On the one hand there is a high level of what we'd call arrogance in not only Apple but it's channel as well. The entire industry as well. Because Apple has come so far so fast, there are more than a few people in Apple who have taken on an arrogant air as if they can do no wrong. That everything they do is golden. It's not. And it's also a dangerous position to take. Because Apple has come so far so fast the most dangerous thing they could do is take that position. Apple's greatest challenges are ahead of it and not behind it.
If it is to transform itself into "A Really Cool Consumer Company," and take on the Sony model, then arrogance is the last thing that they need right now. They need to listen to their target markets, and that includes their channel. And they also need to start thinking like an automobile manufacturer or Sony rather than making "Five Year Command Economy Plans" for the production of iMacs in different colors. Just as General Motors might make purple or fuschia colored cars, they don't make them in equal amounts as the more popular colors. Nor do they tell their dealerships that they have to take a certain model in equal amounts of: Blue, Red, Purple, Fuschia, Hunter Green. By the end of the model year the dealerships will have lots of purple and fuschia Blazers on their lots selling at deep discounts, or offering to bundle in a paint job if bought.
Furthermore, Apple needs to start really thinking and behaving like a consumer company. And that's something we've said for a long time. And that includes shipping 17" iMacs if they want to target businesses with them as part of Apple's solutions. 17" monitors are becoming a requirement in many places and a 15" iMac is "non-standard." Even if businesses want an iMac they can't buy them because the 15" monitor is out of spec.
Yet arrogance isn't only relegated to Apple but it's channel, especially the mail order firms. They think that their position is secure and that "they're too big or important" to mess with. It's the "Oh I'm So Important" (OISI, pronounced "Oy See") Syndrome all over again. Apple can cull at least four of the eight Apple Authorized Reseller mail order firms without taking a hit. The customers of the culled firms would find a home with the remaining catalogers. And those "selling off the page" are also endangered as well. We don't care if they're ubiquitous on the Internet, etc. It doesn't matter. If Apple wants and needs to reach the mass consumer market with its products it needs to be able to position those consumer products where the mass market consumers will see them. And that doesn't just mean the likes of CompUSA and Best Buy. Believing that they are immune is the height of arrogance. Just ask those deauthorized resellers who saw their Apple status pulled. Ask the Mac cloners who thought they'd survive as Apple "surely wouldn't kill their Mac OS license." If it's in Apple's best interests then Apple will take those actions. We've been consistent in our warnings on this.
There's also arrogance extant in the entire Mac Community all across the spectrum. And it's misplaced arrogance. That's dangerous. Rather than strutting around like a Tom Turkey and displaying what a fine specimen you are, you better check the calendar first to make sure that a turkey dinner isn't on the menu.
Some might include us in the above, because of our rubbing our critics noses in the 1394 and Golden Convergence developments, and they are partially correct. The critics had their turn strutting around but the pendulum has swung the other way and they are being dressed for dinner now. And we don't mean being put into a tuxedo.
Other instances of arrogance can be seen in those entities who believe that Golden Convergence will only benefit them, and that includes Apple Computer. That's wrong and we've been warning people about it.
Complacency is the handmaiden of arrogance. When you're afflicted with arrogance over your successes you're usally afflicted with complacency as well. Because you've come so far so fast and things are breaking your way, you tend to believe that things will continue on as they are now. Complacency can kill you. That was the message that Morgan carped on to his team while in the military. Just two words: "Complacency kills." They got sick and tired of hearing it, but whenever they started getting complacent he showed them that it could.
Simply put. If you're walking down the street and gazing in your reflection in a hand mirror while admiring how wonderful you are, then you just might miss a stumbling block and trip, or even fall into an open manhole and plummet into the sewer; possibly getting maimed or even killed. Then you wouldn't be such a wonderful sight to see, even if all that happened to you was falling into a mud puddle and getting soiled. Or emerging from the sewer smelling like a sewage treatment plant intake pipe. Complacency kills. Which is why we have the anti arrogance and complacency motto: "Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered. Sheep get sheared and Rabbits get skinned."
Apple and the entire industries that are dependent upon it should trash both the arrogance and the complacency. Assume nothing. Expect anything. Your livelihoods and even your very lives might depend upon it.
Enough said.