

The key to Apple's success? A simple product line - vaksel
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/22/apples-success-solution-a-simple-product-line/

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ShabbyDoo
We have six remotes on our coffee table, and I'm told that Logitech's
universal remotes are great products that will let me put all six of mine in
the bottom drawer. However, they seem to have about a dozen similar-looking
remotes. After an hour of browsing online, I bought NOTHING. Researching these
is on my todo list now, but I would have one today if there were just two or
three models to choose from.

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blackguardx
You should try to buy a sewing machine.

Singer has probably close to 30 models that each differ by just a few
features. It is very hard to figure out what is best for my purposes.

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mdasen
Consumers aren't great with choices, but that isn't Apple's greatest win.
Apple's greatest win is that it only sells the high margin stuff. They won't
play in the cut-throat market of low-speed processors or those free phones.
They go after margins that are much greater than their competitors. They leave
in what most people find most important and say, "go somewhere else" to anyone
that doesn't like that. Want FM radio in that iPod? Well, almost no one else
does so find a different product or get an add-on.

This isn't pro or con Apple. It's just who they are. They go for what's
profitable and what most people would like. They don't want to be the biggest,
they want to be the best.

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ShabbyDoo
I just thought a bit more about this and how it applies to enterprise software
as well. A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted about a two-week consulting
gig to help a government agency figure out (1) what hardware platforms to
deploy their application on and (2) which Weblogic licenses to purchase to
minimize overall costs. They wanted to choose hardware with licensing costs in
mind.

Contrast this with the purchase of an enterprise support contract for Drools
(JBoss's rules engine). For two-hour 24/7 support (I think, this was a year
ago), they simply quote $45K for up to 64 production (and DR?) processor
sockets -- more than most people will ever use.

When faced with complex licensing terms for an otherwise good software
component, I wonder how many developers just convince the boss to use
something else, usually Open Source.

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lallysingh
I remember that for some time, Apple had an iPod at nearly every $50
increment. That's a diverse product line that understands the consumer.

Good point about consumers hating choices despite saying that they love them.
Consumers like it when you have what they want, bu they don't want to go
through too many options to find it.

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dotcoma
how many different windows Vista licences are (were) there?

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pasbesoin
Google "too many choices":
[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22too+many+choices...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22too+many+choices%22)

A very interesting set of top results.

There is also this 2003 book on the matter:

"The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less": [http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-
Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000...](http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-
More-Less/dp/0060005688)

There was some buzz and a number of articles on the topic published around the
time the book came out.

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sarvesh
Keeping the product line simple isn't the only reason they have succeeded.
They have made more good products in the last ten years than they have made
bad products. They have failed miserably in quite a few segments like Apple
TV.

Yes, making choices for your consumer helps but not if you make crappy
products.

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lallysingh
This surprised me too, but apparently Apple TV's sales are up 3x over last
year:
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/21/apple_tv_sales...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/21/apple_tv_sales_rise_300_will_see_continued_investment.html)

