What makes Apple so successful?

Working in-house some years ago I had to use a non-Mac. It was one of the most frustrating performances of my professional life. I angrily declared that if this thing was so smart why did I have to learn the computer’s language rather than the other way round.

The Apple GUI and most of its internal architecture speaks human, works human. My syntax here is become a little unruley but what I mean is that it is tailored to work with me. It is, as they say, intuitive. As such it is mostly a pleasure to use, not a chore.

Johnathan Ives (why isn’t he knighted?) has extended this into the product design and these days the whole experience is pretty seamless. Not perfect, but ahead of the pack enough to make Apple my default choice, as it has been for years.

How many purchases have you on the edge of your seat for the next one?

Hey Robin,

You knew I’d bite

Apple. Where do I start? The only “credible” alternative to Microsoft computing in the 90′s? The mystique & tooling around creatives (designers, photographers, composers) in the 2000′s? The inordinate success of the iPod?

I think I’ll start with the iPod, because let’s be honest, that’s what made Apple a household name. Interestingly, the iPod first saw the light of day as a 5GB device physically bigger than today’s 160GB “Classic.” It debuted in the time of Napster, Bit Torrent, and Limewire. Well before the iTunes store. Your only option to put music on the device was to rip CD’s (then illegal, not to mention technical) or download MP3′s illegally.

But the promise of carrying all of your music around with you, compared to CD’s or Cassettes, was enough to explode the music download revolution.

There have been many other MP3 players, with many more features, from Sony, Samsung, Archos (French), Creative (known for audio in the PC world) – but the word iPod has become synonymous with a portable music player. Much like Hoover, Biro, and others have morphed to mean the brand they describe.

So their 1st step to success, was to “create” the (consumer) market for portable HDD music players. Adding iTunes to that, and making it easy to get music legally made it mainstream.

Their 2nd secret sauce is that they know their market intimately. They do not discount, they are not the cheapest, they don’t bother with features, but appeal to the emotional wants of their target market – which as far as I can tell is the affluent, 1st world, 16 – 24 year old demographic. All of their advertising, their brand promise, and even design is aimed at this market.

Which is why I chuckle every time I hear a 40+ Technophile GenX whinge about there not being “multi-tasking” or “replaceable battery” or “expandable storage.” Don’t get me wrong, mea culpa here too. I’m not so hypocritical as to point out I’ve publicly made these same derisive remarks. But I’m part of a select demographic which is not Steve Job’s target (although he happily takes my money).

The demographic with $$; with potential to change the world as they enter the workplace; who has grown up with ubiquitous connectivity; who wants to associate with an iconic brand – 16-24 yr old, 1st World, affluent. Incidentally this is the same age group harnessed for every revolution from the Reformation, to Communism. It’s the age group we send to war. Full of idealistic zeal. Why then do older people also love Apple products too? The wish to be hip, cool, and young. Followed by how the technology actually enables you.

Secret sauce #3 – Pare away functionality to the bare essentials. How do people use technology? Do they buy replaceable batteries? (No) Do they want to manage a gazillion memory cards and formats, and readers? (No) Do they care about processor speed, camera resolution, FM radio, CD/DVD drives? No, No, No, No.

Secret sauce #4 – Beautiful simplicity. Remember you’re not competing on price, so you don’t need to skimp on materials. Plastic? pah! We’ll use a single piece of machined aluminium. Make it easy to use. Make it so people don’t have to think, or read, or study to do the things they want to do!

Secret Sauce #5 – control the ecosystem. It’s the only way you can guarantee quality. Don’t let anyone else create something under your brand. This was counter-productive with PC’s because having channel partners allows scale, but it’s proven amazingly successful with music, video, and phone.

Secret Sauce #6 – premium pricing. It’s great psychology. “Reassuringly Expensive.” It makes everyone think that you have something exclusive, and we all want to belong to that exclusive club.

My Final one:
#7 Platform lock in. This is not unique. But once you’ve invested in speakers with iPod Docks, iPhone applications, iMac software, it becomes more expensive to switch platforms than to upgrade.

This is a dangerous road to hoe, as MS found out. As you start becoming dominant in a market, and I’d suggest the iPod is there, proprietary interfaces become anti-competitive. I’m really surprised that it’s only the EU forcing a std USB connector for Apple products. It’s criminal that you can’t dock competitor players to 3rd party speaker systems.

Of all of these the most important is know your target market intimately, and make them feel important with your product. Richard Branson is successful here too (with the same demographic) and Coca-Cola is probably the master.

2c (Free for you)

Apple’s success?

Bling perhaps… but also usability, excellent customer service and the art of the tease… we start salivating 6 months before we can actually hold the next biggest thing in our hand – sometimes longer.

Aside from that they do produce quality products that are comfortable to use, and make working on a computer far more enjoyable and productive.

I’ve received a fair bit of ‘flack’ for being an early adopter with the iPad but truly I don’t really ‘play’ on it very much. Every time I turn it on it’s to connect or communicate and I seem to be able to get that done far more efficiently than anyone would ever do on a MS Windows environment.

As much as I wish I wasn’t a slave to the Apple Corporation I do value their products and even at dinner tonight I ‘sold’ two possibly three MacBooks to friends who needed to update. For me to do that Apple must have done a good job on the whole marketing mix.

It’s really simple – it’s all about design. Ever since the see-through, day-glo iMacs, Apple have been extremely good at creating designer, extremely desirable products. They have excellent attention to detail and understand the value of good design – something few organisations consider important.

And, of course, the marketing helps too. The reason they’re so good at this is because they have an extremely good grasp of what makes their target audience tick. And they know exactly how to create a cult icon – how many graphic designers are there who use anything other than a Mac? Their customers are fiercely loyal.

I like my iPod, but that’s going a step too far. (Everything else I want to write is rather blunt, so I’ll leave it at that!).

Kate

I strongly recommend to read the interview with John Sculley at CultofMac (link), it reveals a lot about the how’s and why’s on Apple.

Just to wrap it up:
Steve Jobs’ main focus is on design and user experience, always aiming for perfection, making the most of the technology available. It’s only due to the giant leaps of technology in the late 90s that Apple’s product look the way they do. On the inside, they were always leading edge, since the garage days.
Also, he thinks systems. Design, typography, printing were driving factors with the first Mac, DTP was the result (saving Apple who were on the verge of going out of business back then). This niche market was Apple’s domain for the next 10-15 years, because the IBM PC took over the general market, allowing Microsoft to get the biggest slice of the pie.
Speaking of Microsoft, Bill Gates has an entirely different approach on doing business and what matters. Microsoft is a fragmented organisation dominated by engineers. You know why you still find three different printing dialog boxes in Outlook, or the same useless one as in the last ten years in IE8? Each one has been coded by a different team, that’s why (see Don Norman’s speech at the 2009 Business of Software conderence (link)). Their focus is “lets make something that works (somehow)”.

To keep it short, both companies are reaping today what they have sown more than 20 years ago.

Since Robin likes to ask how Apple would do without Mr Steve, I don’t know. One would hope they learned their lessons after they first fired him in ’86 and the board will urge him to find a high potential inside or outside the company and make him crown prince. On the other hand, Apple is Jobs’ life work and I think he’s not releasing it easily, so a successor will have to earn his merits which might put the company at stake.
As we all know, media is just waiting to create the next hype to boost their own numbers. And popular as Apple is today, it’s becoming ever harder for them to stand this pressure and raise of expectation because everyone just seems to be waiting for a failure. “See, I told ya!” In the end, everything can be viewed as a fad. That’s the consumers’ perspective. What’s the latest trend and am I participating?

I personally only wish that some people, especially designers, engineers, technicians but also marketers look further than that and see an inspiration at what Apple and Steve Jobs have been doing so far.

Thank you for reading.