Apple Computer's brilliance

I have to say I am watching Apple Computer execute and am impressed. What they are doing with their product design and creating new markets and new business models is simply brilliant. I have conclude that what Apple is good at doing is finding something at the tipping point and pushing it over the edge into mass acceptance. This involves them having to anticipate technology impacts, as well as sometimes simply repackaging something that already exists in another form and then monetizing it.

Take podcasting as an example. Podcasting could have been done practically for a number of years using the internet as a delivery backbone. Quite simply, it is audio recordings distributed over the internet. Can you imagine someone 2 years ago seeing a Silicon Valley VC and saying that he has this fantastic new business idea - allow people to distribute their own recordings on the internet! I can only imagine the reaction. Now, along comes Apple and creates an ecosystem that does the very same thing - take a a solid hardware device ( the ipod - the new "Walkman" ), add some software (iTunes) to distribute the files and a very simple idea leads to a new information distribution platform that could threaten some traditional media outlets over time. But at its core, this is not different from a technology perspective than what audible.com or Napster could have done years back. Distributing audio files is basic stuff indeed. Aha - but Apple saw that this "almost there" solution needed a push and a user-friendly platform. Name it "podcasting" and away you go with a new phenomenon. Apple literally surfed the wave that was already building off the technology shoreline.

Am I criticising Apple for repackaging old concepts or for not being original ? Quite the contrary. Apple and its team seem to have an uncanny sense of when something is ready for prime time and they know how to evole it, and then execute it to be warmly recieved by the end-users.

That, my friends, is one heck of talent. And I would bet it has far less to do with focus groups and market studies, and far more to do with wisdom and good instincts at the top. A "job" well done indeed.