I think what separates Apple and Amazon from the rest of the pack is their simple but relentless pursuit of their values, and the extent to which they appeal to us customers. It's easy to understand their respective philosophies - Apple in terms of product design and quality, and Amazon in terms of prices and shopping experience. Both are now crossing into each others' territory - Apple with the future iPad mini and Tim Cook's operations knowhow, and Amazon with designing higher quality products. But both approaches are easily understandable by customers and appeal to their own values - innovatively, doggedly competing either on quality or price or both.
On the other hand, I don't think it's hard to see that most other manufacturers' philosophies go along the lines of "Let's make everything we can think of and see what sticks." Microsoft, for one, is only starting to turn around from its philosophy of "We want to be everywhere in your life" to focus on customer experience. These approaches are business-centric, and don't present anything that the consumer can trust or grab onto, especially when you think about the various music stores and other half-hearted approaches at retaining consumers who buy their products.
Intrinsically, I think customers understand the lack of focus - that these manufacturers are fundamentally focused on gaining a share of the pie rather than making customers really happy with what they just bought. With Apple, it's "Look at all these neat things I can do with all these apps"; with Amazon, it's "Look at all the stuff I can buy and read/listen to/watch." Other companies are only recently coming on board, and as long as they're not focused on giving the customer something to do with their products, they're going to miss out.
Comments
I think what separates Apple and Amazon from the rest of the pack is their simple but relentless pursuit of their values, and the extent to which they appeal to us customers. It's easy to understand their respective philosophies - Apple in terms of product design and quality, and Amazon in terms of prices and shopping experience. Both are now crossing into each others' territory - Apple with the future iPad mini and Tim Cook's operations knowhow, and Amazon with designing higher quality products. But both approaches are easily understandable by customers and appeal to their own values - innovatively, doggedly competing either on quality or price or both.
On the other hand, I don't think it's hard to see that most other manufacturers' philosophies go along the lines of "Let's make everything we can think of and see what sticks." Microsoft, for one, is only starting to turn around from its philosophy of "We want to be everywhere in your life" to focus on customer experience. These approaches are business-centric, and don't present anything that the consumer can trust or grab onto, especially when you think about the various music stores and other half-hearted approaches at retaining consumers who buy their products.
Intrinsically, I think customers understand the lack of focus - that these manufacturers are fundamentally focused on gaining a share of the pie rather than making customers really happy with what they just bought. With Apple, it's "Look at all these neat things I can do with all these apps"; with Amazon, it's "Look at all the stuff I can buy and read/listen to/watch." Other companies are only recently coming on board, and as long as they're not focused on giving the customer something to do with their products, they're going to miss out.