Weird Hardware, Cables and UX is the ultimate moat.

This is a post from my weekly newsletter called Productize Philosophy. Subscribe here for all the goodness.

Hi, Everyone.

I've not sent a newsletter in the past 2-3 weeks. While I love the weekly, conversational flow of newsletters, the downside is sometimes you can feel like a machine for producing words. Especially, when I am doing writing consultancy jobs on the side. Just too much of manufacturing words.

But today, I feel a sense of freshness. A few days ago, I moved to a new apartment and the house is finally set for me to sit down, admire the view of my new home and send these words your way. This is the 10th letter and I want to make sure I know who each one of you are. Tell me where in the world you're writing from, a little or a lot about your work or any story you would want to share with me.

Let's get on with today's letter:

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🎙 Today's Discourse

Why make your own hardware when you can earn from infinitely licensing your software? This is the big question that bifurcated the entire software industry into two for decades. After all, success was found on both sides.

Microsoft made billions of dollars, dominating the industry, by simply licensing Windows to companies who would make increasingly varied and often, cheaper computer hardware gathering as many as users as they can. On the other side, Apple placed it's bets on Alan Kay and his quote, “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Now, here's the thing: in recent years, Microsoft and Google seem to be finding themselves on Apple's side. Today we will find out the deeper point Apple and Alan Kay were trying to make.

“If they don’t try new kinds of hardware for their software, nobody else can.”

In 2012, Microsoft introduced the Surface lineup, their big-bet into personal computing hardware. It quickly got defined as a new, more experimental line of devices, some of which like 2-in-1 Touchscreen PCs is now formalized into the industry zeitgeist. It was when Microsoft had finally realized that: “If you don’t try new kinds of hardware for your software, nobody else can.” You see other OEMs can't really bet on new types of computers unless they can be sure the software (Windows) and it's entire eco-system of developers will optimally support it. And Microsoft can't ensure that unless they build some of their own experimental hardware and try out Windows on it.

When Steve Jobs decided to burden Apple with a vertically integrated system of end-to-end hardware and software, the enthusiasts complained against the resultant walled-garden while Steve argued that this would help realize a better consumer experience for all end users. Years later, you can say that the enthusiasts are motivated to figure out how to emulate what Apple is offering, but with modularity. Steve and Alan were right in the obvious sense that no matter how you mix-n-match components from multiple OEMs, some cracks always appears into the consumer experience. This is clear when you analyze things at the level of data flow. The best, recent example of this played out in the case of AirPods.

When the AirPods launched, everybody was drooling over how the Pods are instantly recognized by an iPhone and can be paired as soon as you open the case. On the other side, connecting any pair of blue-tooth devices will always remain an unknown territory to someone like my mom. And these things matter as it was in the wake of explosion of the very convenient AirPods that we have a booming Podcast industry.

Countless such stories can be found in Apple's history like iMessage, AirDrop, Face Time, iTunes-iPod-Sync, etc. Here I would argue that these conveniences matter not only to end users, but to enthusiasts as well. The next time you encounter this phenomena, remember this: even to an absolute nerd who won't mind jumping through the hoops, the effortless user experience will be appreciated. This adds up.

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//Unobvious in the context of Business Goals:

The consumer experience will be better in a critical way, better in a way that can get my mom to use computers, but more interestingly better in a way that will make Apple virtually defensible against it's disruptors.

While Microsoft, and then Google [w/ Android], gathered as many users as they can by availing ever more cheaper and diverse devices through their OEMs, they eventually hit a ceiling in their growth rate. And where Apple won is in the insight that there's really no ceiling to a better consumer experience. The truth here is you can have all the users in the world, but the question you'll have to eventually answer is "What will users upgrade to?" As I type this from my Dell computer, I know my next computer will be a M1 Macbook, and I will perhaps never look back.

As long as your UX is the best, someone will pay a premium for the experience. And Apple kept creating newer and newer classes for high-buying customers who "felt attracted" and upgraded to ever more expensive computers and superior UX, until they settled somewhere [usually in Apple-verse as it is so hard to get out].

It was Apple who pushed the smartphones beyond the $1000 barrier. And it was Apple who has the most success pushing more niche devices like smartwatches and tablets that didn't exactly start of as good bets but benefitted from being in an eco-system (more on this in a future letter. if you're curious, you may ask me by replying). As of today, both product-types are successful and don't face much competition on the Google and Microsoft side.

A lot of people I grew up with in India couldn't afford Apple, but harbored the eventual dream to own one. It is common to find people who won’t buy a Windows computer for being too expensive, and will then scoff-off the same money or more on an often worse-spec-ed Apple computer. It is hard to put a price on superior UX, and even harder to articulate the value proposition of superior UX. But as long as everyone agrees you've the better UX, you're virtually defensible against the disruptors.

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Fuck Reading, let's just Watch something

If the above section was too many words for you, you can instead watch this video which documents why Microsoft finally created a Hardware lineup. Although, do make sure to read the second part which is an insight from Ben Thompson.

​Why Microsoft Makes Weird Hardware​

📚 Curations

The second part of the above discourse was inspired by Ben Thompson's essay

▶ Apple and Facebook.

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Once in while, I find essays that get permanently stored in the bank. I found two of these:

"What the "unplug for self-care" crowd doesn't get is that you are part of a Giant Social Computer in the Cloud (GSCITC) computing the future. The level and latency at which you consume information and act on it determines your "job" in the social computer. Your shitposting and FOMO are functional."

‍▶ Against Waldenponding by Venkatesh Rao​

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The intrinsic medium that a software creates, it's atomic concept, is the one that should be clearly defined, deeply understood and commonly known for better design thinking. Kevin explains how knowing this can be the foundation on which you can understand many product dynamics.

▶ How to Eat an Elephant, One Atomic Concept at a Time [Or, How Figma and Canva are taking on Adobe—and winning] by Kevin Kwok​

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🔭 Product Diaries

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"I have a cable guy"

Somehow it chuckles me to say that line over and over again to my flat-mates. That joke brings out two vagaries of my life: First, learning and growing on the open internet is about finding a guy for everything (Zat Rana is my Philosophy guy, David Perell is my Media/Writing Guy, Dave2D is my Laptop guy and so on.) Second, it exemplifies my obsession for product design, especially considering cables are often the bottleneck in creating highly-custom work setups and is popularly annoying to customers.

The cable guy I have found operates from his company called "Sonic Plumber" and he basically creates custom cables for any-but-mainly-audio purposes. I found him when the cable connecting the Digitial-to-Analog Converter [DAC from-PC] and the Speakers stopped working from wearing off at the contact points. One of the [flaps] of the pin going into the DAC had bent outwards over time causing a lose connection and so I asked my cable guy to have them pointing inwards and obviously, plated in gold for low-interference conductivity.

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Additionally, I wanted to go for a braided cable but he helped me realize that there's something much better: EPDM Elastomeric. Braided cables can feel more rigid in a more brute force way but it faults around bends. EPDM instead is ultra-flexible [feels like rubber but very different from Apple's shitty cables] and so doesn't wear-off at all the bends, which is the major frustration that for some reason characteristically-obsessives like Apple hasn't solved for. Apple's most premium line-up of Pro computers bets on braided cables but EPDM is flexible, as strong, still light and simple and a 6-mm diameter ensures Sonic's quality cables will be pumping clean audio signals for years to come.

One last thing... I got in touch with him when I placed an order on Amazon, and he personally messaged to make sure I had picked out the right cable variant for my needs. (I hadn't. He is super nice. And the world of cables is notoriously convoluted.) Check out Sonic Plumber .Com.

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Done! It is good to be back. I know this was a more voluminous letter, but I hope you read all of it. It is really some of the more foundational ideas I think about over and over again. Also, publishing these newsletters can sometimes feel like sending things to a void that doesn't respond back. There are no like buttons. Which is why I keep finding excuses for you guys to reply back. Please do reply today with your thoughts, criticisms, and any and all feedback.

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Talk Soon,
Abhishek Agarwal
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