Everyone Is Trying to Be like Apple

I’ve often felt like tech companies today are trying way too hard to create their own iPhone moment without realizing why Apple succeeded in the first place. Now, I’m not saying this is true for all cases or companies. Dot-Com Bubble, for example, happened in spite of Apple.

That being said, Jobs did want a multimedia internet hub just like everyone else and so did Gates. These guys saw the writing on the wall as far back as the 90s. So even though they did contribute to the bubble, Jobs always had something akin to what is now the iPod on his road map.

What separates the two is that is that because Apple had basically zero market share, at the time, they could do whatever they want. Apple were able to capture that exact audience because macOS was a clean slate. Even though Windows XP was technically fresh as well, it still carried legacy baggage that has haunted all future versions to this day because Microsoft’s core consumer base was always the enterprise.

From that point on, Jobs simply used the iPod as an experimental platform. This isn’t to say it wasn’t useful. Of course not. The iPod is one of my favourite gadgets of all time. It’s just that Apple had been tinkering with the idea of a phone for quite a while and the iPod doubled as their test bed. The infamous iTunes + Moto deal is a pretty good example of that. It was only when they couldn’t refine or improve on any further we got the iPhone.

Then everyone wanted to be the next iPhone or [insert gadget here] killer in some form or another. Again, I’m not saying this is everyone but the iPhone is pretty much Star Trek’s Padd. It didn’t take until centuries later in their own prime timeline for it to see anything come close to replacing it. It’s just that useful.

And now we’re seeing the same thing with AI. OpenAI is in similar leadership position today because they took Apple’s slow and steady approach. They’ve been doing machine learning long before GPT. ChatGPT just so happen be their lighting in a bottle. Now everyone is trying to chase that. Of course, the iPhone killer craze still lingers because they are still trying to replace the smartphone when no asked for it.