Jason Kottke has some interesting thoughts on “How to Beat Apple.” Does this read like a page out of Clayton Christensen’s playbook?
Apple also has some weak spots which a canny competitor should be able to exploit to make compelling products that Apple won’t be able to duplicate or directly compete with.
1. Apple doesn’t do social well on a large scale. Ping? Game Center? Please. Social applications don’t seem to be in Apple’s DNA…
2. Apple can’t do the cloud either…
3. iTunes is getting long in the tooth…
4. I can’t remember if this is my own theory or I read about this on Daring Fireball or something, but the Apple products & services that Apple does well are the ones that Steve Jobs uses (or cares about) and the ones he doesn’t use/care about are less good (or just plain bad).
Might make for an interesting discussion over in one of those innovation classes I hear so much about.