The way I consume literature is also divided. I read all of my news online now, or through the Guardian’s fantastic iPhone app. However, I have deflected all attempts of my loved ones to buy me an e-reader. Why? Because, like my CDs, I love the signalling that comes with displaying the books I have read on shelves at home – despite the fact that this modus operandi could be construed as fairly pretentious.

There’s no doubt that the physical publication industry needs to change in this digital age, but as you suggest Carl, the iPad is not *the* answer. I love first editions, old vinyls and CD collections, but I also love technology. The trick for publishers is to combine the best elements of both, and tailor an offering accordingly, in integrated fashion.

Some good references in here. But I don’t think it goes quite far enough so as to be obvious to the “classical” tech CEO.

There is nothing wrong with good technology, and there is nothing wrong with a good tech spec. The fatal mistake is in thinking that it ends there and somehow remains in a box.

Apple’s approach is one of what I call “joined up thinking”. They connect all of the dots.

I think the Penny Arcade piece is incomplete.

Apple took over the personal stereo market not because of their brand values, not because they had the “sexiest” piece of hardware (they didn’t) and not because they made “a product”. What Apple made was actually a “system” which is far more than a singular product and a result of joining up all of the dots.

They built iTunes.

What Apple realised is that no matter what the hardware does or how sexy it is or how incredible the technology is, it’s all completely irrelevant without *content*.

What Apple did is to productise *content* and not to productise *technology*.

In doing so, they built an entire eco-system, which has now extended out into applications (and I feel will continue to extend).

They achieved this by understanding that technology is really just an enabler to something else (in this case listening to music). It’s the music that’s important, and access to it, not the box that plays it.

It’s the joined up thinking of end to end value chain that Apple gets so well and results in good products.