With the launch of the new iPhone and AppleTV, Apple has solidified it lead in the area of innovation and leadership especially in regards to consumer products. There are issues with the approach that they have taken in that they own the whole “supply” chain. Consumer are limited to using Apple products with iTunes content.
TechCrunch has an interesting article on DRM and it potential implications.
However, what I find most interesting is how Apple can create devices that users adopt in droves. This may or may not be the case for the iPhone (at $499 and $599) it is a bit pricey, but I do know that my compatriots and I all seem to want one… Interestingly, other, much larger companies; IBM, HP, MSFT, etc. can’t seem to create similarly innovative products that engage consumers. They have the money, the brain power, potentially the capability, but what limits them? Or conversely, what enables Apple as a large corporation to act and innovate as a small one?
Apple has definitely stepped out in front of the marketplace a number of times; some successfully: the mac, ipod, etc and sometimes not so successfully: the cube and the newton. This puts them in line with smaller companies, startups even that are willing to take a big leap / chance and see if something sticks.
A friend of mine, who runs ShackPrices.com surmises that Apple may not spend anywhere near as much time on focus groups, listening to what people think they need. That could be it, but I think it comes down to taking that leap and seeing where you land.
February 2, 2007 at 8:18 pm
I am not too aware of the innerworks, management, organizational operations, and R&D flow inside of Apple. But what ticks my attention is Apple has evolved with its iPod over time. Its not iPod evolving, but more like Apple evolving. For a long period of time Apple has remained associated with its iMac. However, with iPod, Apple has derived a new definition – a new-media innovator. I think that to some extent they had been lucky.. but I also have to credit their vision. If you observe, you will realize that over the entire 4 years from iPod’s inception, portability of device has evolved considerably. Flash drives has enabled hard drive and distributed content to move around freely. However, Apple somehow ignored the connectivity factor.. and stayed away from wi-fi. Now what prompted that could be a case study altogether.