Wall Street Journal: How Apple Foot-Dragged to Victory
Steve Jobs's formula for success: Don't Rush.
…Let's try out a hypothesis: Mr. Jobs's slowness is the key to Apple's success. His focus on the device, his emphasis on perfecting the user experience, meant holding back, not overreaching. The iPod would only be a music player. The iPhone and iPad would be Web-browsing devices that wouldn't play most of the video on the Web. Apple TV remains "a hobby" (his words) because there's no way yet to deliver an acceptable user experience. And notice that each of these device categories had been around for five or 10 years by the time Apple entered (clobbered) them.
Mr. Jobs has been the great withholder. If Apple were looking to encapsulate his wisdom in two words, it could do worse than "speed kills." It kills user experience by trying to deliver more than can be delivered beautifully.
Of course, this fundamental strategy orientation might now change. Apple has allowed itself to be drawn into a battle for mobile-platform market share with Google's Android. Apple's management is increasingly focused on growing an ecosystem rather than on creating devices. The Microsofting of Apple may be at hand, the company becoming a feckless and inefficient user of capital as it seeks to protect itself on every front from every perceived threat to its privileged position. Before long, Apple might even need a Steve Jobs to come back and save it again.
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