Host
Adrian Bailey
Podcast Content
Steve Jobs was integral to their initial computer designs, and, having been ousted as a part of the company, returned to save the company from being destroyed, and to guide them on the path they are on today. Back then, Apple was known as the Apple Computer Company, and the first product from Apple was the Apple I, completely designed and built by Steve Wozniak, and while the Apple I and some of the subsequent products released by the company did reasonably well in the market at that time, it was the release of the Macintosh in 1984 that changed the entire trajectory of the company. You may be concluding it was business products like their first computers and the II, Macintosh, or most recently its very popular iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
Their model of success is the same model that Apple has repeated for each product that it has brought to market since their beginnings, starting with the original Apple I. Apple did not invent the PC , and it was the Altair 8800 introduced by Eddie Roberts in 1974 that brought the first commercial PC to the market. Apples success has more to do with their history of developing groundbreaking products and services: The first-generation iPod, for instance, was a big success because it was built around a novel, intuitive piece of technology that people loved. Apple, being mostly a products-driven company, has focused on their iPhone rather than trying its hand anywhere and seeing where that has led Apple.
Apple has become the master at innovation around new products being introduced by others, which have shown promise, but at the beginning stages were not good enough to build a big market for or to lead to for them. While those competing with Apple are simply getting products to market that are competitive, Apple is already working to build products at least two years ahead. It would be interesting to see what kind of tech battles are being waged by the other companies in order to beat Apple, and how they are going to counter Apple.
When Apple does, I suspect that they will have created a gold standard of smartphone-based AR/VR headsets, complete with apps and supported services, and, though it may come late, could eventually command a large portion of that market, just like it has done with the rest of its lineup. If that product really shows commercial legs, then Apple goes into that market and does what Apple does best: build a cool new device with a better user interface, develop the SDK so developers can build cool apps and services for it, and then spend millions on marketing, making it a part of the larger ecosystem of products that they provide to their customers. With demand so high for Apple phones, it does not matter that Apple does not do any marketing; when the new product is released, plenty of people line up in stores to purchase it immediately.
Apple does not have any technologies that are not already available on the market, and Apple customers are still anxiously waiting to get their new products released, just because Apple is simply good at doing that. Given Apples goal to reinvent itself toward perfection, there is still a whole market of products that they could aim to perfect with future products, which keeps both their customers and competitors anxiously watching to see what new experiments they might be embarking upon. Each product is a re-imagining of a currently existing piece of technology in the market, one Apple has improved upon tenfold, taking note of the general problems customers have with their products and working to completely eradicate them.
Apple Inc goes far beyond what other brands are doing, focusing on creating products for its target audience and devoted customers who really believe that the companys products improve their lives. Apple users are devoted to Apple, and Apple is trying to build a bigger circle of loyalty, as is true for every competing brand on the market. Creating those connections is undoubtedly part of why Apple was recently named the most intimate brand in the world.
Apple believes deeply in the cooperation and cross-pollination between our groups, allows us to innovate in ways others cannot. Apple is built on a culture of innovation -- whether that is creating something new, or re-inventing a wheel, making it even better. Creating involves not just developing whole new categories of products, like iPhones and Apple Watches, but constantly innovating within these categories.
This is precisely what Apple Inc is great at doing, creating product awareness, having effective marketing strategies, as well as focussing on developing the product needs within other market sectors. Apple has been doing research with consumers for more than 30 years, consumers consistently tell us that although choices are great, they actually want the tech product selection process to be easy, and not complicated with lots of choices. After years of watching Apple up close and personal, and having had to deal with each and every one of the CEOs at Apple, and having interacted with a variety of Apple executives over the years, I would suggest the reasons why the company is successful could be reduced to just six key principles that make it really difficult for competitors to compete with Apple.