Linked List: October 29, 2012

Monday, 29 October 2012

‘Forstall Forgot He Was Steve’s Guy, Not Steve Jobs.’ 

Om Malik nails it.

Whither Phil Schiller? 

From MG Siegler’s comments on the Forstall sacking:

No mention of Phil Schiller. No need. He’s clearly number two in the food chain, I believe.

I had the same thought. Tim Cook gets hit by a bus, I think Schiller takes the throne. It’s almost telling that he’s completely unmentioned in today’s announcement, and it’s definitely telling that Cook and Schiller were the only people to appear on stage last week. It’s been reported for a while that Forstall and Jony Ive were not getting along, but I’ve long heard stories that Schiller and Forstall butted heads on numerous occasions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say again: “marketing” at Apple isn’t what most people think of as marketing. At Apple, the product is the marketing. There are slogans and taglines and styles and songs to choose, but the heart of all Apple marketing are the products themselves.

Out Come the Knives 

Nick Wingfield and Bilton, reporting for the NYT:

While tensions between Mr. Forstall and other executives had been mounting for some time, a recent incident appeared to play a major role in his dismissal. After an outcry among iPhone customers about bugs in the company’s new mobile maps service, Mr. Forstall refused to sign a public apology over the matter, dismissing the problems as exaggerated, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be named discussing confidential matters.

Instead, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in September signed the apology letter to Apple customers over maps.

Echoed by Adam Lashinsky at Fortune: “I also heard that Forstall refused to sign the letter apologizing for the mapping fiasco, sealing his fate at Apple.”

Wingfield and Bilton continue:

Mr. Forstall, who trained as an actor at a young age, also shared with Mr. Jobs a commanding stage presence at events introducing Apple products, often delivering his speeches with a pensive style that echoed that of Mr. Jobs.

Really?

According to two people who have worked with Apple to develop new third-party products for the iPhone, the relationship between Mr. Forstall and Mr. Ive had soured to a point that the two executives would not sit in the same meeting room together.

If that’s true, I’m surprised Forstall lasted this long.

Saying More With Fewer Words 

Derek Thompson, The Atlantic:

America’s most successful large company is also the most laconic. The average Apple earnings release clocks in at 250 words, less than a fifth the length of the average statement from one of the ten largest U.S. corporations, according to Bloomberg.

It might seem like a frivolous factoid, but it reflects a larger point: Perhaps Apple’s can afford to be brief because it derives its revenue from a such a small list of products. The iPhone and iPad account for more than 75% of the company’s revenue. The same cannot be said of Walmart, which sells thousands of products, or GE, which is dozens of divisions and hundreds of products under the hood of a single corporation.

Or perhaps Apple is successful because it is focused, and that focus is reflected in its communications.

iMore: Copy Editing Amazon’s Kindle Fire vs. iPad Mini Ad 

Of course there’s lots to quibble about regarding Amazon’s Kindle Fire/iPad Mini comparison. That’s advertising. But the bottom line is that this sort of thing was inevitable with the iPad Mini’s $329 starting price. That’s not to say the iPad Mini’s price is too high, but simply that it’s not competing on price. Amazon, as ever, is.

More on That Amazon Homepage Comparison Between iPad Mini and Kindle Fire 

Daniel Jalkut:

Since when does Amazon target the anti-Apple market? The companies compete in a growing number of areas including digital music, movies, and eBooks. But Amazon has thrived with this competition largely because it targets the same market that Apple does, while doing some things better than Apple. From the early days when my colleagues were tearing open shipping boxes at Infinite Loop, to the present time when many Mac and iPhone aficionados cling tenaciously to their authentic Amazon Kindles, the pro-Apple market is the pro-Amazon market. Why would a company that has historically aimed so high change its focus to the lower end?

After thinking about it overnight, I think my snap assessment yesterday was a bit off. As Matt Drance points out on Twitter, it’s not a generic anti-Apple message, but rather a very specific one: that Apple’s products are overpriced. That’s a message that resonates with many people by default, let alone when faced with a comparison like this one. Amazon isn’t painting the iPad Mini as a bad product, but rather as a bad deal.

Amazon Attacks iPad Mini on Homepage With Quote From Gizmodo 

You can’t say Amazon is shying from the fight. (Me, I say calling out a competitor like this is playing Pepsi to Apple’s Coke — shooting for second place. But I’m sure some people will love it; they’re going for the anti-Apple market.)