You touched on the main issue. The reason the iPhone and iPod were successful was due to software. Apple invented neither that kind of phone form factor (see LG Prada) nor the MP3 player segment (see the Diamond RIO). Made by South Korean and Taiwanese companies respectively. It is just that their software was much better. In the case of the iPod it wouldn't have had the success it did without the iTunes store, and in the case of the iPhone it was iOS itself. Unfortunately for both South Korea and Taiwan, or Japan for that matter, they are much weaker with regards to software development.
Yeah, the Japanese consumer electronics industry collapsed in like 5 years and the iPhone was just the nail in the coffin. Their issues were beyond software, Japanese companies cling onto things way too long (ie. Nintendo and Cartridges)
I remember going to HK and my classmate is telling me to get him a MiniDisc player. I'm like "That's a waste of money man, why do you want something mechanical and can break a lot easier than solid memory? You're in EE, I shouldn't even need to tell you this..."
But he insisted so I got it for him, and to be fair it looked a lot nicer than those Diamond Rio's. Of course a year later he's like "Oh you were totally right"
You had Pioneer and Panasonic continue to produce Plasma screens when LCDs were clearly taking over the market (clearly customers were preferring slimmer and lighter profiles over black levels), now Pioneer displays are dead and Panasonic are rare.
Even Toyota is like this. They are saying now "Oh we were right, the EVs aren't catching on, Hybrids are the way!". But if you look closer, they are still missing the boat! They only have 2 PHEVs in NA (and most of the world in fact), RAV4 and Prius. The current Prius Prime PHEV is actually a huge step back for the NA market because it lacks AWD while the regular Hybrid has it. It's gimped for no good reason. Just stick a plug in most of your lineup and you'd probably be a winner, but where are they?
I know you roast Germans all the time. SAP, enough said, right? But their auto is beyond just software (which is bad)
The Q4 is sold in the 300K RMB price range (40K US)
In North America, this is a decent price, but in China it has to compete with everything. Cars with self driving features, while the Q4 has just the basic things like adaptive cruise and lane keeping only. Other competition has ER/PHEV options, NIO has battery swap. As I mentioned, Q4 doesn't even have remote unlocking or 360 cameras which aren't even super duper features, just dropped for cost or whatever Herr Ingenieur was thinking. Basically relying on brand recognition and service reliability only.
