Understanding Apple
Apple is one of the world’s most successful companies, creating and then dominating entire categories of technological products, and making more money than any other business in the entire world.
But they keep removing features we love, (headphone jack, Touch ID) neglecting their own product lineups, and making bizarre trade-offs the customers never asked for. You might hate their strategy, think they’re overpriced, and disagree with decisions they make, but by no means are they careless or irrational. They do have a plan. A plan we can’t see.
The only way to understand all this, to understand their success, to predict their future, and even explain their mistakes, is to figure out how they think.
Apple is considered a technological company but it would be ridiculous to compare its objectives, to the objectives of other technology companies. For Apple, Technology is actually the enemy. It is a distraction, a source of confusion.
In the ideal world, no one cares about RAM or even knows that they’re using a computer. This may appear idealistic, but think about how much it explains. It’s why Apple is obsessed with making its devices thin, light, minimalistic, beautiful, and elegant. It’s an art piece. A combination of technology and Art. Each device, in their eyes, is fundamentally competing in the same category.
Their executive Phil Schiller once said
“The job of the watch is so you don’t need to pick up your phone as often,
The job of the iPhone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad,
The job of the iPad is to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook,
The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop.”
Every device aims to become smaller and less confusing. Because of this ideology, they’ll start to seem less and less like a typical technological company.
When Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, it was a mess. Without a clear plan, the company was selling a million different things. So he simplified the entire company. They would make only one computer for each market, but that single computer would be the best.
Steve Jobs’s Simplicity or Simplicity Formula
Steve Jobs built Apple on a formula of simplicity. The word simplicity here means that Apple products are not complicated. Consider an Apple computer or an iPhone. The most important feature of these devices is that they are very simple and easy to use. A 6-year-old or a 60-year-old can uses these devices in the same way without any difficulty.
A Company Thinking Beyond Its Age
When you look at Apple’s products, you’ll instantly know that these products are beyond the era. Think of the iPod for a moment. This device was released in 2001. “1,000 songs in your pocket.” There was nothing like this back in the days. All of the Apple devices are futuristic. Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and MacBook devices are so far ahead of their time it kinda looks like that they came from the future. Imagine the Apple Watch. You can see your heartbeat instantly. It also has GPS tracking. You can even do an ECG on your smartwatch. It’s actually mind-blowing.
Design and Creativity
When you buy an Apple product, what is the most significant feature that draws your attention? Or, when you visit an Apple store, what is the most essential detail you notice?
Design. Simple design. Minimalist design. Elegant design. Elite design. The design which is easy to understand. Even the box that comes with the device is designed to be perfect. To feel premium.
Quality of Products and Continuous Innovation
Apple’s success is mainly due to the high quality of Apple products. We don’t have to tell you how good the product is. The phone gives you this feeling automatically. Apple has become a Love Mark brand as a result of these high-quality items. The products produced by the company are so high quality that, despite selling millions of units over the world, defective products are virtually non-existent.
The company has an interesting way of pairing new technology with innovative business models. The creation of iTunes and Apple’s App Store are the two best examples.
Jobs saw that there were music fans who wanted affordable music but didn’t want to go to a store to buy expensive CDs. In 2003, iTunes was launched and it became the top music retailer.
Likewise, Jobs founded the App Store in 2008, which brought in hundreds of developers who were eager to make easy money. Nothing like the App Store existed before, and it has basically changed the world.
Apple also looks beyond its organization. The company analyzes what its rivals are doing and takes it one step further. Many companies build a highly successful product and then milk it for as long as they can by offering customers whatever they want. Apple, on the other hand, is continually attempting to compete with itself. Trying to improve. Even if it is just a tiny bit.
Any other company would kill for the success of the iPod, but Apple killed the iPod, with the introduction iPhone back in 2007. No one product will last forever, so while it hurts to kill your own success, it’s necessary to stay on top in the long term. This means not listening to your customers and instead, creating what they don’t even know, they want.
And right now as we speak, we are pretty sure that somewhere in California Apple is designing a brand new device to destroy their own bestseller.
