Apple and Amazon: Competing Ecosystems

Check out this excellent piece in HBR by Ron Adner on two of the Gang of Four. To me, the key piece is this:

In the rush to match the pieces, most of Apple's rivals have missed the critical connections that draw the entire ecosystem together into a coherent whole.

In a word, yes.

Simon Says

Apple understands the power of the platform, the consumerization of IT, and the criticality of end-user experience. Of course, it's not alone. Amazon, Facebook, and Google also get it--hence the collective success of the Gang of Four. Note, however (as the article does), that the model behind the Apple and Amazon platforms are very different. This underscores a major point in the book: there's no one right way to build a platform.

Ecosystems are key here. Even if RIM develops sleek new product or the Nokia/Windows 8 phone rocks, are their apps any good? Ecosystems are arguably just as important as the products they support.