First, Pluto Was Downgraded, and Now Saturn Is Gone.
By: Christian Soschner
Tags: Microsoft, Saturn, Consumer Electronics, Life Lessons, Apple

First, Pluto Was Downgraded, and Now Saturn Is Gone.

A Brief History of Consumer Electronics, Not an Astronomy Lecture.

All pictures in this article without source information are from CANVA PRO.

My dear reader, I admit I have been a bit clickbaity with the title. I am 100% guilty of the clickbait crime. I am not talking about the planet Saturn, although the title might assume that. I lead you astray.

I am talking about the electronic store chain Saturn. The trademark Saturn vanished from Austria. It merged with the brand MediaMarkt. What commercially makes sense in a world of Amazon dominating commerce still leaves me a little bit sentimental.

Join me on my journey through tech history from a young boy's consumer perspective from the 70s, growing into a middle-aged man in 2020. I hate talking about me as a middle-aged man. But that is what 46 years old is — an old f….

Picture from https://kurier.at/wirtschaft/marke-saturn-geht-in-mediamarkt-auf/400970021

What is Saturn? A planet, and what else?

For the readers who might live outside Austria or even Europe, a bit of an explanation of what Saturn is.

On the one hand, it is the sixth planet of our solar system. On the other hand, it is an electronics retail chain founded in 1961 in Hamburg. The first store was set up to sell records. It claimed itself as “the biggest record show in the world.”

Yes, records. It was 1961. The days when music was pressed on Vinyl and selling records was a sound business. Like the Virgin stores of Richard Branson.

Over time it evolved into an electronic store chain with more than 200 shops in Europe — mainly in german-speaking and their neighboring countries. Saturn belongs to the MediaMarktSaturnRetail group, with more than 1,000 stores in 15 countries employing more than 65,000 people.

How the world changes

In October, I wanted to go on Saturn’s website to check out the new Apple iPhone's possible delivery dates. The store I used to go to was just a 5 minutes bus ride from my apartment.

I got a fix for my electronics addiction at Saturn Stores for more than 25 years. So I wanted to see when the new iPhone is available to order it and pick it up. What a surprise. When I opened the website Saturn.at, I was redirected to MediaMarkt. The simple message: Saturn and MediaMarkt merged — the brand vanished.

Oh boy. It really hit me emotionally, and my mind started creating sentimental stories about past events. It inspired me to write this article to overcome my emotional pain of losing a beloved one.

Come with me on a journey through my past, and let’s take 10 minutes to revive the crucial milestones in the development of technology nowadays.

Picture from https://nat.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=objekt&oges=209576&cachesLoaded=true

The 80s — VC 20, C64 and Amigas plus CDs

I was drawn to technology early on. A neighbor owned a Commodore VC 20. I saw it and was hooked.

The first computer game I played was on this computer. Frogger was most likely its name. Where did we get the computer and games from?

I grew up in the Austrian mountains. Traveling to bigger cities didn’t happen very often. Locally we had some larger retail stores. Owned by locals. The retail stores had tiny nerd corners. And sold a bit of tech stuff.

This is where we got our games and devices — games on cassettes. Of course, everybody bought it, and nobody copied those games. We were honest kids. The Commodore C64 substituted the VC 20.

Hardware and Software were added to the sales mix of regular retail stores. Usually, the employees had no idea what they could be used for. Computers back then didn’t solve any of our everyday life's problems. There were no specialized computer shops. I got my first own C64 in 1986—what fun.

One of the first games I bought was Little Computer People. It is based on the story that intelligent life lives inside Computers, and via the game, players can interact with those people — the computer owners need to care for them. It was a predecessor of SIMS.

The 80s was also when the Compact Discs (CDs) revolutionized the way data was stored. The first time I saw a compact disc was in the late 80s when a friend showed it off in school. Us normal low-income people in the mountains were still dwelling on cassettes and records.

The sales process for all tech was straight forward. Go into a small locally owned retail store — buy — leave — no questions asked. No large electronics retail chains did exist.

The early 90s — Windows-Gates

Things changed a bit with the inventions and the spread of Windows and Microsoft Office. Personal Computers — Intel Inside and Microsoft on the software side were a bit more complex.

Commodore Computers and Apple Computers were closed architecture systems. The user couldn’t change much. Personal Computers were different. Basically, the user could put together the computer in any way he wanted from the hardware side. Sales personnel needed to be more proficient in selling an open architecture than with closed systems.

Thus, I saw the first time stores that completely focused on selling computers. In the end, they ruined the computer business of privately-owned retail stores. The reason was quite simple. Nerds like me got proper advice from the experts in the specialized stores. The retail people didn’t know anything.

The open architecture was the right thing for us nerds and young jacks-know-it-all. We wanted to play, putting things together and tearing them apart. Having fun when something worked out well and crying giant tears when something broke. We invested every single dime in those adventures.

Let’s just remember that before 1993 the Internet did not exist. Doing research was basically buying books, magazines and talking to experts in the shops and friends.

Shopping back then was not going into a shop buying and leaving. My friends and I often met at such computer shops to discuss the latest innovation, and sometimes the owner showed us secretly the latest not yet “officially” released tech gadget. Well, at least it was what they were telling.

A friend of mine owned such a shop. It was a meet and greet point for the nerds in town. My friend meanwhile works for Microsoft rolling out Cloud services in the Middle East and Asia.

It was wonderful days. And Bill Gates dominated with Microsoft and Windows the market — Intel inside.

The Mid 90s — University — the Internet and Amazon, DVDs and mobile phones

Then three things that absolutely changed the world happened.

The first gamechanger: I decided to study the economy at the University of Graz. It really changed my world. At the University, I had the pleasure of getting my own eMail Account. And it was the first time I logged into the internet. Quickly I realized — I need to have internet access at home because I can connect to the whole world.

The second gamechanger: The birth of the internet happened in 1991 with a message by Tim Berner-Lee. He was working at CERN. In 1993 CERN announced that the WorldWideWeb — Web 1.0 — should be publicly available free of charge. A real gamechanger. And I do remember those days. Trained at a commercial school, I thought: Why should they do that? How will the internet survive when the owner gives it away for free. Little did I know.

The third gamechanger: Quickly, Jeff Bezos realized the potential of the Internet. In 1993 he decided to found an Online Bookstore: Amazon.com. In the light of the fact that the WWW was announced in 1993 to be publicly available in the same year, Jeff Bezos was THE first mover of commercial ideas on the Internet. At least in my opinion.

My world back then consisted basically of Austria, for low-income family life was more local than global. The Internet changed that completely. It opened the whole world to me.

Initially, the internet was mostly used for eMails, chatting as we did on ICQ — basically like Whatsapp just way earlier. And the first time computer games went Online. I remember the first Online RPGs like Meridian 59 or Everquest.

Mobile phones

In parallel, communication changed due to the internet and the rise of the mobile phone industry. Up to the early 90s, innovation was rather slow-moving. Computers in the 80s. Television a bit of innovation but nothing game-changing.

The mobile industry was the second big hit in the second half of the 90s. Before, we had phones on a cord at home. Then, the mobile industry rolled out mobile phones to everybody. It was glorious days. The first time I got phones for free. I remember that I got phones and contracts for 1 year for free for the entire family — 10 people — me, my partner, our parents, and siblings.

The phones were awkward, not coming close to what we have today. But, we could text and talk wherever we were.

DVDs-Playstation and the death of cartridges

With the internet and the chips' improvement in computers, better data storage possibilities were pressing problems. Also, the DVDs were introduced—basically the same as CDs but with more storage space.

It was the rise of gaming systems. In the 80s, I used Commodore. Gaming on Personal Windows-based computers was a bit awkward. Playstation won the game finally in my house. They used CDs and later DVDs and Blu-rays for storage and were optimized for gaming. PCs were merely for work, and games went to the Playstation.

Saturn — my love

All these innovations

internet

mobile phones

better storage facilities

changed the way we communicated and did business entirely. The first change I realized was that the local computer stores vanished. Larger retail chains like Mediamarkt and Saturn (finally I made it there) took over to fulfill the growing demand for computer equipment.

I remember well the weekend shopping trips with my long term partner in the second half of the 90s. She was into fashion; I was into tech. The spread of larger shopping centers in Austria made shopping a Saturday event for the whole family. Fashion stores next to toy shops and consumer electronic retail chains like Saturn.

Yet, the nerdy community didn`t meet up in the malls anymore. It was more or less getting the needed equipment to pay and go like in the old days in the 80s. But it was great.

It was when I saw you the first time and fell in love with you: Saturn. You had everything I ever wanted to have when it comes to consumer electronics. In the 90s, Amazon was just a bookstore. So seeing new gadgets, testing them, buying music CDs, movie DVDs, games, modems, mouses, Monitors, Computers, Playstation — it all happened at the large specialized consumer electronic chains located in shopping malls.

The world was perfect and good. And then…

The late 90s

In the late 90s and the start of a new Millenium — Dell changed the game, Napster destroyed the music industry, and Steve Jobs saved the planet.

Dell destroyed it all. Napster did the same. Steve Jobs picked up bits and pieces and put it all new together.

It was the first time I remember that the power of the internet and electronics completely has thrown over entire value chains.

The Dell case

We were used to buying computers in shops. The open architecture made the buying process more complicated. Should I get an NVIDIA graphic card or an AMD one? Which processor is the best? And what monitor is optimized for that?

The research took ages. The internet still was young, and no google was around. Search engines were more or less an alphabetical list of links. Information was consumed from paper magazines and talks with rare experts. And still, we couldn’t find the perfect system. The sales personnel at Saturn? They didn’t know jack shit. But they had all the bits and pieces needed for putting a sound gaming system together.

Dell changed that. Everything I needed was on their website. I could configure my computer the way I wanted it. When I exceeded a budget, no salesperson gave me an angry look when I took back the 3,000 EUR equipment I couldn’t afford. Stealing hours of his life and purchasing for a few hundred bucks. The website was patient.

And it was cheaper than buying at Saturn. So many of my nerdy friends went to buy online from Dell, which cannibalized Saturn's business. A first hit. And I got to know the business term Cannibalisation.

Before, I was trained at commercial schools in how to maintain a business. In the second half of the 90s, the innovation train left the station. Innovate, cannibalize yourself or die.

The Napster case

Another nice invention was MP3 players. I believe every runner knows what I am talking about. In the 80s, we had the walkman—a cassette player with a battery slot and the ability to play a cassette for 20 minutes. The device was huge and tangling from your side. And it was heavy.

The Discman replaced it. Same story. But you couldn’t run with it. Why? Because the laserbeam lost track. So for us, active people, we needed something new — reliable. And someone invented the MP3 player. What was that?

A simple device with a flash drive. Enough to store 10 to 20 songs. Well, at least it is what I remember without asking Dr. Google. The only thing was: Where did you get the songs for the player?

The usual process was to buy a CD and convert it to the MP3 format, which needed a computer, a piece of software, and expertise to use these things. It was not for the ordinary blokes from around the corner. It needed at least a master's degree in computer science and a pocket deep enough to buy an MP3 player, CDs, and convert them. Well, ok, I went a bit off track again.

I remember copying CDs to MP3 for my long term partner around 2000 when we moved to Vienna.

Then came Napster. Napster was a peer-2-peer network sharing MP3s. The idea was

you buy a CD and

convert it to MP3 and

When you are online, you share your library and

you get access to other users library

You give and receive.

Napster was another big game-changer by accident. The hidden asset was making people working together and sharing their possessions for free. A twist in the economy rarely anybody talks about. A business model that needed some work but paved the way to subscriptions.

The downside was, the founders of Napster destroyed the music industry's value chain — willingly or by accident — who knows. The license terms back then stated that the owner of a CD might only use it for private purposes and make a limited number of copies if the original got destroyed, but for personal use only.

The terms didn’t include giving away the music for free via Napster. Napsters model was borderline. Although nobody made money with it, it destroyed the commercial model of the music industry. So quickly, the industry went down to business with the Napster guys. And Napster went down the outlaw route.

Steve Jobs was needed to save the day.

But the idea of changing the industry was laid out. Steve Jobs was always good at giving inventions a final cut. Making the already great excellent. Apple, in my eyes, is not very innovative. I can’t remember an invention that Apple did by itself, but I remember many inventions that became famous through the apple polishing.

MP3 players and peer-2-peer sharing were the first polishing acts of Apple in the new Millenium. Apple invented the Apple iPod. Before that, MP3 players could hold 10–20 songs. That's a lot of work for the user to delete and upload songs to the player constantly.

What was the unique twist Steve Jobs gave it:

Apple iPod — 1,000 songs in your pocket

What a unique selling proposition. Do you want to hear the grandmaster of putting ZEN down to business?

That’s a sound unique selling proposition.

Gaming — one of my addictions

The gaming industry discovered the Internet in the 90s. Shooter and Role Playing games went online. Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Meridian 59, or Everquest.

The gaming industry connected people all over the world. The community back then was unique. Accessing the internet was expensive, technically complex; the language was mostly English, and it needed a stable internet connection. A stable connection was not a given back in the days. It did cost a solid amount of money per month.

In Austria, the cable television providers were the first ones who opened their fiber networks to private customers. It was expensive but a necessary addition for avid gamers like me. It provided the necessary bandwidth.

I remember well the nights I spent online playing with Korean and American students. Chatting happened via text—a unique chance to practice English daily and practice escapism.

Saturn and I

In the early days of the new Millenium Saturn — my personal electronics dealer had it all. Compact discs for Music and Blue rays. Yes, even though Napster was around, I stuck to buying Music and Movies. Why? Finding a good quality MP3 file took hours and hours.

I also finished my master's degree in economics and started working, first in research, then in M&A in big corporates. Buying movies and music supported the artists and made sure I have great quality recordings at hand. This was an additional reason that kept me from buying an Apple iPod. Converting CDs to MP3 was work. It took time and felt like stealing. So I kept my habit of listening to music on the computer via the disc driven.

Saturn provided everything I needed: a computer, mobile phones, CDs, Games — everything needed. My relationship with Saturn was thriving. Every weekend a new gadget — and yes, I burned money and time. But it was fun.

2005 and beyond — the Apple decade

Between 2005–2010 again, a lot of things happened that changed our world forever.

And luckily for the better.

Steve Jobs did it again — iPod Nano.

One impressive thing — Steve Jobs never stopped improving inventions. In September 2005, he introduced the iPod Nano to the world. And this product really got me. It was not the big and heavy iPod from 2001. It was a small device with a huge data storage.

But it didn’t take away the problem of getting MP3s. This was when I discovered the second invention of Apple. Steve Jobs had taken over the entire music industry value chain.

How?

The problem I was facing was still converting CDs into MP3s. On top of that, I hated having to buy an entire disc when mostly 1 or 2 songs were appealing to me. While I saw the iPod Nano coming to Saturn, I discovered the iTunes Store at the same time.

In 2003, Steve Jobs had already introduced the option of buying single songs from an Album for 0,99 ct. And together with the iPod Nano, it was a real gamechanger in my world. Why?

I loved sports and mostly wanted to listen to music while doing sports for distraction and motivation. Apple solved this problem — iPod Nano and the 0,99ct per song option at the iTunes Store.

Steve hit a second time — Smartphones.

And he did it again. The mobile industry was thriving. Since I got my first mobile in 1997, Austria's industry gave so many mobiles away for free that every person on average owned 2–3 devices. My apartment was full of old phones. I couldn’t sell them on eBay. Due to the high innovation speed and the “For Free” Model, they became worthless the minute I got one. Well, I hadn’t to pay for anything in the first place.

The mobile industry tried to figure out how to take the “for free” model back. It was burning money. Most customers didn’t generate sufficient revenues via their monthly subscriptions to justify giving away phones for free.

Additionally, traditional mobile phones all had one problem. They came with closed software architecture. Every time I got a new phone, I had to spend a day learning how it was set up — transferring the phonebook from an old phone to a new one. This often didn’t work because the systems were not compatible, and the Simcards couldn’t store many contacts.

External storage? Well, not back then. So a lot of things were still unsolved. In that market, with exactly these kinds of problems, Master Steve did something amazing.

He provided the next solution:

The iPhone 1.0

I really didn’t get how much potential this innovation had. I remember it well when I ordered the first iPhone. Back in 2007, I was running the financial department of a life science company. The CEO, Rodger Novak (meanwhile CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics), wanted me to order an iPhone. I grinned and said: “Why do you need an iPod with a telephone function? Ordering a regular mobile phone and an iPod is much cheaper than going for an iPhone.” Well, Rodger was the CEO, so of course, I obeyed with a smile on my face.

It took a few years until I really understood the value of the iPhone. The first one came without 3G. 3G was back then what 5G is in 2020. I got hooked on iPhones with the iPhone 3G. It gave me the possibility to browse the web when I was commuting. Of course, by subway — not in the car. And the gamechanger was the absolute power of the user to personalize the iPhone 100%. And it was transferable to new iPhones.

Gone were the days of being dependent on the technicians designing a phone. Today in 2020, when I buy a new iPhone, it configures exactly in the same way as my old iPhone. And I don’t have to do anything.

Thank you, Steve. May God bless you in the next world. You did a great job for society.

Netflix went online

On the eve of one of the biggest crashes in stock markets' history, Netflix put its business online. Before 2007 Netflix was renting out DVDs via postal service. In 2007 they pivoted to the internet. Distributing movies via the internet. A bold move as the bandwidth in 2007 still was narrow. There was a constant traffic jam on the data highway.

Netflix did it right. In 2010 they acquired the streaming rights for five years for films from Paramount and MGM. Exactly at the time when nobody was interested in such rights. But more to that later.

Gaming

It was still more or less offline in distributing the content. Although the Playstation and other gaming devices went online, the player still needed to buy a DVD or BlueRay to get the game started. The game on the Playstation started from a DVD, and then the player went online to enjoy playing with the community of gamers.

Compared to the 90s, the great thing was that patches to the software (the name of apps before Apple introduced the App-Economy) were delivered digitally. No more pushing discs or CDs around. The minute a game was installed, it got the latest bugfixes. But no big innovation right away.

Me and Saturn.

2005 to 2010 was the first time since our long-term relationship started in the 90s when I wasn’t stopping by that frequently. We were together for more than a decade, and I started betraying you. Yes, I am guilty of adultery. Saturn served me well. It was me who started trying out other sales channels.

Apple’s iPod Nano/iTunes single song combination got me. I stopped buying music CDs at Saturn. And put all my money for music into the iTunes Store. I really didn’t understand that it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Saturn.

It was just a bit of flirting with other channels. Nothing serious.

2010 onwards- the tech train gained speed

Oh, my dear reader. If you really think the innovation speed was high since 1974. You are wrong. The innovation speed from 2010 onwards put the world on speed dial until the abrupt halt in 2020 with SARS-CoV-2.

Let me tell you how and why.

Netflix — not a Jobs Story.

Streaming was something that Microsoft and Apple missed entirely, initially. I thought that the two godfathers of innovation lost it’s edge and started aging. Also, Jeff Bezos, with Amazon, was extremely late to the party.

The Netflix crew nailed it. I always thought when I could buy music via the internet: Why not movies. And then I discovered Netflix. I believe I got my first subscription back in 2012/13 or something. I am in Austria, Europe. No, with have no Kangaroos. They are in Australia.

Before Netflix, movies were delivered in a complex value chain. First, they appeared in Cinemas; then, they went on BlueRay's for purchase and a bit later for rent. Ultimately they made their way to Cable TV. SKY was one of the first ones who played movies. The business model of SKY was a high monthly subscription fee. A few months later, movies were distributed to cable TV. And a few years down the road to free TV. That was the good old movie industry value chain.

And then came Netflix. Nobody believed in streaming back in the days before 2010. The internet was laggy, crowded, and slow. Streaming movies needed a stable broadband connection. 3G was not built for that; 4G still young and not entirely rolled out. And fiber networks — well, the internet's backbone was not built for the massive amount of data.

Thus, Netflix was extremely adventurous when they got into a billion-dollar deal for Paramount and MGM movies' streaming rights. And the rest is history. Netflix succeeded. The world's movie library went online and got accessible as a subscription-based service. I remember the fun I had to cancel my Sky subscription of 50 EUR/month for the Netflix subscription of about 6 EUR monthly.

Sky called me and wanted to convince me to stay. I said to the lady on the phone: “If you give me the sky subscription for 6 EUR, I stay”. She asked, “why?”. I explained, “Netflix is available for 6 EUR/month.” She laughed and replied, “but Netflix doesn’t have the latest movies. We do.”

“Yes. True. But I use movies mainly for learning English and Netflix is sufficient for this purpose. And still, when I buy 1 or 2 movies on a Blue-ray, I am saving money. And more than 1 or 2 movies I do not watch in a quarter anyway. So do I get Sky for 6 EUR/month?”

No. I didn’t get it. But it didn’t matter at all.

Good Bye Steve

Steve Jobs died in 2011. One of the greatest men in the history of tech. He shaped our society with his spirit. The 2020 lockdown was digestible because of the Internet (not a Jobs invention), Smartphones, and Tablets. The devices that deliver Apps like Netflix to the Users.

In a way that the user doesn’t need a Ph.D. in engineering to access the content. I believe it was Steve Jobs who brought this twist to our society and built the right high performing team at Apple. In my opinion, Steve Jobs was the person who made the Internet accessible for all human beings with a simple to use the device: The iPhone.

I believed when Steve Jobs left Apple that the company will go down.

With Apple, I always was wrong. I didn’t understand the iPod, the Smartphone, and not that Steve Jobs has built a great company with a thoughtful leadership selection. Tim Cook took over and made Apple the most valuable company in this decade.

Tim Cook made the innovation train of Apple never-ending. Apple Watch was one of his inventions that similarly changed the world, as his predecessor Steve Jobs's inventions did.

Gaming

It didn’t pick up the subscription model yet. But the gaming industry did what Steve Jobs did to the Music industry. They delivered directly to the player via the internet. I really can’t remember when I stopped buying Games on Blue rays. I got a PS4 in 2014. Did I buy games online on the PS3? I can’t remember. Most likely.

As Netflix caused heavy traffic on the internet, the internet providers improved bandwidth and speed. And it made downloading 60–100 Gigabytes feasible in a short period of time. Hours, not days or weeks. Unbelievable speed — coming from the early days of the internet with 56 kbit modems.

Sony went online also Microsoft. Not online games could be purchased online; also, every software is needed. Many apps (the new name of software) became available for monthly subscription fees.

And a novel industry was born: Cloud-based services and data-storage became an entirely new sector.

Software went Apps

I remember the old MS office. For decades I purchased the CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays, waiting for weeks until the online update process was finished, and I finally could use the new software. Today, I get a monthly subscription. The software is updated with small downloads almost daily, without causing much friction in the user experience.

Adobe did the same thing and many other apps.

Amazon — the biggest retail store in the world

Jeff Bezos started as an Online Bookstore. In 2020 almost every legally available product can be purchased via Amazon. What began as an online bookshop in the 90s evolved into the biggest retail store in the world. No shops and everything delivered to the doorstep.

It just needed a fingertip, and you got what you always wanted a few days later delivered. Amazon also started Amazon Web Services, which still is a big growth factor for Amazon in 2020.

Me and Saturn.

Our relationship that developed over more than a decade got a serious hit. I was attracted to younger sales channels. And well, I admit I started betraying my Saturn regularly.

With the rise of Netflix, I stopped buying Movies on BlueRay's at all. I believe the last one I got must have been about 10 years ago. The movies that I couldn’t find on Netflix, I started buying on the Apple Store. Apple also had an online service. No subscription fees, but for about 5 EUR, I could rent a movie for 48 hours.

Amazon has the same service. All three together took me away from renting movies at local rental services or purchasing them at Saturn.

The same with the gaming industry. The minute Sony started selling games online, I just bought them online without a second thought. It was not a decision based on a lower price—just convenience. Click — buy — download — play. Done. No waiting at the checkout, no frustration because the game is currently sold out. Digital content is always available when you want it.

The last serious purchase I made at Saturn was in 2013. I got a new laptop for work for about EUR 1,700. Since then — nothing. Well, I obviously slowly killed my traditional sales channel without me even realizing what I was doing. And most likely, millions of other consumers did the same. Digitalization simply was the more attractive offer.

2015 — new digital eco-systems evolved

It was the rise of FAANG, which changed the entire world. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet (formerly known as Google) delivered a mesmerizing return on investment in the last five years. Why?

Because they evolved business models to entire eco-systems, these innovation engines bring value to the customer in multiple ways. Let’s get a bit of an insight.

Apple

The biggest criticism of the Apple story on the stock market was that Apple is only a one-product company: It only sells the iPhone. And a tablet which was viewed as an iPhone with a bigger screen. Many analysts warned that declining iPhone sales might hurt the company long term and easily lose its entire value.

Besides the iPhone, Apple had nothing else to offer before 2015. Tim Cook changed this story. Let’s just think about the Apple startup — Airpods. Tim Cook went into the crowded earbud space. I love sports. One of the biggest problems was buying reliable headsets. They should be durable and lightweight.

Tim Cook brought the solution to the market — cordless Apple AirPods. A masterpiece from version 1 onwards. No matter what kind of sports I did — running or working out at the Gym — they never fell out.

A couple of weeks ago, I calculated the Apple Airpod business's value and came to 84 billion dollars. Just imagine you start a company, and 3 years later, it has a value close to 100 billion.

Tim Cook brought multiple devices to the consumer that put Apple in the hands (iPhone and Tablet), wrist (Apple Watch), and Ears (Airpods). For the customization of the gadgets, the consumers need to buy Apps. And the amazing thing is — Apple gets a 30% commission from every sale.

As the subscription models gain traction, you can easily imagine what that means to Apple's revenue. A customer doesn’t only buy one iPhone every 4–5 years, no in 2020, she regularly purchases Apps at the Appstore and delivers cash to Apple.

Apple has about 1,5 billion devices spread out all over the world. Just assume less than a third are active users. It is still the size of the United States population, who regularly buy something via the iPhone- with Apple making its commission.

No wonder Apple piles up cash, and Warren Buffett has his largest holdings in Apple.

Amazon

The next big eco-system that evolved out of the internet economy. Amazon became the world's biggest warehouse and is expanding further on. Like Apple also Jeff Bezos company stays innovative and supporting its customer's needs.

By July 2020, Google states that Amazon has more than 1,000,000 employees. Jeff Bezos's net worth exceeds 200 billion USD thanks to the uptake in valuation on the stock market.

Microsoft

A few years back, I believed Microsoft missed the tech train. It looked like the company got stuck with its old models of selling Windows and Microsoft Office. The direction changed as Microsoft got a new CEO in 2014.

Especially Microsoft Azure Cloud Services contributed to the growth of the company. Yet, it’s flagship products are still Windows and Office. The latter is available via a subscription service, which delivers recurring revenues for the company and automatic updates. Microsoft will most likely continue to grow.

These three companies significantly changed the way we do business and how we interact. Apple provides the devices, Microsoft, the software, and Amazon drives commerce.

Saturn and I broke up.

Our relationship lost its edge already 10 years ago. And it didn’t get better since then. First, I started purchasing songs via the internet, then Movies and Games. The devices I got delivered by Amazon — very conveniently to my home or workplace. I didn’t need to move around.

It didn't matter anyway. Because the employees at Saturn mostly were no experts in the field, and the variety of tech goods was extremely narrow, compared to Amazon's Marketplace.

The necessary research needed for making a purchase decision, I did anyways via the internet. What started with a hot and intense love relationship in the 90s with weekly visits for many hours withered to one or two visits per year. The reason why I didn’t give up visiting?

Sometimes a dishwasher, fridge, vacuum cleaner, or washing machine broke, and I took advantage of special offers. Also, light bulbs or batteries were such convenience goods that I purchased at Saturn. No larger purchases and not very frequently. From leaving a few thousand Euros at Saturn annually down to 30–40 Euros. Maximum a few hundreds. I tend to save my money on white technology purchases.

2020- the Pandemic hit

My consumer behavior has changed dramatically since the 80s.

From

socializing at tech stores over

buy and run at the larger retail store chains, to

entirely purchasing everything online — physical and digital goods.

In the first quarter of 2020, the pandemic changed the world entirely. Europe and the United States went on lockdown, driving more and more consumers to online purchases.

It drives the Eco-System of Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft to unbelievable valuations on the stock market.

No wonder that the traditional brand owners give up on their brand names like Saturn. Consumers in the new decade are buying more and more online. The political decisions around the pandemic pushed the consumer's behavior further in this direction.

Saturn and I

Yes, I am sentimental. I had great times at Saturn. Often I stood like an adult kid before novel technology — computers, gaming consoles, television sets, or mobile phones mesmerized me.

But let’s face it. The old brands lost their connection to the consumer — already a long time ago, they gave up their unique position to the upcoming servants of Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft. What their unique position was? Direct face to face access to the consumer.