Jobs' first acclaimed success as the CEO was the creation of iPod. The device wasn't groundbreaking as a concept – it was a yet another portable music player, and these were popular since Audio Highway launched its Listen Up player in 1996. However, the iPod had better looks and more user-friendly software than most of its competitors. In a few years it became a best selling mp3, outpacing early market leaders such as Sony or Creative. By 2007 it captured over 70% of the global mp3 player market!
Although Apple did not invent the mp3 player, it definitely showed the world what one should look like. Every year it released an updated version of the gadget, making it ever more user friendly. It wasn't afraid of bold moves either. When in 2007 many argued that the classic iPod look was the key to the device's continuous success, Apple unveiled the iPod Touch – a gizmo looking nothing like the original iPod, and sporting a tiny memory disk on top of that. It obviously was a success.
2007 saw the rise of another genius gadget, that is iPhone. Its story was similar to that of the iPod: the smartphone market was booming, yet iPhone sales were almost instantly higher than that of anyone else in the market. Apple won once again by putting the customer first. Its was the first smartphone with quality touch screen, fast browser, and reliable WiFi port. Since then the iPhone has become the most profitable smartphone in the world, with a dozen of large mobile phone manufacturers trying to repeat its success with their own products.
Spotting the moment
Apple isn't just good at making gizmos appealing to the masses. It can also spot flawlessly what the consumer wants, and this is perhaps best represented by the iPad's success. Tablet computers is an old concept: Microsoft's Tablet PC was launched in 2002, but it never achieved any considerable success. In the early 2000s large, powerful laptops dominated the consumer market, yet this began to change as processors became smaller (making it easier to equip a thin tablet with a powerful engine), and people started to store files in the cloud instead of cluttering their terabyte-sized hard drives.
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| tablet sales, $bn |
Apple iPad came out in 2010 and instantly became much more than just another hit gadget: it redefined the tablet market, driving sales in that segment sky high. Months after the iPad launch, Apple's competitors released over 80 gadgets made to compete with Jobs' new darling. However, the iPad makers didn't wait until the others caught up, and designed an updated device which lacked some of the biggest flaws of its predecessor. Currently iPads dominate around 70% of the tablet market.
The bottom line
What other companies could learn from the Cupertino-based prodigy? First of all, despite every MBA curriculum begging to differ, innovation does not necessarily guarantee success. Few remember that it was Ericsson that made the first smartphone. It might be a better idea to come into the market slightly later, when its possible to identify the areas yearning for improvement, or the changing consumer demands.
Also, a genuine consumer-centrism is crucial. Everybody claims to put users first, but few companies do it as well as Apple. At the iCorp, everything from the design down to the icon layout is made to be appealing and friendly, and it does the trick. Jobs' products might be showy and his software inflexible, but few other companies managed to inspire an equally impressive following. Profit is always the bottom line, and Apple is remarkably good at achieving it.
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