Apple’s ‘rejec­tion’ of the prac­tices pun­dits “always say you should do to suc­ceed in the Inter­net econ­omy” isn’t unique, but it does make for inter­est­ing reading:

Apple doesn’t blog; it doesn’t Tweet; it does lit­tle on Face­book; it doesn’t engage with its cus­tomer base. It doesn’t ask the “com­mu­nity” for feed­back or rapidly iter­ate based on any such feed­back or even respond to criticism.

It doesn’t give any­thing away for free, thank you very much—in fact, the com­pany charges pre­mium prices for just about every­thing. Its cus­tomer ser­vice is per­func­tory. It engages in ter­ri­bly consumer-unfriendly prac­tices like mak­ing you buy a whole new device when the bat­tery dies.

And mar­ket­ing? […] For the most part, Apple adver­tis­ing is old media all the way.

There are some impor­tant lessons for entre­pre­neurs in this strat­egy, says Jonathan Weber:

  • It’s the prod­uct, stu­pid! (“If in doubt, focus on the product.”)
  • Brand mar­ket­ing still matters—a lot.
  • Engag­ing with your cus­tomers via the real-time Web is not, in fact, manda­tory. (Don’t become influ­enced by “what the zeit­geist of the moment says you should be doing”.)
  • Con­tin­u­ously con­sider oppor­tu­nity costs.

via @alexjmann