Comments on: Steve Jobs: Fast Second?

By: Jim Kerr

Jim Kerr — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:32:13 +0000

I agree with the essence of your post, but I take issue with your take on the iPod taking the innovation of existing MP3 players and becoming the "fast second." The real reason the iPod became dominant was that the iTunes Music Store was far and away the "fast first" of purchasing digital music.

While Pressplay and other services were scrambling to create a full digital storefront and THEN, on top of that, figuring out a way to deliver an easy way to hook up with devices, Apple was way ahead.

So, yes, the iPod itself may have been second, but the total digital purchase and download to device process was all Apple, and it gave them a huge lead.

By: Nortius Maximus

Nortius Maximus — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 02:00:19 +0000

Each revision of their products makes the last revision look like last year’s bad fashion.

Sony are past masters at that game. Obviously Jobs has done his homework as a "second" (albeit not incredibly fast) in the tech-as-fashion paradigm.

By: Kiosk.net

Kiosk.net — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 20:36:00 +0000

Apple: taking a bite out of video market

I’ve said some positive things about the Apple iPod Video, and I’ve said some negative things about the Apple iPod Video.  At its best, it may revolutionize the video market.  At its worse, it’ll be another mp3 player with a fancy, b...

By: Alison Chaiken

Alison Chaiken — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 03:43:47 +0000

The classic example of Apple as a Fast Second is their famous user interface, which they borrowed from the Xerox Alto back in the 1980's.

Reference: Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander

By: eric prebys

eric prebys — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 14:17:36 +0000

Hello! Apple? Offer this guy a million dollars and hire him already. His analysis on your products and company direction have been consistently interesting and insightful.

(full disclosure: i have been reputed to consider Nivi a friend and i highly doubt he is actually looking for a job with Apple)

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:32:18 +0000

I don't think the iPod was the fast second to the MP3 player market. Or the fast third, or fast fourth. The market was well-saturated when Apple entered. It was the kind of thing you got for Christmas and stuffed in a drawer.

I think a better analogy is the video game industry in the early 1980s. It was ridiculously saturated - even Quaker Oats was in it. Nintendo was able to use a fire cone pine market strategy. They waited for everything to come down crashing and burning, and then successfully launched NES at the moment when everyone thought they'd have to be crazy to enter the market.

Some would cry that this approach is not innovative, but I'm not so sure. You have to pay very close attention to every other product out there on the market, and you have to have a strong vision of a customer need that isn't being met.

By: assaf

assaf — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:09:05 +0000

In spite of being an early WinAmp and Rio user, it took an iPod and iTMS to get me to carry an MP3 player around and throw away my CDs.

That's innovation. (and I'm not just talking Apple, there are other vendors that do the same)

It's not technology innovation, but that's ok. Technology doesn't necessarily make my life better. It's product innovation. It assumes (correctly) that I want to be lazy, I want to show off, I enjoy aesthetics. All the things that the iPod does well.