Startups

Thanks to ProductHunt.co I’ve been made aware of a site that embodies the passion for incredible design. Subjective-C, a wonderful word play on the software language that iOS apps are written in – Objective-C, is a site that finds little details of apps where the designers spent a tremendous amount of time to perfect a small detail.

These types of details enhance the user experience, though many people will never even explicitly notice them. The site is new, but hopefully will grow quickly. There are many apps that deserve the recognition and designers/developers that deserve the recognition for the time and passion they spent sweating the details.

Apple has famously flown a pirate flag, dismissed conventional business practices, and run the company in nontraditional ways. It seems to be working so far. This isn’t an argument that Apple is exactly like a startup, but there are some key indicators that highlight how Apple is run differently when compared to any other multibillion dollar technology company such as Google, IBM, or Microsoft.

The $475B Startup(ish) #

Focus #

The number of technology product categories that Apple participates in in shockingly small for a company that size. It could be argued that Apple’s focus on their products has never been better. Their newer products are selling in record numbers with their older products outpacing their respective industries. This focus is far more aligned with a startup mentality - “If we can just do this one thing perfectly…” The focus is very apparent, even to a fault in some cases.

MacRumors: Square Debuts New Card Reader Developed by Former Apple Lightning Connector Designer

To develop the thinner card reader for Square, Dorogusker was forced to move away from stock components and develop proprietary hardware such as a new custom read head that is able to read two bands of data from the magnetic stripes on credit cards, resulting in greater swipe accuracy. 

Dorogusker and his team concentrated on improving the “feel” of swiping, incorporating additional tension in a spring that attaches to the read head for a more satisfying credit card swiping experience.