Comment by Nevermark
3 days ago
Don’t underestimate how much of their success is due to unusual internal advantages over competitors.
They spent decades learning to eliminate a 1000 headaches for themselves, and many for their customers, by accumulating vertical integration:
The co-design of their own comms, processors, devices and OS variants. Their own integrated supply chain and sales channels.
The better the results, the more invisible or clock-like their delivery.
Very easy to overlook. But nobody can match them on their terms.
(Nintendo also applied a unique set of internal advantages to generations of successful devices: vertically integrating humble components, highly scoped software, a strong theory of fun, and deep branding with novel polished interfaces.)
This post could be taught in business school. Kudos.
Apple is the only company that actually listened to Alan Kay when he said if you care about software, build hardware.