INNOBLOG

Professor Christensen has stirred up an interesting debate about Apple's ability to maintain its current level of growth in the recent BusinessWeek article, "How Apple Could Mess Up, Again."

In this interview, he speculates that Apple's proprietary architecture will lose its competitive advantage in the future, as it did in the past. Prof. Christensens bases his argument on the theory of modularity which states that early on, when functionality and reliability is not yet good enough, a proprietary solution is right. However, when the technology matures and standardization occurs, the product becomes modular. The industry leader loses its competitive advantage and the ability to make money shifts down the value chain to those who control aspects of performance.

What is your view on this topic? What do you think Apple should do?

For more information about modularity, see Skate to Wear the Money Will Be, HBR, 2001.
See also, Chapter 5 in The Innovator's Solution.