Apple has been doing the right thing all along. Because the very thing that enabled Apple to rise from near bankruptcy to just about the most profitable company in the history of capitalism is providing and controlling an integrated, soup-to-nuts hardware and software ecosystem. A big part of the reason why Android still feels so janky is that it has to cater to multiple hardware vendors and other stakeholders (carriers), as well as Google's advertising business, with the end user a secondary concern. Apple's total control enables it to make the user the highest priority.
The company that really disappointed everyone is Sony. Sony was Apple when Apple was beige boxes, and then Sony turned into just another commodity vendor when it comes to non-playstation hardware.<p>The new Xperia products give the hint that Sony is crawling out of that hole, but they have a long way to go.
If it wasn't for that quote from Woz, pretty much everyone would go 'well that's ridiculous'. And it is, it is ridiculous, Apple would <i>still</i> want a hardware premium because that's the business model, so they wouldn't be able to try and out price the other manufacturers. They'd gain <i>nothing</i> from it. People that want an iPhone want it for the hardware software combination.
Everyone's boring opinions always appear to themselves as common sense. You see this all the time in politics too, and I'm becoming more and more suspicious every time someone uses it in an argument. If you have a good case, your best foot forward shouldn't be that it's popular and makes sense to you. Show, don't tell.
All the article really needed to say was "but then Apple fans would try an Android phone, realise the software is better (and likely start experimenting with having root access to their own hardware, which apple certainly dislike), then get an Android phone comparably specced to and cheaper than the iphone 6 instead of one come upgrade time".
>People like the precious looks of stylings and manufacturing that we do in our product compared to the other Android offerings.<p>Is he essentially saying, people who admire the iPhone hardware, do not really admire iOS? Or Am I missing something. Taking into account the premise of Steve, Apple should make Windows Laptops too?
"And Android is outpacing Apple in the cheaper markets that are gaining importance, so there’s a sort of intuitive sense in the move, if you’re willing to twist the logic into uncomfortable directions."<p>s/Android/Windows/, move it back ten years, and then count how many PC OEMs are still in the business today.<p>Did I miss the part where "Businessweek" became a "how to light your money on fire" journal?
Instead of making an Android phone Apple should offer Bootcamp for iOS devices so any OS can run there. This works on Macs so why not offer it on iOS devices?