Why doesn’t anybody copy Apple?

As the author points out, Apple is fairly unique in its command of vertical integration. Its products are unique not on their feature merits, but because of the way they are conceived, designed, built, sourced, manufactured, shipped, marketed, sold, opened, held, and used.

There's another part of this: Apple is fairly unique amongst it's (asymmetric) competitors (e.g. Google, MS, Samsung) in that it only focuses on one customer: The Consumer.

In my experience the behaviors and culture of an organization (large or small) that focuses on the Consumer as a customer is diametrically incompatible with the behaviors and culture of an organization that focuses on Business as a customer. (I feel super strongly that this is a key reason Microsoft's products are often good, but not excellent; the consumer ones and the business ones).

EDIT: I decided to write a full blog post as a response: http://ceklog.kindel.com/2013/02/19/why-nobody-can-copy-appl...

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Consider the TV question: there are boxes that are technically capable of providing the "anything you want to watch, anytime, anywhere." You can buy a Roku or a Raspberry Pi running XBMC right now for less than $100. The remote control interfaces are tolerably intuitive.

The problem is content. The winner in this space will provide "everything, anytime, anywhere." You're not going to get all the major US networks, world networks (BBC), cable juggernauts (ESPN, HBO), to agree to the "anytime anywhere" model.

Therefore it's a social (ie: legal) problem rather than a technical problem. As long as the legal system remains a quagmire of international content deals, you're not going to get first-run Japanese anime, Eastenders, Game of Thrones, and Michigan State football games on your TV on a single Roku-like box unless you're a pirate, a VPN whiz, or both.

Toyota has a known, controlled and improved process with has been copied (with various success) accross the whole industry. It was possible because Toyota process are conscious, observed and controlled.

Apple process are not conscious. They probably have a lot of talented and devoted persons each doing their best and at the end, it works (at least more often than competitors). However, this is mostly inconscious and hardly repeatable.

That's why there is this Jobs tale: everybody think that if a company has a Jobs clone, he would probably replicate the same spirit, attract same talents and produce same results. This kind of recipe can not be repeated with enough confidence to become an industry standard (such as lean, for instance).

Are we sure that Microsoft/Google/Samsung/Etc project managers aren't telling themselves that they're "doing it like Apple does it?"

I also believe that apple has/had a design critique culture that most people in technology and business wouldn't be able to recognize for what it is/was -- including most apple employees. Although there is supposedly an uptick in MFAs getting jobs in tech, so maybe some folks do see it.

Because Apple products really aren't that much better than everything else? I have a top-of-the-line iMac and I have just as many problems with it as I do with my windows machine. Little stupid problems that shouldn't happen, too, like not recognizing headphones (hardware) and not playing well with standard third-party software.

Apple likes to sue. The end.

If you believe Apple, people copy them all the time.

Because it's hard work.