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January 1 - January 6, 2020
There will be a lot of big losers on the other side of Apple’s luxury coin.
For example, 2015 was arguably Nike’s best year. The firm increased its revenues by $2.8 billion.
By comparison, Apple grew its revenue...
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The most likely to tank under the Apple onslaught are the mid-level luxury companies, the ones selling stuff for less than $1,000
Their customers count their money—and young consumers care more about their phones and coffee than clothes.
Steve Jobs’s decision to transition from a tech to a luxury brand is one of the most consequential—and value-creating—insights in business history.
Technology firms can scale, but they are rarely timeless.
Of the Four Horsemen, Apple has by far the best genetics and, I believe, the greatest chance of seeing the twenty-second century.
Keep in mind, Apple is the only firm among the Four Horsemen, at least for now, that has thrived post the original founder and management team.
Apple not only transitioned from one of the greatest visionaries to one of the greatest operators—it has been able to extend its life by transitioning to a luxury brand.
I’d argue Apple lacks a vision; however, it still thrives,
as making the iPhone bigger and then smaller again is genius in its simplicity
The firm also has bought more time as it’s realized it has the brand, and assets, to make expensive (both capital and time) investments in becoming a ...
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Jobs understood, as none of his peers did, that whereas content, even commodity products, might be sold online,
if you wanted to sell electronics hardware as premium-priced luxury items, you had to sell them like other luxury items.
That is, in shining temples, under brilliant lights, with ardent young “genius” salespeo...
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It is why Apple commands margins that no tech company has ever enjoyed, having scaled impossible heights—the premium-priced product, and the low-cost producer.
Nothing comes close in other luxury categories.
digital sales are still only 12 percent of retail.
The middle class used to be 61 percent of Americans.
Now they are the minority, representing less than half the population . . . the rest being lower or upper income.
So, every successful firm in the digital age needs to ask: In addition to big, tall walls, where can I build deep moats?
The success of single companies like Apple can hollow out entire markets, even regions.
The iPhone debuted in 2007, and devastated Motorola and Nokia. Together they have shed 100,000 jobs. Nokia, at its peak, represented 30 percent of Finland’s GDP and paid almost a quarter of all of that country’s corporate taxes.
the four giants have moved inexorably into each other’s turf. At least two or three of them now compete in each other’s markets, whether it’s advertising, music, books, movies, social networks, cell phones—or lately, autonomous vehicles.
But Apple stands alone as a luxury brand.
That difference presents an immense advantage, providing fatter margins and a competitive edge. Luxury insulates the Apple brand, and hoist...
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Apple likely has deeper moats than any firm in the world, and its status as a luxury brand will aid its longevity.
Eighty-eight percent of kids from U.S. households in the top-income quintile will attend college, and only 8 percent from the lowest.
IF SIZE MATTERS (IT DOES), Facebook may be the most successful thing in the history of humankind.
The company owns three of the five platforms that rocketed to 100 million users the fastest: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
You dedicate thirty-five minutes of each of your days to Facebook.6 Combined with its other properties, Instagram and WhatsApp, that number jumps to fifty minutes.
People spend more time on the platform than any behavior outside of fa...
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Facebook is gaining influence faster than any enterprise in history.
If you look at the influences that convince a consumer to spend money, Facebook has flooded the awareness stage, the top of the marketing funnel.
What we learn on the social network, and especially on Facebook’s subsidiary Instagram, creates ideas and desires.
Facebook gestates intent better than any promotion or advertising channel.
Facebook is higher up the funnel than Google. It suggests the “what,” while Google supplies the “how” and Amazon the “when” you will have it.
No other media firm in history has combined Facebook’s scale with its ability to target individuals.
Each of Facebook’s 2 billion users has created his or her own page, with years’ worth of personal content.9 If advertisers want to target an individual, Facebook collects data on behavior connected to identities.
Powered by its mobile app, Facebook is now the world’s biggest seller of display advertising—an
The irony is that Facebook, by analyzing every bit of data about us, might come closer to understanding us than our friends.
our actual posts, the ones designed for our friends, are mostly self-promotion.
Facebook is a platform for strutting and preening. Users post about peak experiences, moments they want to remember, and be remembered by—their weekend in Paris or great seats at Hamilton.
Few people post pictures of their divorce papers or how tired they look on a Thursday.
Users are cu...
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Love is a function of intimacy and the depth and number of interactions we have with people.
At its best, Facebook both taps into our need for these relationships, and helps nourish them.
When friends post pics of their new baby, we get a delicious hit: dopamine.
It’s easy to be skeptical about Facebook, especially with all of the self-promotion, fake news, and groupthink spread on the platform.
