{"id":928,"date":"2013-02-19T15:48:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T22:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2013\/02\/19\/aymco-is-wrong-there-are-several-apple-imitators\/"},"modified":"2013-02-19T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T22:48:21","slug":"aymco-is-wrong-there-are-several-apple-imitators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadingscience.com\/2013\/02\/19\/aymco-is-wrong-there-are-several-apple-imitators\/","title":{"rendered":"Aymco is wrong: there are several Apple imitators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apple\"\u00a0<\/span>by\u00a0<\/span>A Guy Taking Pictures<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Why doesn\u2019t anybody copy Apple?<\/a>
[Via asymco<\/a><\/span>]<\/p>\n

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Apple\u2019s products are the envy of the world. They have been spectacularly successful and are widely imitated, if not copied. The expectation that precedes a new Apple product launch is only matched by the expectation of the replication of those products by competitors.<\/p>\n

This cycle of product mimicry was succinctly summarized<\/a> by Marc Andreessen regarding a rumored Apple TV product:<\/p>\n

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And once the television launches, everyone will scramble to copy it.\u00a0\u201dThere\u2019s a pattern in our industry, Apple crystallizes the product, and the minute Apple crystallizes it, then everyone knows how to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This idea that the basis of competition is set by Apple and then the race is on to climb the trajectory of improvement is so well understood that it\u2019s axiomatic: \u201cIt\u2019s just the way things are.\u201d Apple releases a product that defines a category or disrupts an industry and it becomes obvious what needs to be built.<\/p>\n

But what I wonder is why there isn\u2019t a desire to copy Apple\u2019s product creation process. Why isn\u2019t the catalyst for a new category or disruption put forward by another company? More precisely, why isn\u2019t there another company which consistently re-defines categories and repeatedly, predictably even, re-defines how technology is used.<\/p>\n

Put another way: Why is it that everyone wants to copy Apple\u2019s products but nobody wants to copy being Apple?<\/em><\/p>\n

[More<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I would submit that the question is wrong. There are several companies that have copied Apple \u2013 at least the Apple of Steve Jobs. Aysmco simply comes at the answer from the wrong view.<\/em><\/p>\n

I say a few examples of those companies are Facebook, Google, Amazon and Tesla. “Why isn\u2019t there another company which consistently re-defines categories and repeatedly, predictably even, re-defines how technology is used.”\u00a0Asymco seems to miss the forest for the trees.<\/em><\/p>\n

He even quotes Tim Cook who does have the answer:<\/em><\/p>\n

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Innovation is deeply embedded in Apple\u2019s culture. The boldness, the ambition, the belief that there are no limits, the desire among our people to not just make good products [but to] make the very best products in the world. It\u2019s in the values. It\u2019s in the DNA of the company.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read\u00a0<\/em>Increasing Returns and the New World of Business<\/a> published in 1996 in the Harvard Business Review by W. Brian Arthur. You will see he described how to copy Apple while actually missing the changes Apple was making at the time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Even he did not see Apple coming, thinking it was MS that would lead. But he hit the nail on the head with how to recognize the leaders.<\/em><\/p>\n

He says corporate leaders need to ask themselves 4 questions if they hope to lead the new economy:<\/em><\/p>\n