My Utopian View (Of Hardware) - Part 1

I'm trying to figure out the Apple formula. And of course I'm going to succeed where so many other have failed because I'm brilliant.

This is part one of I don't know how many entries. We'll see how many interesting things I can think of to write about. Without further ado:

Point 1 - Apple makes big, dramatic moves, not small ones.
Apple has regularly scheduled events where it can unveil and show off new hardware and software to its community. In doing so Apple might skip an incremental step or two in the hardware delivery schedule, but in return Apple gets to trumpet dramatic gains in power and capability on a regular basis. Steve Jobs gets to stand in front of the thongs and declare that the "deltas" clearly show 4.2x the performance of the previous generation! to which there is, of course, delirious cheering. Contrast this with muted press releases from other manufactures informing the public that they have indeed adopted the latest chip or technology from brand X. Yawn, the public comes to expect such things from commodity manufacturers.

It was interesting to note that Apple compared the new Mac Pro to a machine that Dell was already shipping when the Mac Pro was introduced at WWDC 2006 - configured almost exactly the same. This means that Dell had beaten Apple to market with a machine that was the equivalent of the Apple state-of-the-art. But who was paying attention to Dell? Nobody. I think this is a significant point, and shows how a steady incremental release cycle can cause speculation and enthusiasm about products, speculation and enthusiasm that is somewhat blind to reality. Well, let me caveat that previous sentence by acknowledging that the speculation builds only in the environment of secrecy that Apple is so famous for, which brings us to:

Point 2 - Apple develops its products in secret
Speculation is fun. We all guessed (or took more active measures) about what we were getting for Christmas because there's something thrilling/aggravating about not knowing. Speculation allows us to scratch the itch of not knowing.

Combine the desire to speculate about what Apple is going to do next with a world/Internet that is rife with (wasted) talent and you have some pretty amazing results. These three videos are a good example of what enthusiasts can do to help a brand be even more hip than it already is.

So Apple encourages speculation by developing in long cycles and in secret. Of course, if Apple were making shoddy products that lacked any sort of sex appeal they wouldn't have any amateur/enthusiast mind share anyway, which brings us to:

Point 3 - Longer cycles lead to better design.
Given a longer period between updates of hardware, more thought and care can be devoted to the design and presentation of the hardware - ie the form and function. I think this is underestimated by other manufacturers. If you've got to be one of the first out the door with a PC that integrates a new chip or device, how much time can you spend "tuning" the enclosures and other elements of your product to specifically suit the components? I'd say not much.

This is evidenced by the clunky huge boxes that are being shipped by most manufacturers - these boxes are being built to handle contingencies - and not Build-to-Order contingencies, but the type of contingency that shows uncertainty about what sort of thermal footprint a processor will leave or uncertainty about the task the product will perform. Given these uncertainties manufacturers simply allow for pretty much anything in the case. Vanilla, one-size-fits-all products are okay for some, but they don't build excitement and they certainly don't make an experience.

Apple can go in another direction entirely. By designing for purposes/markets/demographics they can make machines whose form is tied to function very tightly. In not trying to be everything to everybody Apple gets to design different and better hardware. They get to spend more time understanding their target audience given their long release cycles and then they get to spend more time making products suited to their audience. The iMac and the mini are perfect examples of this.

So there's three observations down. I have a few more that I'll share later, and then I'll deliver my conclusion that reveals what my Utopian view of hardware actually is.