Integration, culture and market creation

The Asahi Shimbun Interview Part 1

Horace Dediu / Takeshi Narabe & Dylan Weir / Asahi Shimbun Interview, April 2026

Takeshi Narabe
On the secret of Apple's success, you have previously noted that the key to Apple's success was its ability to integrate hardware, software, and services to create products that are perfectly hired for a specific job to be done. You also highlighted how they moved beyond mere devices to lock customers into an ecosystem like iOS, iCloud and Apple stores. So this analysis is now very well known. So do you still think this is one of the biggest reasons of Apple's success?

Horace Dediu
Yes, we have to recognize Services has only been a story for the last 10 years. And arguably integration of software hasn't been really all that important before 1998 when Apple brought Steve [Jobs] back and with him came NextStep, which was [an] operating system based on Unix. And that was much more robust and much more focused around software engineering than the original MacOS. Or, what I would say [constituted] version 1 of Apple, which began in 1970s until the 1990s.

Most people tend to think of Apple as one continuous story for 50 years. [But] it's at least two major stories. I would say pre-98 and post-98. And post-98, it's been so different. And it's much more, I would say, something [that can be studied] as a theory.

I think in the first decades Apple was more, let's say, a story of people. There were people who were brilliant. There were people who were celebrated [as they are] now. But the second half of Apple is much more about building a business that has longevity, [that] can last a long time. It's an unusual priority.

I think for many companies in the world, they don't think about longevity. And that is why, even Tim Cook recognizes that it's the next 50 years that are more important [than the last 50 years]. So thinking about a century is really important and I think [that] is core to the current culture of Apple. Now, of course, this means, as you said, integration, and that is one of the key things. But fundamentally, beneath all that, there's this point about culture.

Takeshi Narabe
Culture?

Horace Dediu
Culture in the sense of what are the priorities? What do we concentrate on and to what degree do we need to focus? They [management] repeat these things all the time. Focus, focus. What means this? It means saying no to many things, but it also means saying yes to the things where you can bring great things to bear. It's where Apple has a unique advantage. And that means saying no to a lot of things.

We know about the car business that they eventually rejected even though they worked on it for many years. I think ultimately that decision was based on a realization that they couldn't bring enough contribution. And that's not just an economic decision. Of course they could have made money. There are even phone companies in China that make cars today. But it isn't what they thought of as important.

Takeshi Narabe
All right, thank you. So you also mentioned to what extent do you attribute Apple's dominance to the ability to tap into non-consumption addressing latent demands that consumers themselves hadn't yet realized.

Horace Dediu
So this is also one of the keys indeed. i learned about this by listening to my professor Clayton Christensen, who observed that great companies not only compete effectively, but they also create their own markets. They create their own demand.

[It's an] Extraordinary idea. And when you look at Apple, you do see that they use a different language. They talk about customers not asking for the product. But they also fundamentally build something that compels the user to buy it. When it was something that wasn't conceivable. Steve Jobs famously said, the customer hires us to find out what they want. So this is a fundamental thing.

And there are many examples. And I think one of the struggles today, for example, is Vision Pro, a product that is very difficult to find how it's going to solve problems. But at the same time, it's an extraordinary product. I think the jury is still out on the Vision Pro, but there are many other examples where I think initially they thought things would go in one direction and they went in another direction.

But even the iPhone, I like to repeat the fact that when the iPhone was introduced, Steve Jobs said it was three things. That it was a widescreen iPod, that it was an internet communicator, and it was a phone. But I point out that these days, those three jobs of being a music player, being a telephone, and being a browser, are not among the most popular things people do with it.

So it's fascinating how they introduced it as a blank slate. [It was] software, written by third parties [that discovered the compelling uses], and it developed in its own ecosystem. That is also a very interesting lesson there.

But it is fundamentally about really being humble. I think, again, it's a cultural trait, being humble and saying, maybe we don't know fully what to do, but to concentrate on quality and concentrate on doing at least something useful for people. And then later, new things will appear.

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This is the first part of a series of excerpts from an interview with Asahi Shimbun newspaper on Apple & Innovation.

Next in series: Part 2: The Story of Japanese Innovation

Interview as published: 聞 Asahi Shimbun on Apple & Innovation