Apple is done, say teens | Hacker News Reader

Apple is done, say teens

news.cnet.com

6 pointsfraqed11 comments

"This definitive information comes to me courtesy of research performed by Buzz Marketing, as well as three 14-year-olds who tried to rob me of my orange Puma sneakers."

CNET is done, says...well...everybody. Likewise "media gurus" who use the hackneyed word "buzz" in their name. :-)

Don't want to sound like a dick or nothing, according to this article CNET has no credibility at all.

This isn't surprising.

Apple is as much a fashion company as it is a technology company. And the thing with fashion is that no trends maintain coolness forever. The very fact that Apple is cool to the parents means that it won't be cool to the kids.

Hmm, but is not being cool to the kids really of much import? They aren't really Apple's core market.

Of course, those kids will eventually become 20-somethings, which are much more important to Apple, but then it's not uncommon for peoples' tastes to change as they get older...

Maybe those kids are more important to Apple than many think, it's being reported the company has slashed orders the iPhone 5.

thenextweb.com/apple/2013/01/14/apple-reportedly-cuts-iphone-5-component-orders-from-japan-by-almost-half-on-weak-demand/

Although we don't know what these orders were slashed from or slashed to. And if they were in fact slashed due to "weak demand" we don't know if that demand is "weak" compared to relatively sane projections or "weak" compared to wildly overoptimistic projections.

In short, that rumor is at this point no more substantial than the "a few kids say it's not cool" rumor.

Apple is far more analogous to say, BMW than an apparel company - both companies produce highly refined products which elicit loyalty in their customer base and great resale values.

IIRC, BMW has been around for decades and still gets their customers to open their wallets in a big way, and still looks cool.

I'd say Apple is a bit different from BMW.

The main selling point of BMW is its "German craftsmanship." Apple, on the other hand, gets its products from the exact same outsourcing suppliers that everyone else is using.

If BMW were getting its cars from the same suppliers as Hyundai and Geely, I doubt it would be able to maintain its coolness for as long as it has.

Hence IMO Apple is much more analogous to Abercrombie & Fitch than BMW. Just like A&F, Apple sources its products from the same suppliers everyone else uses. And just like A&F, Apple's main selling point is design and logo.

So teens without money favour surface over Apple. Clearly the sales back them up??? It ends tipping Nokia. Gee that research was worth the money

This CNET article's title is a re-quote of a single line appearing in a Forbes article that originated from a 7-person "youth marketing agency" that lists a total of four technology clients: blogtv, unidentifiable logo, cybiko wireless, and verizon wireless (1).

(1) http://buzzmg.com/clients/#lifestyle

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