Edifice Complex
Then there's the RadioShack story. I could not understand why a struggling business (in my opinion) would be building itself a new corporate shrine. "Shrine" is also my opinion. Take a look at the pictures and description. Decide for yourself.
RadioShack Riverfront Campus
It was completed in May, 2005. Have you increased your purchases at their stores since its completion? Do you think that money could have been better spent upgrading the look of their actual retail stores instead?
Click to enlarge.
Forehead. Desk. Whack. Whack. Whack.
Source Data:
Yahoo: RadioShack Historical Prices
Edifice is just one reason I think Apple has peaked. I also think their products have gotten pricey, especially laptops. They make a lot of great stuff, but I have not regretted my switch to Alienware two years ago. Of course, losing Steve Jobs can't be good in the long run.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of iPads....
ReplyDeleteMy local school system is going to supply an iPad for every student!
That means that even the students in the poorest performing schools get their new toys.
I don't see and end to the Apple juggernaut until their salespeople are unable to brainwash .gov purchasing agents (or until the money runs out.) That'll take awhile...until it won't.
Does Apple make anything humans need?
Mr Slippery & Fritz_O,
ReplyDeleteI think Apple has an Oriface complex.
I was an Apple developer for a good chunk of my career. I really liked the platform. However, I still don't own an Apple product.
1. I'm too stubborn to pay that much money I guess.
2. I'm so tired of hearing that Apple is God's gift to the world.
As for #2, I'll believe it when I see iCancerCure.
Fritz_O, citation please? I'm working on Ed Apps, this would be good to know. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteApropos of my comment the other day that Iacoca was an evil genius for realizing Americans only care about the monthly nut, did anyone else see this anecdote over at CR:
ReplyDelete"Oliver and his wife owed $372,000 on their home, now worth about $230,000. With a loan-to-value ratio of 161 percent, Oliver had little hope of refinancing his 5.875-percent mortgage ...
The Olivers had only 21 years remaining on their original mortgage, so rather than refinance into a new 30-year loan, they took out a 15-year loan at 3.5 percent with no closing costs.
"We will be paying roughly $300 more per month, but we are saving $171,000 over the course of the loan," says Oliver, who closed a few weeks ago."
Effing unbelievable. It's idiots like them that allow the banks to pillage us all. Let's hope they have some serious assets to which the bank could otherwise seek recourse, though with a house that cheap in SF I rather doubt it.
AllanF,
ReplyDeleteEffing unbelievable.
I think that pretty much sums up the entire global economy. Sigh. :(