Jobs Biographer Walter Isaacson: 'Execution is What Really Matters,' Apple is the Best

[dansix]

"Best at execution"

Apple has poorly executed word processing on the Mac. It hasn't even executed the basics right so who cares if Apple comes out with great new products if the software is still mediocre. All the resources in the world, and Apple can't even beat out Microsoft Office in that arena yet... and it's been how long?

I know I'll get a ton of comments on how Apple has Pages or Office, but for power users (not basic users), Office on a Windows machine is still the most sophisticated and efficient.

 

[Fanaticalism]

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[Chupa Chupa]

What do you know of Apple's internal business? Have you ever even been to an Apple office, let alone their HQ in Cupertino? Do you know what is going on behind the scenes?

Because if you don't, then how do you know that Apple's recent success is not directly attributable to Tim Cook's stewardship?

Even Steve Jobs can't measure up to "Steve Jobs". Steve Jobs was floundering with NeXT before being reunited with Apple. Then sprinkled with the revolutionary products released under SJ's second stint as CEO, there were:

- iphone 4 and antenna gate.
- mobileme
- ipod hifi
- hockey puck mouse

That's just off the top off my head. And let's not forget that during the initial releases of iphone and ipad, there were availability issues as well - even though SJ was in charge.

So yeah, if you consider a CEO leading his company to record revenues and profits (two years after its founder and visionary died) as failing and a disappointment, then you are indeed confused.

Calm down cowboy & read my post before you shoot your arrows. My point about Cooks failure at execution have nothing to do with product development. In fact I didn't fault Cook on that point at all. If you had read my posts carefully you'd have understood that.

My point about Cooks failures are ones he himself had admitted to, which is why I'm puzzled by your attacks. Also of the things you noted about Jobs, none of those had any material negative effect on Apples earnings. Cook admitted poor planning led to leaving 5S sales being less than Apple, not 3rd party analyst, expected.

 

[Daalseth]

Execution is what really matters. Apple is the best at execution.

You're all missing the subtle hint. The key word is Execution.
In February Apple will release The iLectric Chair.

 

[bushman4]

While walter Issacson was chosen by Steve Jobs for his autobiography why do people think Issacsons opinion is so important. We've seen him in a role of an author but to assume his knowledge gives him analytical superiority is a mistake. He makes a good point but lets see how it all plays out.

 

[Ramchi]

Disruptive not sure!

Last time Apple launched a distributive product was close to 4-5 years back with iPad. Looks like both iPhone and iPad are evolving lot like Nokia or Sony product lines. Apple no doubt makes great product but nothing disruptive of late, more catching up !!

 

[MattInOz]

Yesterday, Isaacson did an interview with Bloomberg TV, where he clarified his original statement and noted that while he believes Google is the more innovative company, with a clearer integrated strategy, Apple is better than Google at bringing products to fruition.

Wait so he's saying it doesn't have to work to be "Innovation" just new?

 

[jkichline]

They are innovating. You just don't know what innovation is.

Wow.
To read these threads, Apple products are behind (smaller screens, no expandable storage, no configurability), Apple doesn't innovate anymore.

I don't think you understand innovation. In the eyes of the designer and the architect, you strip away everything that isn't necessary and focus on solving the problem at hand. For Apple (and for many users including me), the screen size on the iPhone is perfect. I don't want it larger. I know there are some with big monkey hands that want 6" screens. Great, get Android then.

The iPhone and iPad were designed to not have external storage. Why? Because Apple envisions a future where users won't need to manually manage their files. The operating system would do it for them. Take a look at the idea of iCloud. Flatten the file system and present it in one shot. No folders, just an attribute-based file system. That's innovation, but that's also a big change.

Remember that innovation is not equal to invention either. Many people harp on Apple for not being "first"... but what they do is innovate (iterate on the ease of use and application) of particular inventions.

Apple is notorious for removing things they feel are old technology and taking the ax to those things that make technology harder to use. Floppy drives, optical drives, command lines... but they focus on the few things they feel matter the most to users. Yes they don't sell much with user-replaceable batteries, but their battery tech makes much longer lasting batteries in lighter machines that last a much longer time. It's a good trade off. Engineering is all about trade-offs.

They are also the company that gets some technologies to become common place by making it popular. Examples: UI, the mouse, the trackpad, floppy discs, optical drives, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, high-res mobile displays, multi-touch. Note: they did not invent any of them... but they made them popular through applicable ease of use.

Apple's stance on configurability is again rooted in ease-of-use and focusing configurability into apps. My son could operate an iPad at 1 year old. My grandmother can use one too. I've been a systems architect for 15+ years and I still cringe when I have to use Android. It's not polished and has a poor UI/UX. Sure there are some who don't like the lack of configurability, but it also makes customer service a lot easier and learning the device easier as well.

So maybe Apple products are not for you, but it's probably for the 90% other users who appreciate this refinement. Remember, Apple's DNA is to create technology for everyone, not just tech geeks.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Apple has poorly executed word processing on the Mac. It hasn't even executed the basics right so who cares if Apple comes out with great new products if the software is still mediocre. All the resources in the world, and Apple can't even beat out Microsoft Office in that arena yet... and it's been how long?

I know I'll get a ton of comments on how Apple has Pages or Office, but for power users (not basic users), Office on a Windows machine is still the most sophisticated and efficient.

Google has never released a product without the guise of Beta.

 

[fertilized-egg]

We've seen him in a role of an author but to assume his knowledge gives him analytical superiority is a mistake. He makes a good point but lets see how it all plays out.

I'm not even sure it's a good point. It's a hackneyed argument discussed to death and Isaacson hasn't said anything even remotely insightful, which isn't surprising because despite all his accomplishments as an author, I saw nothing that indicated he knew much about the tech business, either as business or as technology.

Not only Isaacson didn't/doesn't understand the business or the technology but that his lack of knowledge made him focus on superficial human stories. This would've been fine for a regular biography but for a book with an author who was given such a rare opportunity of inside access, it is just so disappointing too see a mediocre outcome of a ho-hum middlebrow biography with glaring lack of incisive analysis.

For instance Isaacson omitted almost anything if significance related to NeXT. Reading the book, it was painfully obvious Isaacson just didn't understand why NeXT was important, even just as a human interest story, and the role it must've played for Jobs as a business experience, not to mention the role of NeXT as the technology cornerstone and an HR incubator for Apple. That meant we missed out some of most interesting and less discussed part of Jobs' life even though the author could've easily researched it because he just didn't get it.

 

[kuwxman]

With regards to Google and innovation, I can't help but think of the Princess Bride.

With the exception of how to mine data (and they excel at that, and I am not judging them for it), what have they really innovated on? What forward thinking advancement have they really made? On their own, even?

I hope you're just trolling.

 

[imacalot]

I agree with the innovation part. Samsung can try to be the first to innovate but their features are all marketing gimmicks created for hype and not function. Sadly Samsung is gaining a lot of steam like windows(back in the day), and I think Apple will come out losing the majority. A lot of people I know have switched to the S4 or Note 3. Apple has a pretty solid foundation in this fight though. And they're known to blindside there competitors, so I hope they do come out with something amazing.

And what did they expect with not corning the lowend market with the 5C. It was only a hundred bucks cheaper....that's not cheap at all. Anyone in their right minds would rather pay the extra hundred. "fingerprint sensor" is the big seller in the 5S.

 

[Urban Joe]

the 5c / 5s thing shows that Apple is fallible. Their CEO is always testing the upper limits on pricing and the 5c was WAY overpriced next to the 5s. My problem wasn't the plastic shell but the innards. I actually like the polycarb shells better than the metal.

I think it was a good reality check. Just because people at Apple think of something doesn't mean that the laws of reality will bend to their wishes.

I read (on here) several very elegant "treatises" on how genius Apple was at pricing / marketing etc. This shows they are not perfect.

I agree with Isaacson, Apple should stick to high end products because that is their world...I would argue that Apple employee's and certainly the corporate officers are unable to relate to people who don't have money coming out of their A**.

 

[Sepp2008]

Lack of demand for 5c

I had thought that the choice of unusual colors for the 5c was done to push the 5s (and margins). If the 5c was sold also in black (or other colors more apt to a business environment) sales would increase enormously

 

[Macist]

You clearly don't work in IT. The A7 processor is an amazing piece of hardware and TouchId is the first mobile fingerprint solution that actually works and adds to the experience. No one else was able to compete in that space and we still haven't seen a competitor release a comparable fingerprint security mechanism. Add in the improvements Apple has made to their camera sensor tech and the 5s is an impressive upgrade. I'm not sure what else you'd be expecting...

Absolutely. The iPad Air is blazing fast with the A7 processor for surfing the web without entering a lot of text is by far my favourite way to enjoy the web. More elaborate recording and drawing apps are also a pleasure. But it's much lighter than a laptop and has all-day battery life. The in-heand feel also reeks of quality.

So when I pick up even the better Android tablets everything just screams 'lesser product'.

 

[Winni]

With regards to Google and innovation, I can't help but think of the Princess Bride.

With the exception of how to mine data (and they excel at that, and I am not judging them for it), what have they really innovated on? What forward thinking advancement have they really made? On their own, even?

Apple builds gadgets with a built-in content store. While that was innovative several years ago, it's no longer exciting or ground-breaking today. What innovations did Apple come up with after the iPad? I'm not asking about minor evolutionary developments, I'm asking for INNOVATIONS. Since the iPad, they're just curating their existing product portfolio. It's a cash cow, I give them that, but they did not come out with anything breathtaking, or as they love to say "awesome, magical, revolutionary". It's all just more of the same. I also don't care about rumors - other companies show at least prototypes of what they're working on, but nobody knows if Apple is really working on any of these rumored things like an iWatch or an iTV (which would both just be additional front-ends to their content store and nothing that would be ground breaking).

Google is working HEAVILY in the fields of robotics, home monitoring and home automation, self-driving cars (which alone is a much larger research project than everything combined that Apple is doing), wearables (Google Glass, anyone?) and a lot of behind-the-scenes/cloud-based software and services that you use every day without even knowing it. Google is one of the fistful of companies that define what today's World Wide Web actually is.

They never bought Motorola because they were interested in building their own hardware, and they gave up on Motorola for a simple, directly related reason: It's much smarter for them to just ship software instead of hardware. They kept the entire patent portfolio that Motorola owns, they're just selling the lossy hardware branch. Since the Motorola acquisition, they own a lot of IP that they can use to defend Android against anybody who wants to challenge them. Motorola never was about an own product line, it always was only about the IP.

Android relates to smartphones as Windows did to PCs and notebooks: It's a standard software that anybody can license and use and ship it with their own hardware. Google is much better off without manufacturing own hardware, because so they are no direct competition to their hardware partners and can be sure that everybody uses their platform. The Nexus series is just a reference platform for software developers - and none of the Nexus models were ever manufactured by Google's own hardware company Motorola. (The Nexus 7 is produced by Asus, for example.)

Google offers a wide range of products that everybody on this planet can use, regardless of the individual income, regardless of wether you're an individual living in a third world country or an American corporation. Apple builds expensive consumer gadgets for first world citizens who enjoy spending top bucks on electronic status symbols and pretend that renting movies from the iTunes store is the bleeding edge of technical innovation.

 

[I like bananas]

I guess it shouldn't the unexpected on an website about Apple products, but the amount fanboys here is incredible!

If you can't think of what 64 bit and Touch ID might mean for the future, then you're not very forward thinking.

Apple didn't invent 64 bit processors, and they didn't invent fingerprint scanners. They just brought them to the mass market in mobile devices, which goes with what Isaacson said.

…

People seem to be under the misconception that every technology that Apple uses in their products, they invented themselves.

Edit: Apparently a lot of people here donut understand what the word "innovation" means either. The definition of innovation is not forward-thinking, it's not execution, it is to introduce something new.

 

[Rogifan]

I guess it shouldn't the unexpected on an website about Apple products, but the amount fanboys here is incredible!



Apple didn't invent 64 bit processors, and they didn't invent fingerprint scanners. They just brought them to the mass market in mobile devices, which goes with what Isaacson said.

…

People seem to be under the misconception that every technology that Apple uses in their products, they invented themselves.

Edit: Apparently a lot of people here donut understand what the word "innovation" means either. The definition of innovation is not forward-thinking, it's not execution, it is to introduce something new.

I never said Apple invented either of those things. Innovation is not the same thing as invention. 64-bit processors in mobile devices is new. If Apple is able to integrate touch id into some sort of mobile payments system that will be new.

 

[brdeveloper]

During the interview, Isaacson also commented on the iPhone 5c and Apple's ability to make lower cost products, noting that he believes Apple’s unwavering focus on quality will not allow it to produce subpar products to compete in the low end device market.

You're kidding. Talk something about "whiter-whites and blacker-blacks" on Retina Macbooks while actually we're getting "yellower-whites and yellower-blacks, image retention and backlight bleeding".

 

[kalsta]

Why is the 5c constantly referred to as a cheap phone at $550 off contract vs the "premium" 5s at $650 off contract. Anything over $400 unlocked is not considered cheap to anyone I have talked to. If the push from the carriers is to unsubsidized cell plans I don't get the pricing on the 5c.

An iPad mini retina 16gb cellular is $529 unsubsidized. Why does an iPhone 5c 16gb cost more than this retina iPad?

They're both overpriced. Try telling that to all the share-holding fanboys on these forums though. Apple is caught in the trap of maximising short-term profits (which appeases shareholders) over a sustainable long term strategy. I'm probably in the minority on these forums, but not alone:

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-ipad-sales-2013-10

I agree with the innovation part. Samsung can try to be the first to innovate but their features are all marketing gimmicks created for hype and not function. Sadly Samsung is gaining a lot of steam like windows(back in the day), and I think Apple will come out losing the majority. A lot of people I know have switched to the S4 or Note 3. Apple has a pretty solid foundation in this fight though. And they're known to blindside there competitors, so I hope they do come out with something amazing.

Apple's extraordinary growth has been thanks to an uncanny ability to dominate emerging markets like no one else. The question is, how long can they keep that up? The path Samsung and others have chosen—flood the market with similar but cheaper products—is so much simpler. LESS innovative I would say, and certainly less risky.

Edit: Apparently a lot of people here donut understand what the word "innovation" means either. The definition of innovation is not forward-thinking, it's not execution, it is to introduce something new.

Show me a product that's truly 'new', that doesn't build on existing products and ideas.

… Apple builds expensive consumer gadgets for first world citizens who enjoy spending top bucks on electronic status symbols and pretend that renting movies from the iTunes store is the bleeding edge of technical innovation.

I agree with a lot of what you wrote (and upvoted your comment), but why spoil a good post with such a dig at Apple customers? I buy Apple products because I have long appreciated the attention to every detail of the user experience. They're not perfect, but Apple have pushed ease-of-use like no one else over the years, and for that we should all be grateful (including Windows and Android users).

 

[joueboy]

Google Innovative!?

It's because this guy is a writer he thinks he knows what the word "INNOVATIVE" means specially in the tech industry. If you follow the real definition of the word then there are far more companies in CES that introduce concept products than google. I don't remember when was the last time google deserves a credit being innovative other than when they introduce their search engine then their maps that's it. Since then after made billions from ads, they just buy companies like crazy. The glass is not yet ready for public that could be the next innovative product they could have. But the technology is more on gimmicky short term usage for demonstration. The problem is the battery technology in order to be usable for the public. Imagine capturing a video for 10 minutes with the glass. That's probably leaves you another 10 minutes of usable time left before you needed to charge. Unless you're willing to wire a battery all the way to your pocket. Android is NOT innovative it's a freakin copy cat! Then they just throw all kinds if features in there just to brag to the public it's a better. I guess Walter is stupid enough that he thinks Samsung phones are google products because of Android. With all the sensor they put on their phone features that people brags about but they never use it. They looks good in commercials though.

 

[the8thark]

Now of late I don't think one can honestly say Apple has been great at execution. Tim Cook, 3 times in his short tenure as CEO, as had to make a public mea culpa because slow product ramp or poor demand calculations caused product contstraints resulting in revenue or sales shortfalls. For someone who's known as being brilliant at supply chain management Cook has been a dullard.

The profit statement from the latest quarterly report would disagree with you. Apple got lots of it's products into the customers hands.

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So yeah, if you consider a CEO leading his company to record revenues and profits (two years after its founder and visionary died) as failing and a disappointment, then you are indeed confused.

I think this is the main point here. Cook is doing a great job leading the team at Apple. And the numbers back this up.

 

[Renzatic]

I never said Apple invented either of those things. Innovation is not the same thing as invention. 64-bit processors in mobile devices is new. If Apple is able to integrate touch id into some sort of mobile payments system that will be new.

Touch ID is a clever implementation of a standard technology. Considering its consistent quality and clever use, I'd be willing call it innovative. At the very least, it's a feature that makes the 5S a more attractive option.

But 64-bit isn't. The instruction set and basic design were already hammered out by the ARM Group before Apple got ahold of it, and for the moment, it's a rather pointless spec on a sheet. Just because Apple was the first to implement it doesn't make them any more forward thinking or innovative than Samsung for being the first to offer octo-core mobile processors in their phones and tablets.

 

[robertcoogan]

True!

Google is more innovative. Shame that it thinks nothing of collecting your personal data. And Apple is in a rut - but it isn't necessarily in innovation. Mostly it is with producing software that just can't compete with better, more fully-featured software from other companies (including Google). It is why many move on to using applications like Firefox and Chrome (rather than Safari). Or OpenOffice or MS Office (as opposed to iWork).

 

[Tthomas612]

Idc what anyone says... The 5c has still sold. It just didn't sale as well as Apple would have liked... So what... I still outsells most android phones out there. So the 5s sales better... Of course it does

The 5c isn't a failure the pricing is the failure. The phone should've been $399 unlocked tops... It still a good device. It's the iphone 5 in a plastic shell and the iPhone 5 is still a beast .. I just find the design of the 5/5s ugly