Apple to allow some iPhones to be repaired with used parts
'A strategy of half-promises and unnecessarily complicated hedges'
Personal Tech
11 Apr 2024 | 15
Apple are dominant
The dominance is "the market for Apple gear." Apple have carved out a market called Apple, run by Apple, full only of Apple and Apple-approved-friends. It might actually be unprecedented in the history of business.
Collectors have been known to have a similar affection for a particular company or item. Look at the guys with the largest “Wizard of Oz memorabilia” collections, or “every single Barbie doll ever made.”
Apple’s unique success is in creating that level of attachment to new and upcoming products rather than some dusty bit of history. iPhones aren’t competing with cell phones, and Macs don’t compete with PCs.* The only thing an iPhone competes with is other Mac hardware. That money was going to an Apple product one way or another, the only question was “which one.”
So Apple is dominant; dominant in the market of Apple. The question truly is…should anyone care about this? They have invented their own market, one which no one even seems interested in duplicating. (Sony did try, during the 80s and 90s…but seems to have given up lately.) Apple isn’t selling gizmos or software…they’re selling an EXPERIENCE. They sell a culture, a sense of belonging. They sell fashion and fads, hip, cool, and their gear works just good enough to detract from the happy fluffy field.
Is that a bad thing though? People need a sense of belonging. They need to feel good about what they have bought; sometimes they even need a reason to feel smug. (Hey, if you are the downtrodden guy that gets picked on, or just got dumped, what-have-you...instant ego boost is worth real money.) The reason people call this a “cult” is that it really looks it from the outside. People are buying into the culture or experience…but is it that much different than people who play World of Warcraft? Or those who spend their time at the same karaoke bar every Friday? What about those who join a blowing league or take yoga?
The only difference between the WoW player going home to seek comfort in his online community and the Apple fanatic browsing Cupidtino from his iPad in the coffee shop is that the Apple fanatic actually gets a usable piece of elegantly designed, functional electronics equipment for his investment of money and time.
Apple’s market then is a monopoly on actually providing people something of value for taking advantage of their addictive need for social inclusion. (And perhaps more importantly, the need of those same people to EXCLUDE others.) To me, for all the many and myriad faults and complaints I could fire at Apple; abusing their “dominant position” is not one I could ever support.
*I realise that some people do carefully weight alternatives, and choose what they perceive to be “the best product,” and in this sense Apple does actually compete with others. I maintain that Apple supporters who perform this level of analysis before purchasing are small enough to be considered a rounding error.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
