Last week, Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization. Microsoft is still the most profitable company in the segment, and as Jobs himself would point out, it is all about profit. However the one saying I’ve made famous is that “perception is 100 percent of reality,” and the perception is that Apple did and continues to beat Microsoft. The executive Microsoft had positioned against Apple was Robbie Bach, who ran Microsoft’s entertainment and hardware division, and this got me thinking that Apple’s greatest strength may be its secret fifth column.
Although plots of a secret 5th column get more attention, I think the root cause of this spreading chaos has more to do with Steve's ineptitude as a CEO who can create something that lasts beyond his direct manipulation. More thoughts in my blog on this: http://bit.ly/9boblO .
Okay, so here's my view on the real 'fifth column'. People like Enderle spend all their time dissing Apple, its products and its strategy, predicting its demise and the failure of whatever new product has been unveiled, so it's no wonder competitors follow their logic and opt for completely different strategies that don't work with products that aren't as good because, like Enderle and co, they spend all their time prophesying why Apple will fail instead of looking at why it succeeds. So, actually, the real fifth column is Rob Enderle.
Market Capitalization: The total dollar market value of all of a company's outstanding shares
They would already be included in this definition. Here's another definition.
Market capitalization represents the public consensus on the value of a company's equity. An entirely public corporation, including all of its assets, may be freely bought and sold through purchases and sales of stock, which will determine the price of the company's shares. Its market capitalization is the share price multiplied by the number of shares in issue, providing a total value for the company's shares and thus for the company as a whole.
Two possibilities here. Either you wanted to boost your readership by spewing some of the most comical nonsense I've ever read, or you really are as delusional as everyone has been saying.
If the first... bravo.. you succeeded!
If the second... one word.... medication!
I'm a 10-year .NET developer by day and a Mac household by nite. Had you call you on this linkbait BS:
"Apple's relative success really has more to do with decisions made at Microsoft than decisions made at Apple."
...right. You mean like Microsoft's decision not to enter new markets w/ innovative, easy-to-use, run-away success products such an an iPod, an iPhone, mobile app store, and now an iPad? That's why Apple is a success -- and not because Apple chose to invest in these endeavors? Okkkkay...
Sorry, that just doesn't hold water. Apple is successful because of their own R&D, user-centric design, and risk taking. Nothing else.
"I watched what appeared to be a similar lead on the killed Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) MP3 player. Information got leaked, and Apple's supporters turned perceptions of the product so negative that Dell never released it."
Never released? The product was called the Dell DJ Ditty. I worked for Dell Retail when it was released. I sold exactly six units between Feb 2006 when it was released and Aug 2006 when it was discontinued. It was really the award winning Creative Nomad/Zen dressed up as a Dell branded product. So please don't say it was never released. It failed on its own merits - the biggest one being that it was not so easy to use.
rob, apple has passed microsoft because for the last 20 years or so apple has kept an unerring focus on the end-user experience....... unlike microsoft who, like 95% of all tech companies simply does not understand what the average, computer illiterate user (90% of all users) actually wants ..... it's all about usability and simplicity
Not only does Rob Enderle take speculation to new heights with this expert look at Apple and Microsoft, where facts seem to be optional or open to a somewhat slanted interpretation, but he plays fast and loose with history, too.
The term, Fifth Column, was first coined in the Spanish Civil War as a 5-second check using Google might reveal. That was 1936, while WW2 began for most people in 1939.
Rob, the REAL reason that Microsoft is finally having trouble is poor Marketing strategy at the company. Marketing has NEVER been the secret to Microsoft's success, and Microsoft has NEVER done a good job in the Marketing area -- EVER!
I begrudgingly have to admit that their current Windows 7 Marketing campaign is spot on -- irreproachable. But Marketing effects occur over a long period of time, and the excellent Windows 7 Marketing will not erase a quarter-century of bad memories in the minds of consumers. The Windows 7 campaign is only the start, but a good start.
Here's what has slowly been building, giving us the beleaguered Microsoft we see today: not only does Microsoft not know Marketing, they don't know Branding.
The instant they announced the Microsoft Xbox, I said, Oh, boy, here it goes. Then I waited.
Microsoft put their brand name on a veritable "toy," and that perception was invariably factored into consumer perceptions of the brand. (Whether a low-end consumer or an IT procurement pro.)
They dominated the market for CONSUMER personal computers with the Microsoft-branded Windows. Computers sold at Wal*Mart and such.
And then they went after the likes of Oracle, SAP and IBM in the high-end enterprise market.
What if an important IT exec went to Wal*Mart on his lunch hour to pick up his kid a Microsoft Xbox, and then returned to work to attend a meeting where a Microsoft sales rep was pitching $100,000 Microsoft enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) or supply chain management (SCM) software?
Is it impossible that the IT professional might perceive Microsoft less seriously because of the Microsoft Xbox -- pretty much a toy? Might he go with Oracle or IBM or SAP instead?
Microsoft should have pulled a "Procter & Gamble," and created a new brand name to attach to the Xbox and vigeogame content -- and keep the Microsoft brand name miles away from it!
I predicted this the day I learned Microsoft would market a videogame console. I just wasn't sure how long the inevitable damage would take (the chickens to come home to roost). Now I know.
So after all the years of Apple bashing and MS fanboyist crap, he comes up with this rubbish. So Apple can do no right and MS fails because Jobs RDF exerts self destructive influence over MS employees?
Pure link bait sh*t - but that won't stop this piece being picked up by countless blogs until the call comes for yet another DOJ investigation.
America is self-destructing. You have the proof right before your eyes.
On a serious note, if America's companies come to rely on shills like Enderle for their guidance, well.... we are all doomed.
I too agree with the previous comments that Mr. Enderle is a small, small man who can't swallow his pride and give credit where credit is due. Apple did their homework. Microsoft had some great ideas with the courier, but admitted they could never get such a product to work as advertised. To them it was like demoing a light saber, but when it came time to actually produce one, they admit it can't be done.
You can blame Robbie Bach, but he was a lot better than his predecessor. The Xbox 360 would have been another 3DO by now without him. The real problem is your buddy Ballmer. He needs to go. Gates knows it, but he's his BFF and won't do it until the last stronghold they have (Office) ends up getting passed up by Google docs.
Why don't you admit the truth Rob, Microsoft is too slow to do anything. They were late with making a decent version of Windows, they still haven't finished the new windows mobile, HP canned the tablet that Ballmer showed off, Sony is beating them in the console wars, and no one wants to buy another version of Office. They killed the sidekick and made the Kin, which is a dud.
So do you still think this is all Apple's doing? Or maybe it's Martian sabotage, yeah that's it. It can't be Microsoft's own stupidity.
It's been obvious for a long time that Rob Enderle is doing some sort of bizarre performance art with his writing, trying to prove that someone who's never right can continue to be asked to provide analysis of what he's been wrong about so far. It's a brilliant act -- as comedy or satire. But now he demonstrates that he not only blindly hates Apple, but he's a conspiracy theorist with paranoid delusions. He hates Apple so much that he can't just give the company credit for executing its business plan very successfully in a market where its competitors have been making mistake after mistake. No, now he has to posit that Apple somehow has people inside those companies CAUSING the mistakes.
Someone needs to pull the plug on Enderle's writing career and get an analyst with more knowledge, honesty and intelligence. And it's time to admit that the whole thing has been an act, because everybody knows that no human being could be stupid enough to believe the things he so regularly writes. He needs to take his paranoid delusions outside to watch for space aliens or secret government spraying from "chemtrails."
Fifth column? What have you been smoking?... Because I'd certainly like to enjoy some too ;-)
Now that Steve Ballmer has "retired" two of his key executives, and taken on the role of pseudo-SteveJobs by having the divisions report directly to him, you can be sure that things at Microsoft will get worse than they are now.
When that happens (and it will) are you going to claim that Ballmer is a secret agent working for Steve Jobs???
Buy your home in fantasy land now, because prices are likely to rise rapidly.
As it stands Apple has always been the underdog against Microsoft. Even now as Apple has rose beyond that status. The media still treats Apple as such.
My question is, where is the Windows fans and media who stick up for it even when its stumbles? Their seems to be no end to media stories when Microsoft stumbles. But I never read the hype about any other product like Apple's products. Does Apple hold the media hostage by hanging a carrot in front of them. Its like this write a bad word about a Apple product and see if you get any early product releases. Maybe Microsoft and the rest should consider the same thing?
It's stupidity not paranoia but if you want to believe that, clearly there's no stopping the paranoid.
But as you even admit, MS killed its own high end PC market to take a $600 loss on EVERY CONSOLE and LOST even more because the home console market never becamethe living room gateway.
Nokia is the perfect example. Apple doesn't need a 5th column because Apple overwelhms them with intelligence. Nokia, Palm, MS, Google are rife with bureaucracy who spend more time getting in the way of each other while Apple has Steve Jobs.
And Bill Gates was smart but unlike Steve Jobs, didn't understand the internet - had to have a guy write up a PRINTED rreport for him to read about this newfangled internet while Steve Jobs already had a digital living room plan in place 10 years ago and executed it perfectly. That is why MS is in the position they are in. Bill G & Ballmer are smart about selling to enterprise - the rest? Clueless. I cannot imagine either one actually listening to music, watching movies or a TV show not on Sunday morning at 7 AM (or CNBC/MSNBC) ... they are done in by their own stupidity. The only Apple reach is in the mind, both literally and in yours - these MS, Nokia, Google employees are buying rich enough to buy Apple products because even they realize it's the best.
"and this got me thinking that Apple's greatest strength may be its secret fifth column. "
A long time ago I have been thinking on this. Was really convenient to contract some apple employees to Palm .Making an exception with JR, did these ex apples in the marketing div made wrong on purpose. All those mistakes made on the webos updates before version 1.4.1 that deleted your data and paid apps for a while was just a human being error.
How many wrong creepy ads did kill the Palm Pre from the very start.Who did not control or check out the ads before publication.?
Is Apple staff stills connected with these ex employees?
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Apple Didn't Beat Microsoft, Robbie Bach Did: Apple's Secret 5th Column
Posted by: Rob Enderle May 31, 2010 05:00 AMLast week, Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization. Microsoft is still the most profitable company in the segment, and as Jobs himself would point out, it is all about profit. However the one saying I’ve made famous is that “perception is 100 percent of reality,” and the perception is that Apple did and continues to beat Microsoft. The executive Microsoft had positioned against Apple was Robbie Bach, who ran Microsoft’s entertainment and hardware division, and this got me thinking that Apple’s greatest strength may be its secret fifth column.
Aren't employee stocks publicly traded?
Market Capitalization: The total dollar market value of all of a company's outstanding shares
They would already be included in this definition. Here's another definition.
Market capitalization represents the public consensus on the value of a company's equity. An entirely public corporation, including all of its assets, may be freely bought and sold through purchases and sales of stock, which will determine the price of the company's shares. Its market capitalization is the share price multiplied by the number of shares in issue, providing a total value for the company's shares and thus for the company as a whole.
If the first... bravo.. you succeeded!
If the second... one word.... medication!
"Apple's relative success really has more to do with decisions made at Microsoft than decisions made at Apple."
...right. You mean like Microsoft's decision not to enter new markets w/ innovative, easy-to-use, run-away success products such an an iPod, an iPhone, mobile app store, and now an iPad? That's why Apple is a success -- and not because Apple chose to invest in these endeavors? Okkkkay...
Sorry, that just doesn't hold water. Apple is successful because of their own R&D, user-centric design, and risk taking. Nothing else.
Never released? The product was called the Dell DJ Ditty. I worked for Dell Retail when it was released. I sold exactly six units between Feb 2006 when it was released and Aug 2006 when it was discontinued. It was really the award winning Creative Nomad/Zen dressed up as a Dell branded product. So please don't say it was never released. It failed on its own merits - the biggest one being that it was not so easy to use.
The term, Fifth Column, was first coined in the Spanish Civil War as a 5-second check using Google might reveal. That was 1936, while WW2 began for most people in 1939.
I begrudgingly have to admit that their current Windows 7 Marketing campaign is spot on -- irreproachable. But Marketing effects occur over a long period of time, and the excellent Windows 7 Marketing will not erase a quarter-century of bad memories in the minds of consumers. The Windows 7 campaign is only the start, but a good start.
Here's what has slowly been building, giving us the beleaguered Microsoft we see today: not only does Microsoft not know Marketing, they don't know Branding.
The instant they announced the Microsoft Xbox, I said, Oh, boy, here it goes. Then I waited.
Microsoft put their brand name on a veritable "toy," and that perception was invariably factored into consumer perceptions of the brand. (Whether a low-end consumer or an IT procurement pro.)
They dominated the market for CONSUMER personal computers with the Microsoft-branded Windows. Computers sold at Wal*Mart and such.
And then they went after the likes of Oracle, SAP and IBM in the high-end enterprise market.
What if an important IT exec went to Wal*Mart on his lunch hour to pick up his kid a Microsoft Xbox, and then returned to work to attend a meeting where a Microsoft sales rep was pitching $100,000 Microsoft enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) or supply chain management (SCM) software?
Is it impossible that the IT professional might perceive Microsoft less seriously because of the Microsoft Xbox -- pretty much a toy? Might he go with Oracle or IBM or SAP instead?
Microsoft should have pulled a "Procter & Gamble," and created a new brand name to attach to the Xbox and vigeogame content -- and keep the Microsoft brand name miles away from it!
I predicted this the day I learned Microsoft would market a videogame console. I just wasn't sure how long the inevitable damage would take (the chickens to come home to roost). Now I know.
Pure link bait sh*t - but that won't stop this piece being picked up by countless blogs until the call comes for yet another DOJ investigation.
America is self-destructing. You have the proof right before your eyes.
On a serious note, if America's companies come to rely on shills like Enderle for their guidance, well.... we are all doomed.
You can blame Robbie Bach, but he was a lot better than his predecessor. The Xbox 360 would have been another 3DO by now without him. The real problem is your buddy Ballmer. He needs to go. Gates knows it, but he's his BFF and won't do it until the last stronghold they have (Office) ends up getting passed up by Google docs.
Why don't you admit the truth Rob, Microsoft is too slow to do anything. They were late with making a decent version of Windows, they still haven't finished the new windows mobile, HP canned the tablet that Ballmer showed off, Sony is beating them in the console wars, and no one wants to buy another version of Office. They killed the sidekick and made the Kin, which is a dud.
So do you still think this is all Apple's doing? Or maybe it's Martian sabotage, yeah that's it. It can't be Microsoft's own stupidity.
Someone needs to pull the plug on Enderle's writing career and get an analyst with more knowledge, honesty and intelligence. And it's time to admit that the whole thing has been an act, because everybody knows that no human being could be stupid enough to believe the things he so regularly writes. He needs to take his paranoid delusions outside to watch for space aliens or secret government spraying from "chemtrails."
Now that Steve Ballmer has "retired" two of his key executives, and taken on the role of pseudo-SteveJobs by having the divisions report directly to him, you can be sure that things at Microsoft will get worse than they are now.
When that happens (and it will) are you going to claim that Ballmer is a secret agent working for Steve Jobs???
Buy your home in fantasy land now, because prices are likely to rise rapidly.
My question is, where is the Windows fans and media who stick up for it even when its stumbles? Their seems to be no end to media stories when Microsoft stumbles. But I never read the hype about any other product like Apple's products. Does Apple hold the media hostage by hanging a carrot in front of them. Its like this write a bad word about a Apple product and see if you get any early product releases. Maybe Microsoft and the rest should consider the same thing?
But as you even admit, MS killed its own high end PC market to take a $600 loss on EVERY CONSOLE and LOST even more because the home console market never becamethe living room gateway.
Nokia is the perfect example. Apple doesn't need a 5th column because Apple overwelhms them with intelligence. Nokia, Palm, MS, Google are rife with bureaucracy who spend more time getting in the way of each other while Apple has Steve Jobs.
And Bill Gates was smart but unlike Steve Jobs, didn't understand the internet - had to have a guy write up a PRINTED rreport for him to read about this newfangled internet while Steve Jobs already had a digital living room plan in place 10 years ago and executed it perfectly. That is why MS is in the position they are in. Bill G & Ballmer are smart about selling to enterprise - the rest? Clueless. I cannot imagine either one actually listening to music, watching movies or a TV show not on Sunday morning at 7 AM (or CNBC/MSNBC) ... they are done in by their own stupidity. The only Apple reach is in the mind, both literally and in yours - these MS, Nokia, Google employees are buying rich enough to buy Apple products because even they realize it's the best.
A long time ago I have been thinking on this. Was really convenient to contract some apple employees to Palm .Making an exception with JR, did these ex apples in the marketing div made wrong on purpose. All those mistakes made on the webos updates before version 1.4.1 that deleted your data and paid apps for a while was just a human being error.
How many wrong creepy ads did kill the Palm Pre from the very start.Who did not control or check out the ads before publication.?
Is Apple staff stills connected with these ex employees?