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Comment by lazaroclapp | Hacker News Reader

Apple's brand trades a lot on having extremely well finished products with very polished experiences. If they started experimenting left and right like Google does, they would lose that brand image, which is arguably their most valuable asset (even above and beyond the technology itself). If Google releases Glass and it flops, it hardly affects their image ('well, yes, it's cool technology, that's what Google does, but I don't think people want it for now...'), if Apple does the same it would be thousands of articles about how Apple is losing its touch and can't possible survive without Steve Job's genius.

Maybe the only way around that is taking a page out of Alphabet's playbook and making a parent company with "riskier" subsidiaries with their own non-Apple brand?

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Except they already do.

https://beta.apple.com/

Instead they release a "me too" watch, a "me too" music service, a "me too" laughable pro tablet. They are losing their touch. No need to say it... it is obvious.

>Apple's brand trades a lot on having extremely well finished products with very polished experiences

I don't fully agree with this. Did you have the first version of the iPhone? No copy and paste? WTF.

Antenna signal dropping because "you're holding it wrong!"? WTF.

The only thing you can hold to the apple brand without any criticism is the industrial design of the packaging and look of their products has been consistent and un-matched.

There are plenty of UX issues that have arisen that take away from the polished experience.

Sure I like their products, but im not deluded to think that they are beyond reproach.

You're making the mistake of thinking other people evaluate products the same way you do.

How many people do you really think tested the copy and paste functionality on the original iPhone before making their purchasing decision?

I think almost no one.

I think you're on the right track.

The way I remember it: the product was still overwhelmingly better than everything else. Missing copy&paste was an "oh well" compared to owning an iPhone in 2007.

And it's not like they didn't get around to adding it. Apple does admit mistakes. They made their phones bigger too, finally.

They have well polished experiences compared to the competition. I don't think anyone would claim they (or anyone else) are perfect.

Apple's brand is about the perception of perfection, not perfection.

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