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Comment by random42 | Hacker News Reader

> Apple's success is based primarily on aesthetics and user experience.

I cannot say that Marketing and Salesmanship is not as important factor of the success of the company, which has undoubtedly the most charismatic CEO of this era, and one of the best salesman in the business.

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I never get this. Sure Jobs is a good salesman. But do you think Apple would be such big news on HN if it weren't for the product. I mean just look at the damn things... some people don't like OSX or iOS, but the sheer polish of the Air, Macbook Pro and the ipad are amazing. They've come a long way from those horrible beige boxes in the mid 90s.

I am certainly not saying that Apple products are not excellent. I am just saying that Marketing/Salesmanship/PR etc. also has a part to play in Apple's success.

Steve Jobs is not in the least bit charismatic. He's obviously brilliant and a good, not great, speaker, but every other sentence out of his mouth could be "I'm better than you" and people wouldn't flinch. He's not the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with, unless you get off on being talked down to. Jobs has a legion of followers, but not because of personal charisma.

every other sentence out of his mouth could be "I'm better than you" and people wouldn't flinch

To my understanding, that's pretty much what "charismatic" means. It's not a synonym for "friendly".

I'm not interested in semantics but I always thought that a requirement of charisma is that people like you. That doesn't mean you're friendly, but enough so that people like you. We're probably hitting some grey area here as people are obviously devoted to what Jobs has created, but it's nothing like a "cult of personality" ala Porfirio Díaz.

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