Ask HN: Why is only apple.com like apple.com?
1. In a glance see the complete range of products they offer.
2. Easily compare products within a same category. Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro for example.
3. Compare current generation with previous generation. iPhone 14 vs iPhone 12 for example.
4. See the overview, tech specs and then can subsequently configure and buy a product within 3 clicks.
5. Lastly I can easily see pricing / products in different countries.
Now when compared to Microsoft's homepage (www.microsoft.com), I can do none of those things.
Especially clicking on the Surface link, takes me to a page which lists all sorts of different surface products. Some looks like tablets, some have similar name to the tablets but are laptops? Their name conveys no information as to what is what. There is no product category as Apple's.
Besides that, they seem to promote Windows, Teams and Microsoft 365 but there's no direct link to Azure?
Lastly, Google's pixel website is even more confusing since they have no website. They have a geography specific store. https://store.google.com/
11 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 43.1 ms ] threadHaving said that both Microsoft and Google have a decent range of hardware products as well. From Xbox to Pixels. Money shouldn't be a blocker for either of these tech companies.
The reality is, nobody has hardware margins like Apple. They sell an iPhone at full price, they pocket 40% of the MSRP. Part of those proceeds go towards marketing new iPhones, whereas Microsoft and Google don't really get the yields to justify that. Just look at the 2022 earnings call and you'll see how wide the disparity is.
Many small companies or even developers have clear and clean websites.
It's not a question of money. It's a question of taste.
Pragmatically though, it will always come down to money. Apple sure wants you to believe it's a matter of taste though, rest assured their marketing spend reflects that.
- lists all models on the homepage, along with products like Solar Roofs and panels
- The order button on any model's page has a compare button
- Specs are also available on the model's page
- Allows for payment with minimal clicks
- Shows financing / fees choice depending on state
I think this is because Tesla, like Apple is a deeply vertically integrated company with financial and company-value incentives around marketing and selling mass-market luxury goods honed in on the idea of consumer-friendly, tech-savy products / services.
Samsung should also have the same incentives like Tesla and Apple but their homepage is even worse than Microsoft's.
They are smart that way. Other companies would do well to try something like that. But they aren't that smart.
It works in parallel with Apple's approach to features. They don't want to be the company that does everything in a mediocre way. They want to provide a reduced feature set, and make everything easy.
That drives tech people crazy. Compare the famous Slashdot "Lame" pronunciation about the iPod. They know all of the things that technology can do, and want it to do all of those things. Apple, at its best, tries to restrict itself to the things most people want most of the time.
Apple doesn't always succeed, of course. It has lots of missteps. But when it does succeed, it's because of a combination of focus PLUS having that focus be on the right thing. Google and Microsoft will never say "We're not interested in that kind of customer".