Comments on: I Love how Apple's logistics work

By: Vincent van Wylick

Vincent van Wylick — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:00:55 +0000

@Kari: for sure! Im not trying to point out anything innovative here. I’m just fascinated by “modular industrial design” I guess, and I’m (still!) very curious about what the exact term is for this phenomenon.

By: Vincent van Wylick

Vincent van Wylick — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:52:42 +0000

Sorry Marc, but I fail to see how the Macbook Air sharing the same screen-size as the Macbook, or the same hard-drive as the iPod, contributes to the User-experience. The user couldn’t care less what synergies Apple benefits from on the supply-side.

What will be interesting too see is if users will accept the MBA. It is not as powerful as the Macbook Pro, and not that different in features from the Macbook.

By: Kari Silvennoinen

Kari Silvennoinen — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:51:47 +0000

Vincent, isn’t this “cross-platform component mutualization” just what the automobile industry has done for decades? (I guess they have shorter term for it, sorry Jeremy).

I also think the term we’re after is excellent Industrial Design. Does someone still think dropping PowerPC was a mistake? =)

By: marc duchesne

marc duchesne — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:45:15 +0000

@Vincent : don’t be confused with terminology, please. “User Experience” don’t mean “User Interface” or anything else as understood in the Computing world.

The User Experience goes from the moment you decide to buy the product to the moment you switch for a new one. It includes the ease of use of the product itself (i.e. the user interface, the connectivity, the maintenance things), the way you have to or can deal with the vendor, the pre/post-sales technical support, etc.

Many different aspects which are not pure technics.

For instance, in the case of Apple, the Whole Product Solution starts when you enter an AppleStore (or, in our case us poor Frenchies, when you go visit the online AppleStore).

By: Vincent van Wylick

Vincent van Wylick — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:53:41 +0000

@ Jeremy: I call it ‘logistics’ because Apple is like Nike, it produces nothing. But… a very nice term! I tried to find it in Google/dictionary and nothing (though I did find a techiteasy-post where you mentioned it before).

@ Marc: I’m trying not to focus on the “Whole Product Solutions” here as I’m not sure how the user-experience on the MBA is. I imagine the iPod-harddrive will be crippling for one.

I’m just amazed how, on the one side, you can try to be innovative, and on the other, find synergies with existing product-components to keep costs down.

By: Jeremy Fain

Jeremy Fain — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:33:02 +0000

I don’t think it’s logistics here but product design & manufacturing rather. I would say a correct term too could be cross-platform component mutualization.

By: marc duchesne

marc duchesne — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:24:56 +0000

@Vincent : this is what the true Industrial Design is all about.

“Industrial Design” is not only about Design (the look & feel of the product), it’s also – and perhaps mostly, in the case of Apple and a few others (e.g. my beloved Optical Network Test Division at Agilent Technologies – to give an example in the B2B arena that I know very well), about Industrialization (how to manufacture, ship, and support the product).

Now, speaking of Apple and this extraordinary MacBook Air, there is the one more thing that all of its competitors do forget : the Whole Product Solution, aka The User Experience.