I'm always astonished that some (random) people feel more confident on their brand analysis than the best people at this specific topic paid thousands of dollars at Apple to do just that. Or maybe I'm the one who is wrong
That comment looks like partly uneducated guess, partly a fallacy to refer to the “authorities of branding”. I’m always amazed to see people who assume that employees of large companies cannot make mistakes or that they have unlimited power over the decision making.
There is no authorities of branding, it is just that there are people who are paid for that, and it is very unlikely that shareholders will let Apple do things that decrease the market value over a long period of time.
People make mistakes everywhere. Teams make mistakes everywhere.
Of course it's much more likely that they know what they are doing and that they have weighed the pros and cons. But, then again, even if they still go forward with it, they have changed their course slightly. Do you believe it was part of their plan? (genuine question)
Do you trust that the code written by experts has no flaws? How about teams of experts? Do rockets not sometimes have bugs which cause them to fail? If a team of highly skilled programmers in N-version controlled critical systems can fail, why can't someone or some team in such unpredictable topics such as market analysis and brand perception fail as well?
Again: I share your sentiment that surely they have thought about this. It's just that I'm not so sure that they were as competent as you might think -- maybe because fundamentally it's a very reactive and unpredictable market!
I'm afraid you are wrong.
I'm also astonished that Google has allowed search to detoriate to a point where competition actually has a chance.
I'm astonished that Microsoft cheapest their brand by serving me ads on my Windows with Professional license.
and probably a few other things.
While household analysts get things wrong all the time, companies are not infallible, including Apple.
How could Rome fall?
The sun never set on the British Empire.
Both me and my partner were very close to joining the apple eco system because we felt completely betrayed by G, now I'm researching alternative OS to flash my phone. We both abandoned Google search and browsers. The only FAANG I'm not actively avoiding is Netflix.