3-Year Old Comments Explain Why Apple Will Be Just Fine
Interesting turn of events at my house last night after Apple missed earnings. I was showing my three year old Toy Story video clips on Youtube using my iPhone. He’d never seen it, so needless to say, he had a great night. When I was putting him to bed, the conversation went like this:
Me: Pretty special night, huh? We got to watch Toy Story videos. Maybe we can watch more soon.
Him: I want to watch it all.
Me: OK, I think maybe we can do that soon.
Him: But I want to put the Toy Story in the TV.
Me: Sure we should be able to do that.
Him: We can get it from the phone to the TV. Right?
Me: Um, yes actually we can.
Him: It’s easy.
Me: That’s right, it is easy buddy. Now go to sleep. And I’ll come wake you up.
Think about that. A three year old already has the concepts down on how these devices are used. On top of that I know my kid isn’t alone in being able to run an iPhone with the best of them. And in fairness, he’ll be four in September, but you get the point: Apple technology is so damn easy to use that anyone can enjoy it the minute they start using it. And by “it” I mean anything Apple makes.
It only occurred to me just now while I was writing this that Toy Story (1995) was Pixar’s first movie, and Steve Jobs ran Pixar back then. So this cult of great content available on great devices anytime is a multi-decade crusade. Next up for Apple is an actual TV—rather than the AppleTV technology that enabled me to confirm for my kid that “it is easy” to get things from your phone to your TV.
So it’s only going to get easier, as long as Apple keeps making products that toddlers and seniors can use without help. Yesterday’s miss aside, investors should be able to bank on that.
Here’s Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman on why Apple missed. Key themes: non-U.S. weakness and consumers (like me) holding out for iPhone 5…