Most of the time is spent on just doing what you would normally do. Some of the time is spent on thinking about how things should work, and some of the time is spent on arguing about who is in charge. Some people can do the planning without being in charge. ------ JumpCrisscross Lately I've been feeling that I can't rely on anything not-Apple. It's becoming too difficult to maintain a working relationship with people who, because I am a consumer of Apple's products, now have a relationship with my employer. ~~~ robin_reala Have you tried using Linux? The last time I saw a Mac, I thought, ‘Where’s the power switch?’ ------ roopeshv "This is not a post about Apple!" - is the most interesting part. The article didn't talk about the product (unlike many other posts we have), nor what makes it so successful, nor about how it is made. The entire article just talks about why it is not perfect. Not to say the Apple's product doesn't have flaws (or any other for that matter) but the most important part of the article (and most probably of any other tech article) is all about why its successful and we need to follow the same steps to be successful. The most interesting part (if we go by comments here) is how not to be succesful...like what we have seen in the past few weeks. It's sad to know people are more interested in what's not working than what's working! ~~~ j45 "This is not a post about apple!" is the only insight I could pull from this post. ------ thebluesky I do think there is some merit to the discussion about what the iPad and its predecessors were meant to do and its implications on what the competition was meant to do. ~~~ tayl0r That's a bit ironic since its called a "review" and hardly any of the author's thoughts were formed after watching Steve Jobs speak about the iPad. ------ vbtemp I just read the summary of the book 'The Long Tail'. There's a whole lot of insight and advice about companies that can be drawn from that book. The long tail is the long tail of products that companies can sell to people who want to buy it. If you're a company making a product, your business model does not have to rely on the majority of people who want the product. This doesn't mean for instance that I will never want to buy a Macbook Pro, but there are so many different variations of them, with different hardware, graphics, battery life, OS/programs, etc. that are not good for me, that it's not really worth it to me to take the time to find it, or even to go to anymore Apple stores. It's not really cost-effective for them, nor is it effective for me. I don't think this is what's written about in this article. ~~~ j45 I would love to read it if you find it interesting. ------ Duff I think the author has it pretty much right, and yet, Apple has only made me a loyal customer because they provide me a lot of options. When I first tried out a Mac, I didn't know if it was any good. I was just looking for a PC that didn't drive me nuts. A year later, I purchased a Macbook, then went with a Macbook Pro after two year, and now finally the iPad. This kind of stuff seems to be the norm these days. Every time Apple tries to push some one product for everyone, it fails. It would be very hard to put a single product in my house that "just works". I need options. It's nice to have some one-size fits all, but there are plenty of companies that do that. ------ bretthellman I've bought a PC and then a Mac and then a Macbook Air. I love each computer. I really enjoyed your write-up and agree with you completely on the "it just works" problem. I also think Apple should have spent more time making the Macbook Air and not having so many ports. I understand they are coming out with a Macbook Air with a 13" display but still want the portability of a laptop. Anyways, keep writing, I am really enjoying your writing and this article in particular. ------ michaelpinto I'd argue that there is a problem that Apple is solving in a way that others are now solving. There's the problem of how do you appeal to the mid to lower end market -- if you build a high end product (be it an iPhone or a Macbook) you just alienate your audience. ------ zalew What's 'it just works' to me is how smooth and predictable an operating system (OSX, Android, iOS) and apps (iTunes, Google Music) are, how easy is to get used to, how intuitive it is (yes, it has it's learning curve, but I don't complain about that, it's not an obstacle to work with it). ------ andrewpi The reason Apple products work is that Apple has (mostly) figured out what the consumer wants. In that respect, Apple products are more focused on the customer than those from other vendors. The only consumer that fits into a market is the current consumer. ------ j45 "It just works" can be both a strength and weakness for companies. It's their marketing motto which can be interpreted as 'tied to the current moment' vs Apple's "It just works" motto which is essentially 'not tied to the current moment'. I can't tell you how many Macs I bought just because of this saying that they "just worked" when windows wasn't. ------ vladimir It is much more interesting how Microsoft Windows Vista "just works" \- in fact it is a disaster! You have to read the many hundreds of comments posted here and on other sites in this forum to get a feeling for it. ------ philh > My point is that Apple, rather than going through a revolution to improve > the iPad as a tablet, seems to be going through the same sort of process it > went through a decade ago. Well, the iPad and the iPod touch aren't the same thing. Those are two very different devices with different user interfaces, each of which is better for one of those. What I mean is that the iPad's user interface is an improvement on what the iPad-before-Apple had. That doesn't suggest the iPad is any less revolutionary than the iPod touch, which was an improvement on what the first iPods had. ------ kadavy Why do I want to buy a $2000 product when I just bought a $1500 one that works just fine? There are thousands of products that fit these criteria, just not $2000+ ones. Maybe I'm just not that deep into the new-stuff, and I am just more intrigued by the old-stuff. ------ russoph I think the author nailed it on the head. In many ways I really feel like the blog was just meant to point out how Apple products can easily be made "better". Nothing in the post suggests that Apple is losing it's mojo, just that it's customers want something new. ------ albemuth I'd argue that Apple has made a fundamental mistake with the iPad. The OS X UI has been refined to a level where everything is as smooth as apple can make it (they can't compete with android hardware, but at least they can match android hardware + iOS). The question is, can they expand beyond that, and I think the answer is yes. But, while they can add iOS features to OS X and vice-versa, they can't scale beyond that. Therefore, they will have to innovate in areas where they can't/won't compete with the competition. Microsoft made it's fortune by pushing the PC forward, and Apple now is faced with the decision that it can't replicate that success. I'm not sure this is the right decision for Apple, perhaps by innovating in areas that they can't compete with, they would have been even better positioned for the future. For example, the iPad 2 is so close to the competition, but the iPad3 could have a significantly faster CPU with even more RAM and an amazing display, this will be the future of mobile computing. ------ lusis Ahh I see. And people say apple products are 'just works' ... The iPhone is exactly why I stick with apple. The simplicity of a phone. The fact that you can find a phone