CES 2012: Apple's Greg Joswiak 'Scouting the Competition'

[Digital Skunk]

Apple should really get credit for keeping prices down on "these kinds of laptops."
Have you seen Ultrabook prices lately?

They are cheaper than the MBA at comparable specs. Most are under $1000 for a 13" display, 128GB SSD, SD slot, etc. etc.

Now, I haven't seen a better looking 11" notebook to date since the 11" MBA . . . .Apple's netbook.

By being at CES I don't believe Joswiak is "keeping up" with what the competition is doing. To do that all he has to do is read engadget.com or CNet.

He's there checking out the response from the attendees.

I believe he's there to check on the comp. Apple wouldn't want to be caught sitting on it's hands at a time like this.

Apple competed with notebooks, not directly but with the iPad and the MacBook Air. They were introduced; netbook sales plummeted. Without Apple's product introductions netbook sales likely would have continued on their upward trajectory. Again, the fact that nobody else wanted to compete with notebooks and that some models were great performers is testimony to how remarkable Apple's achievement was. Once again, I'm not sure what your point is. So far you've only reinforced the case in favor of Apple.

Actually netbook sales were on their way down long before the iPad or cheap Macbook Air was introduced. What drove the sales down was the shrinking prices of normal, 13" well designed laptops.

I never said that Apple is "the only innovator;" nobody ever says that. In response to a challenge I pointed out four areas in which Apple has innovated. To conflate that into "blindly worshipping them as the only innovators" is poor rhetoric, transparently false and an insult.

Well, sadly, you may not be saying it but there are plenty of loud, fast typing people that DO say it and it gets old fast. What gets even older even faster is the down ranking, but that's another story.

You are correct in saying that Apple innovates . . . they do, and it's why I may never leave the brand, but one things I will never turn a blind eye to is how other companies are actually providing useful competition, which if not looked upon as such, makes the viewer a blind worshiper.

Oh please if others had successful thin and light laptops before MBA then why is Intel and all these other companies spending so much time creating ultrabooks which are universally referred to as an attempt to compete with the MBA. Who had a laptop like the MBA that was popular and sold in volume and was $1K or less?

When it was first introduced the Macbook Air was priced at the same price other thin and light laptops were. . . . around $2500. And just like those thin and lights they didn't sell but to those that had the cash. And even then, the MBA didn't compete very well compared to the comp, that kept the optical drive, two or more USB ports, full sized VGA, etc. and still managed to produce a machine lighter than the MBA.

....

I've been down this road before. Listening on MacRumors is such a thing of the past.

 

[Half Glass]

It's CES...TV...anyone?

Probably scouting to get ideas for what the Apple booth will be like in 2013 when the iOS driven Apple branded TV is on the market.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Good to learn a bit or 2 from competitors.

It won't be normal if he wasn't there, we do competitor survey in our company on weekly basis too.

Innovators need to do lots of research.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Probably scouting to get ideas for what the Apple booth will be like in 2013 when the iOS driven Apple branded TV is on the market.

Good point. Apple doesn't just want to stick with phones for the rest of it's life.

 

[D-Dave]

Josiak, the perfect mix of Steve and Woz

Every time i read the name Josiak something in my guts tells me Steve and Woz cloned him in their garage from both their dna and just mixed up the last name to make it less obvious

 

[zoetmb]

To expand on what you were saying ... ultra-thin / thin-and-light laptops with CULV processors already existed before the Macbook Air's (see Asus). All Apple should really get credit for is making SSD's standard for these kinds of laptops.

And they were all failures. Why is that? It's because there's more than size in the equation.

Likewise, there were phones that accessed the web and played MP3 files before the iPhone. Why did Apple have such a success? Because there's far more than implementation of a list of functions to make a successful device.

The vendors who release products that have the "same feel' as Apple's are doing themselves a disservice becasue all it does is point to Apple as being the leader. And lately, at least insofar as most phones and Pads are concerned, they can't even beat Apple's price.

But I don't care...the more the competitors accomplish in copying Apple, the more Apple will push faster on the next generation of devices.

 

[Peace]

I know this sounds counter to what Apple and Microsoft have said about trade shows but the update that 250 Apple employees are there makes me wonder if Apple is thinking about replacing Microsoft as the keynote speakers next year.

After all. Apple might be a Television vendor next year.



just a rambling thought mind you.

 

[kkent25]

Love Apple, but their corporate head shot photography always sucks! Greg Joswiak looks stoned in that photo.