They also choose brands. Apple has one of the biggest ones, and the fact that people bought MacBooks during the butterfly keyboard years should tell you just how powerful that brand is.
Yeah, grandparents and computer labs kept their old Apple computers around through the '90s when Apple wasn't cool. Before getting a Mac became at first ironically cool in the early '00s (because they looked funny but couldn't run any good games). Apple is clearly just a default and not a preference with kids nowadays in my experience, like they were for kids in schools in the '90s. They have good games now though.
Brands don't seem particularly defensible, and Apple doesn't seem to have any network effects outside iMessages/FaceTime and their accessory ecosystem.
James Currier on brands: "I don't think brand is a worthy defense at all. I've seen companies with phenomenal brands get crushed in a matter of years. If you go back to the early age of PC software, the best brands in the industry were Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. Microsoft crushed them in a matter of years, and they had the brands. I don't think brand buys you very much. The best brand in search was AltaVista or maybe Yahoo! and now they're roadkill."
> Brands don't seem particularly defensible, and Apple doesn't seem to have any network effects outside iMessages/FaceTime and their accessory ecosystem.
Perhaps that's why Apple advertises so much with product placements in movies. On a lot of movies the main characters have iPhones - it's not overt, just a jingle or them looking at a call (which looks like iOS incoming call UI). Same with Macs or AirPods. I honestly wonder what their placement spend is like.
They aren't the most valuable brand for no reason [1]. That placement is earned, but reinforced with lots of spend.
Brands don't seem particularly defensible, and Apple doesn't seem to have any network effects outside iMessages/FaceTime and their accessory ecosystem.
James Currier on brands: "I don't think brand is a worthy defense at all. I've seen companies with phenomenal brands get crushed in a matter of years. If you go back to the early age of PC software, the best brands in the industry were Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. Microsoft crushed them in a matter of years, and they had the brands. I don't think brand buys you very much. The best brand in search was AltaVista or maybe Yahoo! and now they're roadkill."
https://www.nfx.com/post/the-four-types-of-defensibility/