The amazing history of ‘Apple must’…

An excellent history of “Apple must..” from Time.

“Everyone, in other words, seems to have strong opinions about what Apple should be doing. And a remarkable percentage of the people who share their thoughts state them not as a suggestion or a preference but as an imperative so absolute that ignoring it could plunge the company into crisis. To emphasize the seriousness of the matter, their headlines usually use the words “Apple must…”

The Time report proceeds to point to the many shortcomings to this analysis, which pretty much always follows, rather than leads, the herd:

“There are, however, a few problems with this approach to Apple commentary,” it states, before listing these problems for everybody:

• The stuff Apple must do usually amounts to following an industry trend in much the same way that everybody else is doing it, right this very moment.
• Though Apple does frequently respond to industry trends, it’s not in the company’s nature to do so in precisely the way that everybody expects, and it often bides its time before doing anything at all.
• Time and time again, Apple doesn’t do what Apple must do…and yet the results aren’t calamitous.
• In some instances, the things people insist Apple must do — such as make a netbook — are not only not necessities, but terrible ideas.

These are all good points. In so many cases, this kind of analysis tends to be utterly divorced from the company’s existing strengths and how those advantages may sync with the new industry/product/business it is being urged to enter.

Which is why so much of the analysis is so very dumb.

Read in the original Time report right here.

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