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Carmine Gallo on the Root of Apple's Less-is-More Philosophy

By Rain Noe - May 24, 2011

in Object Culture

Relatively speaking, not that much stuff.

Relatively speaking, not that much stuff.

A popular thought on human psychology, of the cocktail-party-chatter variety, is that "People don't regret the things they do; they regret the things they didn't do." It's probably true for the ailing bed-rider who passed on an 18th-birthday bungie-jumping trip, but not so true in the world of industrial design.

"It's extraordinary," writes communications coach Carmine Gallo in Forbes, "to think that the world's top brand has a product portfolio that could fit on a small table." Gallo is referring to Apple, whose product line-up seems to be inversely proportional to the size to its profits, and serves as a good example of the things they didn't do.

Gallo is the author of The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success and reveals a Jobs quote that explains Apple's relatively tiny number of products. (In another Forbes article on Apple's retail stores, Gallo points out that when the stores were first conceived, pre-iPod, Apple had just four major products to fill it with—two laptops and two desktops.) According to Steve Jobs, "People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying 'no' to 1,000 things."

Read the full article here.

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Peter

13 years ago

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Apple is losing in the computer market, Apple is losing in the smartphone market, Apple is probably going to lose in the tablet market. Pretty much everything Apple produces loses. The only time Apple is on top is when it comes up with a new concept, but shortly after someone does it better. Apple really needs to do a Google and keep on innovating or it's just going to get left behind (more).
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Duane Brown

13 years ago

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Don't forget there are about 20 different versions of the imac, macbooks, cough IPOD.. itouch and iphone which are the same but one doesn't make phone calls.. Oh and 2 tablets... a year apart..

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Johnny N.

13 years ago

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Though its true Apple doesn't product as many products as say a Sony, it is a ludicrous claim that "all of their products" can fit on a small table... That table would need to include iTunes, iWork, iLife, MobileMe, Aperture, FinalCut Pro, Quicktime, in addition to other hardware products like Time Machine, Airport (+ all of the models), iPad smart covers, Mice, Keyboards, Cables, Remotes, the list goes on.

Many of Apple's software programs are bloated and cumbersome (iTunes, iLife) and though they are intangible, they are not models of simplicity, elegance, and items that should be revered.

There's a lot more to product design than clean sheets of aluminum and glass.
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derekdj

13 years ago

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Another Steve Jobs as messiah article. Much of what Job's say is true in the realm of product development and business, but it is built on top of those who came before him.

Jobs should be paying tribute to those whom Apple is modeled after Braun and Dieter Rams, Sony and Masaru Ibuka, Akio Morita.

The truth is the consumer is fickle and the market cyclical. Sony took over where Braun left off, Apple took over where Sony left off. If you look at the arch of Apple's product history they are nearing the crest where Sony was when they were the company that could do no wrong.

Now that Apple has become a true CE company (not just a computing company) with tentacles in home entertainment and content services, they are spending a lot of their capital on litigation and proprietary development; two paths which sounded the death nell for companies like Sony and Microsoft. If you look at Apple's software design and UI (ex. iTunes, Front Row) and internet services, Apple is beginning to show signs that they are not experts in all fields, especially in scalable UI (much like Sony).

The market is now for Apple to lose, can they continue to evolve Dieter Rams' and Sony's design principles for the next generation.
will consumers continue to buy into the slab of glass, less is less ethos or will the consumer paradigm shift in 2 to 3 years?
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