Apple and Content, Marzipan, and the Executive Shuffle, with Charlotte Henry – ACM 502
Where is Apple going with its content drive? Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest-host Charlotte Henry to dive deep into original shows, services, publishing, news, and Apple’s other content ambitions. They also talk about the promise (and potential drawbacks) of Marzipan, and what Apple’s recent executive shuffling might portend.
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Show Notes
Sources referenced in this episode:
- Marzipan is going to be a big deal for the Mac
- Apple Context Machine Facebook Group - Facebook
- Bryan's Twitter
- Bryan's blog: GeekTells
The last Apple event, stacked with Retail employees, in hindsight was Ahrendts’ swan song. First time on stage, to take a bow – before departing. Totally planned. No surprises. And as Bryan noted: Apple had to keep it secret. It only seems like a surprise to those of us who, no matter how closely we follow Apple – really know NOTHING.
Really enjoying Charlotte on the podcasts. Great find!
The US is the only country in the world that pronounces it bayter, but we humour them because they have more guns than the rest of the world combined.
STREAMING
Much as I love Charlotte, Bryan is correct though – Apple is building up its original video content in the manner that both Netflix and Amazon found successful. And it doesn’t matter how late Apple are to the game. Spotify hasn’t made a profit yet. Apple doesn’t need to make a profit, it cleans up on the hardware. Spotify doesn’t have a viable business model. It’s just a matter of time.
The big difference is – Apple is coming into the Future world where neither Netflix nor Amazon will have content -other than their own- to stream. There is NO future where the content distributors don’t take back their content. Thanks for developing the streaming market Netflix, we’ll have that now, you’re on your own. Look around… the movie studios are doing it, it won’t be long before the other distributors follow.
There may have been a time when Eddie Cue could put his feet up on the desk and proclaim – you’ll come to us – but I think that’s gone now. Netflix is one contract away from not having any non-original content, and the streaming world will change overnight for it. The distributors think customers will just keep buying more $10/month services to get their precious content. Customers won’t, but Distributors will pour a lot of money into trying, before IF EVER the situation turns around.
Netflix and Amazon have been preparing for years for this eventuality, because they didn’t need original content AT ALL otherwise. If they needed exclusive deals to attract customers, they would have paid for said deals. Original content is not the same rosy – one service with everything- future, but it’s the only prudent move for any streaming service.
And Apple is coming into that world fresh. Apple may sign up other distributors’ content initially, but it can’t count on anything other than original content long term. However unattractive that seems to customers, the distributors are not known for looking after customers.
APPLE RETAIL
Ahrendts was always going to leave after 5 years. Here’s a scenario. Ahrendts was hired to do the things she’s done. Pretty successfully as far as we can tell. It seems Jony wouldn’t let her mess with the tables and AppleCare/the Genius Bar is an entirely separate business under the roof of Apple Stores, so to the extent Ahrendts could mess with it… most agree, it’s 100 times more difficult to get a Genius appointment than it used to be, but the current SITUATION smacks of either a bad directive from, say Cook or unsuccessful inter-departmental meetings in the way that Apple is famous for -if it involves 2 departments there will be 3 unsuccessful outcomes.
Ahrendts was always going to leave after 5 years. Cook has a trusted general in Operations with considerable Apple Store experience, although not lately. Apple Store these days is a lot about human resources, there’s a lot of staff. Move said-general into Human Resources for a couple of years to get needed experience, then when Ahrendts leaves, slide trusted general into Retail to tighten up the Operations side of things. Everything else is looking pretty good.
It was not a surprise departure. I hope I’ve demonstrated planning for it, going back years. And more importantly – the plan looks sound. Even to fussy customers, like us. If anything, the People job may go to someone else, as it was only temporary anyway. Retail is open to someone from outside in future, but I see a good plan to fix what needs to be fixed right now, Operationally.
I think I’ve also demonstrated why Bryan will never ask me to write for TMO and I think we’re both good with that.
Great show, as always, and excellent to hear more from Charlotte than we get in Daily Observations!