Log in

View Full Version : Sandisk CEO Admits What We Already Knew

Vincent Ferrari
06-04-2009, 07:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/06/03/sandisk-says-the-ipod-won/' target='_blank'>http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.co...s-the-ipod-won/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"SanDisk CEO Eli Harari once plotted to dethrone the iPod with a series of &ldquo;iDon&rsquo;t&rdquo; ads a marketing campaign that cast Apple iPod users as fad-driven sheep, and promoted his company&rsquo;s Sansa media players as the smart alternative. Some fads, however, don&rsquo;t pass. And in his sunny Silicon Valley conference room one recent morning, the founder and CEO of SanDisk admits what many music lovers have known for a long time: the iPod wars are over, and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) won. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t out-iPod the iPod,&rdquo; Harari now admits."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1244115311.usr18053.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>It's all well and good to be number two, but when you're number two and number one has 85% of a market, you're a failure.&nbsp; For years, Sandisk tried to distinguish the Sansa by positioning it as an alternative to the iPod and pretty much nothing else.&nbsp; It made it big with the "anything but the iPod" crowd to the tune of a slightly less than minute market share, but the rest of the world mostly ignored it.</p><p>Sandisk should stick to what they kick butt at: flash memory.&nbsp; No one does that better.&nbsp; Hell, <a href="http://www.viddler.com/explore/vincenzof/videos/44/" target="_blank">some people even think SD Card means SanDisk Card</a>.</p>
servoisgod
06-05-2009, 01:58 PM
"It's all well and good to be number two, but when you're number two and number one has 85% of a market, you're a failure. "

Umm, Apple OS=~10% and MS OS=~90% market share?

Would you consider Apple a failure? Just saying.


Thanks,
Aaron
Vincent Ferrari
06-05-2009, 02:08 PM
"It's all well and good to be number two, but when you're number two and number one has 85% of a market, you're a failure. "

Umm, Apple OS=~10% and MS OS=~90% market share?

Would you consider Apple a failure? Just saying.


Thanks,
Aaron

I think it's pretty obvious there's a difference in philosophy between what Sandisk did and what Apple does.

Sandisk set out to unseat the iPod and tried a hundred different ways to do it including promoting its own products pretty much as "not iPods." They had every intention of taking over the market and took up an aggressive strategy to do so, they just failed and admitted as much.

I don't see Apple employing similar techniques in going up against Microsoft. It's never been about market share with them. Would they like it? Sure. Is it the be all and end all if they don't get it? Nope. Secondly, a better analog would be Apple versus another computer company, as Microsoft is not a hardware company, and Apple isn't really a software company (their software is directly for the purposes of powering their hardware).
servoisgod
06-05-2009, 05:54 PM
It's fine how you want to interpret it. I'm just going by what was posted as a definition of failure.

I myself have an iPhone and enjoying having it. However I personally can't stand Apple products because of the way Apple and the followers look at themselves. As a friend once told me, “Apple users are like democrats: It’s more of a religion than an affiliation, and they will do whatever is needed to justify themselves.”

The same can be said about PC people and how they are.

The best part about the whole thing is that we all have the right to choose what we like to work with.

Oh and "I don't see Apple employing similar techniques in going up against Microsoft." I hate to point another thing out but:
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
Vincent Ferrari
06-05-2009, 06:04 PM
It's fine how you want to interpret it. I'm just going by what was posted as a definition of failure.

I myself have an iPhone and enjoying having it. However I personally can't stand Apple products because of the way Apple and the followers look at themselves. As a friend once told me, “Apple users are like democrats: It’s more of a religion than an affiliation, and they will do whatever is needed to justify themselves.”

The same can be said about PC people and how they are.

The best part about the whole thing is that we all have the right to choose what we like to work with.

Oh and "I don't see Apple employing similar techniques in going up against Microsoft." I hate to point another thing out but:
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

I get your point. Really, I do. It's just not the same thing.

Apple is a niche product (whether I like that or not, it is true). They live in that niche and they thrive in it. The company is doing well and it's growing and the marketshare, which was 2% in the 90's is significantly better than it was. If Apple truly wanted to "own the market" they'd open their OS to all hardware and then we'd have a fight. You and I both know that.

That being said, Sandisk didn't want to be a niche product; they wanted to overtake the iPod. For them, this represents a failure both in their products and in their strategy. There's nothing wrong with being number two, but when your stated goal is to own the market and you can't crack 15%, that's failure.

Two completely different philosophies. You have a point that by Apple's standards, Sandisk was doing just fine, but we aren't measuring them by Apple's standards, we're measuring them by their own, in which their CEO says they failed.