chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/17/86)
The Forbes 500 is out for the year, and reading through it last night a
few ideas came home to roost. The most important is the realization (one
that I think most people who have dealt with Apple over the years) that
APPLE IS NOT A STARTUP ANYMORE.
According to Forbes, Apple is the 392nd largest company in america, with $1.7
BILLION in sales.
Let me try to put this in perspective, and then I'll tie it up at the end.
There are, of course, a number of hi-tech companies larger than Apple:
IBM, of course, at #5 (with $50 Billion in sales, making Apple's figure
look like petty cash); Xerox (#44, $11 Billion); DEC (#87, $7 Billion);
Honeywell ; HP ; Sperry; Motorola (119, $5.4 billion); Burroughs; TI;
NCR; Tandy (Radio Shack) and Wang.
So far, so good. But take a look at the list of companies that Apple is
BIGGER than (not all of these are hi-tech, but they are well known examples
of Big Companies): Black and Decker; Subaru of America; Zenith Electronics;
National Semiconductor; McGraw Hill; Gould; Tektronix; New York Times;
Intel; Perkin-Elmer; Polaroid; Adolph Coors; AMD; ADP; Capital Cities/ABC;
Clorox; Comdisco; Cray Research; Data General; Harris Corp; Intergraph;
Prime Computer and Tandem Computers.
Why am I saying all this? I see a lot of bitching about Apple on the
various nets and in the press about lack of responsiveness, lack of
information, lack of handholding, or whatever. Many of us bought our
first Apple way back when it was still 100 people in a startup. Now its
4,800 people, a public company, and a major success.
In many ways I think we've never figured out that Apple isn't a startup
any more. Sure, service isn't as personal as it was when there were 100
people in an office building, but also remember that Apple's installed
user base was probably smaller than the number of machines it now sells
in a month. As a public company, there are things Apple legally CAN'T say,
no matter how much it might want to -- you don't want the SEC on your case.
Now, I'm not saying that Apple is perfect -- it still has some work to
do to figure out how to support 500,000 Macintoshes in the real world, but
frankly, when you compare them to a DEC or a Gould or a Data General or
an IBM, I don't think they're doing all that badly. Remember, too, that
Apple sells a $5,000 machine (very rough figure) and a Gould machine
sells at between $50,000 and $100,000). That means that for ever machine
Gould has to see and support, Apple has to sell 10-20. Would Gould do as
well as Apple if it had that many machines in the field?
I guess I'm just trying to put this all in perspective. When you bitch about
Apple's service and responsiveness, you really have to look at how it
reacts against equivalent companies. Sure, Apple won't be as responsive
as Central Point Software, but then Central Point Software in its entirety
is smaller than Apple's Janitorial service probably is -- by being small,
it can react faster -- and it has to to survive. Apple is simply too big
to react that way anymore, and if it tries, it'll screw up.
When I look at it in terms of how Apple is (as opposed to how I perceived
them to be) I don't think they're doing a bad job. If you've got a bitch
against Apple, ask yourself if you'd exepect the same out of Dec or IBM.
If not, then don't expect it ourt of Apple either -- it isn't a startup
anymore.
chuq
--
:From the lofty realms of Castle Plaid: Chuq Von Rospach
chuq%plaid@sun.COM FidoNet: 125/84 CompuServe: 73317,635
{decwrl,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!plaid!chuq
The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your hands
and hoping when a rock or a club will do -- McCloctnik the Lucidmazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu (Lawrence J. Mazlack) (04/19/86)
> >The Forbes 500 is out for the year, and reading through it last night a >few ideas came home to roost. The most important is the realization (one >that I think most people who have dealt with Apple over the years) that >APPLE IS NOT A STARTUP ANYMORE. > >According to Forbes, Apple is the 392nd largest company in america, with $1.7 >BILLION in sales. > > >So far, so good. But take a look at the list of companies that Apple is >BIGGER than (not all of these are hi-tech, but they are well known examples >of Big Companies): Black and Decker; Subaru of America; Zenith Electronics; >National Semiconductor; McGraw Hill; Gould; Tektronix; New York Times; >Intel; Perkin-Elmer; Polaroid; Adolph Coors; AMD; ADP; Capital Cities/ABC; >Clorox; Comdisco; Cray Research; Data General; Harris Corp; Intergraph; >Prime Computer and Tandem Computers. > > >When I look at it in terms of how Apple is (as opposed to how I perceived >them to be) I don't think they're doing a bad job. If you've got a bitch >against Apple, ask yourself if you'd exepect the same out of Dec or IBM. >If not, then don't expect it ourt of Apple either -- it isn't a startup >anymore. > I can't agree more with the statistics. Just the conclusions. If you recall, this discussion got started as to WHY APPLE WAS LOOSING THE BUSINESS MARKET TO IBM. In my mind, one of the reasons is exactly what you say, they are not a start up and do not do very well providing baseline service. The kind of service that IBM DOES PROVIDE. Busineses expect service. If they don't get it, they won't deal with you. IBM's three principles are: (1) Provide the best customer service, (2) Have good equipment, (3) Respect the individual. From all that I hear, Apple does treat their people well - certainly they have very talented individuals. Apple does have good equipment. But, the quality of their service is suspect. You are right, service should not be on the basis of friendships or people being nice, it should be institutionalized. If it isn't there, for all customers, the business market place will eventually not use the product as it will not be cost effective to do so. It is really too bad. Apple has a product with a feature that is really useful in the business environment: user friendliness for the casual user. One last comment. A lot of the general, posted comments on this question have come from people with minimal business environment experience. I have got a lot of private mail from people like myself who have been selling into that environment. There is a real difference in perspective. Larry Mazlack UUCP {tektronix,dual,sun,ihnp4,decvax}!ucbvax!ucbernie!mazlack New style mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu ARPA | CSNET mazlack%ernie@berkeley.ARPA BITNET mazlack@ucbernie.BITNET telephone (415) 528-0496 snail CS Dept, 571 Evans, U. California, Berkeley, CA 94720