I have to agree somewhat with this comment. In particular, is handling 60 SKU's really a huge problem with technology and management nowadays?
It's a pity there's so much focus on small details like that and the color selection, because that's really not the main point, which the article does touch on - the two companies understand and heavily influence the consumer market and fashion, so the partnership makes sense. It's that simple.
By the way, Apple was the one who made the single-look product cool, with the iPhone. It's so cool that its own colorful 5C isn't selling very well (by its standards, of course) [1]. Restricting its color choices was not only because of the difficulty in doing so, it was a deliberate design choice. [Edit, based on parent comment: And getting people to buy overpriced cases to customize instead? Genius!]
1. Google "iPhone 5C sales". Observe articles calling it, e.g., "Failure Flop" and "dismal."
Thank you for actually understanding what I said clearly and meant.
Seems to be quite a bit of misunderstanding of my original comment :(
@madeofpalk Your comment seems critical of mine. But I'm not sure what it adds except that it may have strengthened my point that Apple has a way to organize their SKUs. Please read the original article and see what I'm trying to address.
Handling 60 SKUs of similar products is a big problem. Multi-variant stock control and supply chain management is troublesome at best. If one of your stores runs out of green widgets and another one only has red widgets until Tuesday, how do you reliably sell red and green ones to customers who want one without buying so much stock that you are then at risk of a loss when it is end-of-lined?
Too late, the customer has gone to another widget stockist.
(I did a lot of work in supply chain management a few years back).
The water there is kind of muddy w/r/t the 5c because in addition to being available in multiple colors, it's also basically 2012's phone. They took the product that would have otherwise occupied the "value buyer" part of the lineup, with last year's old model, and relaunched it as if it were a new product.
Is it that people prefer the single-look of the 5s, or is it that they are not willing to trade the latest-and-greatest hardware for colors? Do people care more about utility than color?
Personally I like the look of the 5c better, but I wouldn't endure two years of having to enter a lockscreen PIN when I could forego the colors and get a 5s.
The problem with the 5c was the price difference just wasn't very big, compared to the total price of the phone. It was rather a poor prospect if you were in that market at all.
It's a pity there's so much focus on small details like that and the color selection, because that's really not the main point, which the article does touch on - the two companies understand and heavily influence the consumer market and fashion, so the partnership makes sense. It's that simple.
By the way, Apple was the one who made the single-look product cool, with the iPhone. It's so cool that its own colorful 5C isn't selling very well (by its standards, of course) [1]. Restricting its color choices was not only because of the difficulty in doing so, it was a deliberate design choice. [Edit, based on parent comment: And getting people to buy overpriced cases to customize instead? Genius!]
1. Google "iPhone 5C sales". Observe articles calling it, e.g., "Failure Flop" and "dismal."