Derek Powazek – The Columbo Technique
I think this guy is on the right track. The really interesting question is not whether Bob Keefe asked a stupid question, when he had a shot at Steve Jobs. The interesting question is: why have all the other PC makers always been happy to take a little marketing money and put dumb-ass stickers all over their products?
Why would a product maker put a list of ingredients on the product? I could (almost) understand putting that information on the shipping box. But putting it on the product is what a simple assembler would do. A company that simply takes the parts from various vendors and snaps them together.
When you snap parts together, you can only compete in a few areas: price (including supply chain), temporary exclusive access to parts, status, and maybe service. You can't innovate or do anything different, because you are constrained by the same parts list as your competitors. Any and all innovations come from the makers of the parts.
When Apple adds it's "pixie dust", it results in a product that is greater than the sum of it's parts. They need to stand out, and they try to design complete products that improve what users can do.
This is the big philosophical difference between Apple and the beige-box makers. Apple creates a product. The PC makers assemble a product.
Additional links:
Bob Keefe: 'Intel Inside' Logo Stickers Absent from New Apple iMacs
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