they went for profits. They made obscene profits for several years. And their products became mediocre. And then their monopoly ended with Windows 95. They behaved like a monopoly, and it came back to bite them, which always happens.”

Apple seems to be having it both ways with the iPad, but I suspect they’d prefer to err on the side of maximizing market share than maximizing profits.

I’m trying to keep this in mind as I ponder the idea of a $249 7.8-inch iPad.

★ Wednesday, 25 April 2012