I find it hilarious that this question can even be asked in regard to Apple.
Apple benefits enormously from the public perception of "the Apple brand", and that translates directly into massive profits for Apple's bottom line. If the public became more Apple skeptical it would put a dent in their business to the tune of billions. Look at Microsoft and the difficulties they are still having due to being saddled as an uncool company.
Edit: People are still proud to show their support for Apple. How would that change if people changed their perception of Apple? Apple is one of the largest and most profitable companies in the history of Earth. And they are guilty of no small number of abuses and crimes, against their workers, against their competitors, against their users. How would Apple's business fare if people began perceiving Apple in the same way they perceived Exxon?
I find it hard to believe that people will go to a grocery store and expect to find brushed-metal fruit with a shiny touchscreen. These are wildly different industries.
Nope. A barrel of oil from Exxon is undistinguishable from any other barrel of oil traded at the exchanges. This is not the case with say, Thinkpads vs Macbooks.
Quote wikipedia: "A commodity has full or partial fungibility; that is, the market treats it as equivalent or nearly so no matter who produces it." So nope, definitely not (yet) the case with computers.
I am hopeful that openstack will give me a large range of
providers I can use with the same Apis - and that
my app design will be sufficient that even the remaining
non fungible parts of a hosted computer (OS, connectivity, size of data stored) will be mitigated
I am not sure if it's a good or a bad thing but pretty soon every computer other than the ones I carry will be commodities
Comments
I find it hilarious that this question can even be asked in regard to Apple.
Apple benefits enormously from the public perception of "the Apple brand", and that translates directly into massive profits for Apple's bottom line. If the public became more Apple skeptical it would put a dent in their business to the tune of billions. Look at Microsoft and the difficulties they are still having due to being saddled as an uncool company.
Edit: People are still proud to show their support for Apple. How would that change if people changed their perception of Apple? Apple is one of the largest and most profitable companies in the history of Earth. And they are guilty of no small number of abuses and crimes, against their workers, against their competitors, against their users. How would Apple's business fare if people began perceiving Apple in the same way they perceived Exxon?
I find it hard to believe that people will go to a grocery store and expect to find brushed-metal fruit with a shiny touchscreen. These are wildly different industries.
Then again, being Exxon hasn't harmed Exxon's bottomline. Granted, consumer goods might be a whole different ballgame.
Exxon's marketplace is largely commoditized, which is part of the reason they act how they do, Apple's marketplace could not be more different.
In particular, oil is a fungible commodity. Fungibility is the key factor here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility
Personal computers aren't a commodity?
Nope. A barrel of oil from Exxon is undistinguishable from any other barrel of oil traded at the exchanges. This is not the case with say, Thinkpads vs Macbooks.
Quote wikipedia: "A commodity has full or partial fungibility; that is, the market treats it as equivalent or nearly so no matter who produces it." So nope, definitely not (yet) the case with computers.
Yet oddly for more the case with "the cloud"
I am hopeful that openstack will give me a large range of providers I can use with the same Apis - and that my app design will be sufficient that even the remaining non fungible parts of a hosted computer (OS, connectivity, size of data stored) will be mitigated
I am not sure if it's a good or a bad thing but pretty soon every computer other than the ones I carry will be commodities