Looks like the times is wrong then. Listen to the call. Are you saying he doesn't say 10 million IN 2008? At some other point in the call, or in one of their press releases, does apple say 10 million by the end of 2008?
i'd rather go by that older CNBC interview jobs gave, which was what was quoted all over.
That's part of it, but with the US automaker example in Japan, it was failing to consider something like the cost of gas which makes the market largely made up of cars that were a lot smaller than the smallest cars that the Big 3 make.
that was also part of it, but it was more. According to articles in the Times and WSJ, the auto makers that agreed to sell the cars also refused to advertize them, attempt to sell them, and generally left them to sit. They had to have the cars because of trade agreements, but they didn't have to prove they were actually trying to sell them. Why should they?
i'd rather go by that older CNBC interview jobs gave, which was what was quoted all over.
It's always possible that Cook has made a slip.
Before you insisted that Jobs made a slip when he said shipping 10 million IN 2008 at the initial product introduction. And that the slide that said 10 million IN 2008 was a mistake as well. And now you're saying that they made the identical slip on a conference call? At some point you need to realize how ridiculous it is to keep insisting that Apple is wrong and you are right, that you know what they really mean to say more than they do. Is there a direct quote (not a paraphrase in the news) from anyone from apple anywhere that says 10 million by the end of 2008?
You can choose to believe whatever you want, but the guy on the apple conference call says you're wrong.
Could one of the AI editors look at this part of the story? Based on the quote, it looks like you're reporting the 10 million iPhone bit wrong.
iTs incredible just how hard the company has rebounded, do we think that the iPhone will really sell another 8 million units or so by the end of next year?
In both cases, if you try to sell something the locals don't want, then you aren't going to sell many to them. When there was a big fuss about poor exports to Japan, the Big 3 conveniently left out the fact that they aren't even trying to understand the market, that the type of cars that do sell well there are drastically different than what sells in the US, particularly in fuel economy. It's not to say that there aren't unfair trade practices going on.
With electronics, Japan is a very competitive, cut-throat environment. iPod sales are good, but the market dominance was 20 points less than in most other developed nations.
I was not referring to the "big three" US manufacturers but to the universally admired BMW's and Mercedes'. One would expect those marks to get a similar market-share in Japan as in the rest of the world, but that does not seem to be the case. I still bet on xenophobia rather than product desirability or quality as to why Japan remains a difficult market for outsiders. It Apple ever cracks it, it will be a miracle.
I was not referring to the "big three" US manufacturers but to the universally admired BMW's and Mercedes'. One would expect those marks to get a similar market-share in Japan as in the rest of the world, but that does not seem to be the case. I still bet on xenophobia rather than product desirability or quality as to why Japan remains a difficult market for outsiders. It Apple ever cracks it, it will be a miracle.
This is truth.
Japan, China, Korea, etc are all very much isolated in their own minds. They have a "push" mentality. That is, they want very much to push their products out, but don't want to accept products in.
That doesn't mean that they won't accept anything, but it's usually small items, or foods, luxury, etc.
But if it has to do with industrial products, then, no.
France has some of that as well. It's also a bit of a lack of self confidence.
France has some of that as well. It's also a bit of a lack of self confidence.
British industry is a classic example of a lack of self confidence. People react negatively to most home brands here, which is understandable considering in computers they were things like Sinclair and Amstrad!
Japan is almost a rule to itself. Most households there don't have PC's full stop: Macs or Windows. They treat 3.999G phones as though they were handheld laptops (which they still are not) and game consoles are even getting big for web browsing with the household TV over there now.
But get this, I just did the simplest thing with the regional sales figures dividing revenue by Macs sold to get the mean selling price (after tax) for each zone:
US: $3,034
EU: $2,683
JP: $3,542
(Pacific / FileMaker: $3,483 which I guess is wrong as it includes FileMaker software income)
Japanese Macs sell for more? Because it's still the old days there, when design and publishing dominated Apple's interest and high margins were king. This isn't because Apple doesn't offer its full modern lineup there however. It's because the home computer explosion never reached its zenith in Japan anyway. This is my admittedly amateur understanding.
As for "Apple = iPod + iPhone + Mac?" in Europe, i.e. "what the hell is a Macintosh??" Most people know in Britain. A lot of us grew up on 80's models in schools (I was using a Classic in 1997 just a year before they bought iMacs after I left ) and they do get noticed on the movies and US TV shows too. It's definitely true though that Windows is still stronger here, but advertising, stores and word of mouth are having the same effect as in America. Give us time and we'll hit 10% like you. Give us the same coverage of stores and it won't take forever!
Quality control at the factory will lead to fewer problems all around.
Take responsibility for problems and act on them immediately; do not continue selling defective products after the discovery of a problem (the list is long).
Thoroughly test products so there are no more of the infamous version 1 issues; do not rush to market.
Stop bragging about "the best ABC we've ever made" when many of them are being returned for repairs.
Make sure the products work and function and look as advertised.
Do not forsake customer satisfaction for monetary profit; the two can be achieved together.
2. Improve Apple Care in Japan
Of course, with the improvements above, those here would be easier to achieve.
Staff it with people familiar with the Mac platform and who use Macs themselves.
Improve their overall manners and phone skills.
Actually have them attempt to help customers more often; make them approachable.
Ask them to get along with merchants who sell Macs, including the Apple Store (physical).
Quality control at the factory would lead to fewer calls to the Call Center.
Have a manager come on the phone if requested by a customer when the staff member is incapable of solving the problem due to obvious lack of training.
Make sure the staff do not ask, "Is that an Apple product?" when discussing a Mac Plus, they could at minimum have a history of Apple machines on their computers for reference.
Make sure they do no lie and say they are unaware of a problem when an Apple Genius says many customers are having the problem and the discussion boards are flooded.
3. Improve the physical Store experience.
Hire staff who are friendly and courteous to customers and provide basic greetings.
All new staff should have ID stating such.
Make sure the managers actually consider and treat customers as human beings and speak to them and not act as if they are imposing on the manager's very precious time.
Empower Geniuses to actually replace a defective product with a quality one as opposed to binding their hands and having them replace with the same low quality or offer a refund, which does not make either the Genius or the customer satisfied.
Improve quality control so that fewer avoidable problems are brought to the Genius in the first place freeing him to deal with other issues.
Give your staff the support they need to do the jobs they are hired for.
4. Improve the Apple Store telephone line.
Staff it with people familiar with the Mac platform.
Hopefully the staff will be at least vaguely familiar with the company's history.
Make sure that products purchased through the store do not have a higher failure rate than products purchased through other Apple dealers.
Comments
Looks like the times is wrong then. Listen to the call. Are you saying he doesn't say 10 million IN 2008? At some other point in the call, or in one of their press releases, does apple say 10 million by the end of 2008?
i'd rather go by that older CNBC interview jobs gave, which was what was quoted all over.
It's always possible that Cook has made a slip.
That's part of it, but with the US automaker example in Japan, it was failing to consider something like the cost of gas which makes the market largely made up of cars that were a lot smaller than the smallest cars that the Big 3 make.
that was also part of it, but it was more. According to articles in the Times and WSJ, the auto makers that agreed to sell the cars also refused to advertize them, attempt to sell them, and generally left them to sit. They had to have the cars because of trade agreements, but they didn't have to prove they were actually trying to sell them. Why should they?
i'd rather go by that older CNBC interview jobs gave, which was what was quoted all over.
It's always possible that Cook has made a slip.
Before you insisted that Jobs made a slip when he said shipping 10 million IN 2008 at the initial product introduction. And that the slide that said 10 million IN 2008 was a mistake as well. And now you're saying that they made the identical slip on a conference call? At some point you need to realize how ridiculous it is to keep insisting that Apple is wrong and you are right, that you know what they really mean to say more than they do. Is there a direct quote (not a paraphrase in the news) from anyone from apple anywhere that says 10 million by the end of 2008?
You can choose to believe whatever you want, but the guy on the apple conference call says you're wrong.
Could one of the AI editors look at this part of the story? Based on the quote, it looks like you're reporting the 10 million iPhone bit wrong.
In both cases, if you try to sell something the locals don't want, then you aren't going to sell many to them. When there was a big fuss about poor exports to Japan, the Big 3 conveniently left out the fact that they aren't even trying to understand the market, that the type of cars that do sell well there are drastically different than what sells in the US, particularly in fuel economy. It's not to say that there aren't unfair trade practices going on.
With electronics, Japan is a very competitive, cut-throat environment. iPod sales are good, but the market dominance was 20 points less than in most other developed nations.
I was not referring to the "big three" US manufacturers but to the universally admired BMW's and Mercedes'. One would expect those marks to get a similar market-share in Japan as in the rest of the world, but that does not seem to be the case. I still bet on xenophobia rather than product desirability or quality as to why Japan remains a difficult market for outsiders. It Apple ever cracks it, it will be a miracle.
I was not referring to the "big three" US manufacturers but to the universally admired BMW's and Mercedes'. One would expect those marks to get a similar market-share in Japan as in the rest of the world, but that does not seem to be the case. I still bet on xenophobia rather than product desirability or quality as to why Japan remains a difficult market for outsiders. It Apple ever cracks it, it will be a miracle.
This is truth.
Japan, China, Korea, etc are all very much isolated in their own minds. They have a "push" mentality. That is, they want very much to push their products out, but don't want to accept products in.
That doesn't mean that they won't accept anything, but it's usually small items, or foods, luxury, etc.
But if it has to do with industrial products, then, no.
France has some of that as well. It's also a bit of a lack of self confidence.
This is truth.
France has some of that as well. It's also a bit of a lack of self confidence.
British industry is a classic example of a lack of self confidence. People react negatively to most home brands here, which is understandable considering in computers they were things like Sinclair and Amstrad!
Japan is almost a rule to itself. Most households there don't have PC's full stop: Macs or Windows. They treat 3.999G phones as though they were handheld laptops (which they still are not) and game consoles are even getting big for web browsing with the household TV over there now.
But get this, I just did the simplest thing with the regional sales figures dividing revenue by Macs sold to get the mean selling price (after tax) for each zone:
US: $3,034
EU: $2,683
JP: $3,542
(Pacific / FileMaker: $3,483 which I guess is wrong as it includes FileMaker software income)
Japanese Macs sell for more? Because it's still the old days there, when design and publishing dominated Apple's interest and high margins were king. This isn't because Apple doesn't offer its full modern lineup there however. It's because the home computer explosion never reached its zenith in Japan anyway. This is my admittedly amateur understanding.
As for "Apple = iPod + iPhone + Mac?" in Europe, i.e. "what the hell is a Macintosh??" Most people know in Britain. A lot of us grew up on 80's models in schools (I was using a Classic in 1997 just a year before they bought iMacs after I left
Yes, I'm surprised that Apple's sale of 1,119,000,000 iPhones didn't make international headlines.
Yowza. What percentage of the market is that, anyway? That would explain all those people I've seen wearing vests made of iPhones.
Such as?
Some background reading is here:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=79935
As to some specific points, here's a start:
1. Improve the quality of manufactured products.
Quality control at the factory will lead to fewer problems all around.
Take responsibility for problems and act on them immediately; do not continue selling defective products after the discovery of a problem (the list is long).
Thoroughly test products so there are no more of the infamous version 1 issues; do not rush to market.
Stop bragging about "the best ABC we've ever made" when many of them are being returned for repairs.
Make sure the products work and function and look as advertised.
Do not forsake customer satisfaction for monetary profit; the two can be achieved together.
2. Improve Apple Care in Japan
Of course, with the improvements above, those here would be easier to achieve.
Staff it with people familiar with the Mac platform and who use Macs themselves.
Improve their overall manners and phone skills.
Actually have them attempt to help customers more often; make them approachable.
Ask them to get along with merchants who sell Macs, including the Apple Store (physical).
Quality control at the factory would lead to fewer calls to the Call Center.
Have a manager come on the phone if requested by a customer when the staff member is incapable of solving the problem due to obvious lack of training.
Make sure the staff do not ask, "Is that an Apple product?" when discussing a Mac Plus, they could at minimum have a history of Apple machines on their computers for reference.
Make sure they do no lie and say they are unaware of a problem when an Apple Genius says many customers are having the problem and the discussion boards are flooded.
3. Improve the physical Store experience.
Hire staff who are friendly and courteous to customers and provide basic greetings.
All new staff should have ID stating such.
Make sure the managers actually consider and treat customers as human beings and speak to them and not act as if they are imposing on the manager's very precious time.
Empower Geniuses to actually replace a defective product with a quality one as opposed to binding their hands and having them replace with the same low quality or offer a refund, which does not make either the Genius or the customer satisfied.
Improve quality control so that fewer avoidable problems are brought to the Genius in the first place freeing him to deal with other issues.
Give your staff the support they need to do the jobs they are hired for.
4. Improve the Apple Store telephone line.
Staff it with people familiar with the Mac platform.
Hopefully the staff will be at least vaguely familiar with the company's history.
Make sure that products purchased through the store do not have a higher failure rate than products purchased through other Apple dealers.