The Apple Anomaly & Narrative with Horace Dediu

The Apple Anomaly & Narrative with Horace Dediu
Horace Dediu discussed the company Apple as an anomaly to the theory of disruptive innovation & his thoughts on the narrative & how to spot the company's potential symptoms of decline.

Horace Dediu from Asymco & Clayton Christensen Institute is back with the second Asymco trilogy on our podcast to discuss the major topics that dominate the world of business and technology: modular revolution, startup strategy, Apple & cars. In the second part of the second trilogy, Horace discussed the company Apple as an anomaly to the theory of disruptive innovation, where they are in terms of business performance and narrative from the press, and his thoughts on how to spot the symptoms of Apple declining hypothetically. 

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Horace Dediu (@Asymco), senior fellow at Clayton Christensen Institute and his main site: Asymco.com and do check out Horace’s three podcasts: The Critical Path,  Asymcar and Significant Digits with Ben Bajarin which we highly recommend.
  • The Apple Anomaly & Narrative [0:45]
    • Apple has always defied gravity with respect to all the theories in disruptive innovation. For that matters, Apple has solved the jobs to be done piece pretty well with the iPhone and seems to get the timing right most of the time with your startup strategy. Has there been any attempts to reconcile Apple the anomaly with disruptive innovation? [1:11]
    • In recent years, Apple as a company faces two ends of the spectrum with pundits who offer their crystal ball gaze to Apple’s future: either it’s doomed or it’s going to be very bright. My view is that it falls somewhere in the middle and more in the positive than what most people predict. Where is this narrative falling to and what is your assessment to Apple’s performance in the past few years? [13:29]
    • I should add the point that the reason why Apple is so vulnerable to the bad narrative. A recent article on AppleInsider editorial made the point that Apple encouraged the bad narrative by being secretive to their product launches, and made some mistakes in their communication. I have a question which I always want to ask you via the critical question in your podcast. I can’t get that question in because I happen to sit in the wrong time zone. Forget about the narrative. Forget about the current perception of Apple. What are the first signs hinting that Apple is beginning to decline? [30:35]

Author’s note: I have re-recorded my parts with the exact words spoken to ensure the quality of the podcast to be good. A shout out to some of you out there who have dropped me a note on this. 🙂 

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack. 

Special Promo for IoT Asia Conference 2017: Innovation and value generation remain at the forefront of the 4th edition of IoT Asia conference which returns on 29th to 30th March at the Singapore EXPO.  Join the 3-track conference to learn about new developments and initiatives from thought-leaders and leading lights in the field. Use our promo code IOT7AASIA to get 10% off conference rates except Academic.

Comments