Vertical Integration, oh yeah.
MacDailyNews - Why Apple’s controlling nature is a core asset, not a flaw : "Why Apple’s controlling nature is a core asset, not a flaw
Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 06:17 PM EDT
'Apple has been the subject of some bashing lately, I’ve noticed, which is not surprising in light of the company’s popularity and consistent output of beautiful products that work,' Dan Ramsden writes for Seeking Alpha.
'With 1 million iPad units sold in one month, what’s not to criticize? Maybe some of the bashing is warranted, I don’t know, but much of it seems off,' Ramsden writes. 'The anti-trust investigation, for example, can’t be right. Although common sense and law don’t necessarily overlap, the idea that a company which is not even close to a monopoly should be regulated as if it were a market, an industry of its own, is sort of disturbing – even by the standards of law that may defy reason. The app store being a store like any other, a private enterprise, I can’t believe that the way its owner determines to stock the shelves is a regulatory issue, and I can only assume that this campaign, whoever is behind it, will end of its own lack of substance.'
Ramsden writes, 'The more annoying criticism, however – annoying to me at least because it is like a chorus from the rafters that keeps spreading – is that Apple’s downfall will stem from its refusal to embrace openness... In an environment in which the force of progress is based on perfection, evolution, and smoothing of edges, as opposed to, say, replacing the typewriter and calculator with a computer in every home, the trait that may have been negative thirty years ago could be a valuable asset now. Control, attention to detail, a closed architecture based on superior design and quality manufacture, are good things when the object is not a new technology as much as a superior alternative.'
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple was right all along. Vertical integration is superior to horizontal. Look no further that Microsoft and Google trying and failing, with Zune and Nexus One respectively, for proof. Those who complain the loudest that Apple is 'closed' are the very ones trying the hardest to emulate Apple. The Apple wannabes are really complaining that they can't come remotely close to Apple's level of vertical integration.
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