I've been planning to write blogs for a long time now and
finally the day is here!!! Since this is my first blog please ignore the
mistakes :).
I don't have any specific topic for writing blogs on, I just
want to write on stuff that interest me and these are opinions from Chetan Nayak.
So you are more than welcome to agree to them or criticize it :).
This blog is about why i feel Apple is so successful and what it could have done better.
Why Apple products are so successful in today's market -
Apple products are amazingly stable and very nicely designed
from group up. This is a classic example for two basic things ,Firstly “If you
spend a lot of time on your design (both technical and user interface) ,It pays
of well” and secondly “Good designs are always simple and people love simple
stuff ,they don’t want complicated stuff , The rule is to keep it simple :) and Apple have just done that “.
Although Apple did their best at marketing their products I think
it got to a point where the marketing was through word of mouth which is
probably the best way of marketing and it’s not easy to reach this point
because no one would be talking about a product unless it’s that good.
The iPod changed everything for Apple, There were so many mp3
players that already existed in the market and provided same features that the
iPod did and some of them provided even better features but how did the iPod
win the market?
Three main things did it for the iPod – Stability, Design and
SIMPLICITY in its user interface and the product appearance. Imagine no one
ever thought of having around 1000 songs in a device this small and which works
FLAWLESSLY.
1000 songs, 10 hours battery, Easy to carry, Great design. No one ever thought we could use an Mp3 player like a clip (So simple yet so useful).
Android has gained a great momentum and a lot of other mobile phone manufacturers have adopted to the open source operating system for developing smart phones.
When someone produces a great product ,It buys people's confidence and loyalty(To an extent) , It becomes easy to sell other products because people already trust you. Personally i feel that once the iPod and iPhone became a big hit it was easy for Apple to promote and sell their Mac's as well. The Mac computers existed from a long time but its only after the launch of iPod and iPhone the Mac's started to gain more popularity in the market.
The effect of Steve jobs on Apple products –
Personally, I feel that there are a set of people would buy
Apple products just because they are a big fan of Steve Jobs J. Seriously, I have seen that.
Having an inspirational leader and a public figure like Steve
jobs can help in increasing a companies product sales. He was undoubtedly one of the
greatest CEO’s and Entrepreneur ever!!!
The quotes and speech made by Steve jobs were so influential
that he has a huge fan following for him and Apple which has eventually helped Apple to be what it is today.
Decisions that Apple could have been better at –
Although Apple products are amazing, I feel that Apple was
trying to monopolize the market and forcing everyone to use things their way
without providing lot of customization.
- Iphone forces you to use iTunes to do anything, not fair and monopoly again. To load a song you need to connect to iTunes and sync your device. With other phones you can just copy paste the files onto a folder.
- At least when I got an iPod/iPhone it was synced to only one computer (Doesn’t make sense as I need to carry my laptop every time I need to reload my songs/videos). Stupid idea, thankfully they didn’t tell you have to connect ONLY to a MAC (Might be in the future they might tell it).
- They developed software's like Xcode (Used to develop iPhone applications) and published other software’s that works only on Mac so that they can fuel Mac sales :). Monopoly again.
- Even to change a Battery you need to go to Apple store.Other phones provide such a easy option to replace your battery.
- Have you noticed that people who send an email with iPhones generally have a message in the end which states something like this "Ignore typo's /Sorry about typo's ".......This is not usability? But people still seem to love it.
Android has gained a great momentum and a lot of other mobile phone manufacturers have adopted to the open source operating system for developing smart phones.
With the recent win for Apple over Samsung it might seem like a lot a other mobile phone manufacturers will be conservative in their approach to do things similar to Iphone which actually means less options for consumers.
Here is the list of patents that Apple sued Samsung for. After reading this take a minute and think if it was worth it to even patent such things (Probably the multi-touch feature is the only one which seems like it could be patented, the others are not worth it patenting in the first place).
After being accused for silly things like shape ,color etc i think Samsung will still win the race in the end, In fact now after the recent win for Apple over the silly patents Samsung will get a lot of sympathy's buy in's from consumers :) .
You can do more reading here.
Please note i don't hate Apple products, I still think they are awesome, Its just that Apple could have done some things better.
Would like to end this blog with a funny image i found on Facebook.
Hope you enjoyed reading the Blog, Your critics are more than welcome. Let me know what your opinions are, Arguments are always good to have as long as they are healthy :).
Chao ,Until the next blog !!!
Chao ,Until the next blog !!!
Chetan Nayak
very nice chetan.. although this is your first blog, well framed.. and yes, agree to many of your points..!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pavithra :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Chetan for the invite and yes, absolutely awesome start for a “Hello World” blog. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the “decisions that Apple could have been better at” part, we can go on and on about the associated pros and cons but to sum it up, keeping the ecosystem in a tight leash, from parts production to assembly to software deployment & management has proven its worth, so much so that, rest of the industry giants like BB and MS are following the same roadmap e.g. Microsoft Surface (in fact for which Microsoft’s hardware partners began publicly criticizing the idea (read more: http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/23/acer-microsoft-criticism/).
This has helped Apple avoid any iOS fragmentation issues (read more: http://mashable.com/2012/05/16/android-fragmentation-graphic/). And as being Open Source is concerned, rather the appropriate statement would be, Android is the most ‘closed’ open source OS (read more: http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/13/android-ranked-most-closed-open-source-os-infographic/).
Keep rocking. :)
Hey Pravat ........Those are some good views to know, Thanks for sharing.......Interesting to know everyone is copying Apple's hardware strategy. But like its said in the link im not sure if it will work for everyone :).
ReplyDeleteAlso, its good that the iOS fragmentation issues are resolved because of this.
I hope Apple will provide better flexibility to users ,Like as a cell phone user i don't want to use iTunes to load songs...or videos to my phone right ? :)
Like i said in the blog ,Apple products are AWESOME there is no doubt about it ,I think they will be even more successful if they provide a little bit of flexibility. :)
Cheers
Chetan
Interesting read and a good start!
ReplyDeleteDo keep in mind apple was create in the late '70s when there was a cultural revolution in the US and in the major part of the western world. It did play a major role in giving a cult status to Apple back in those days and which also carries on today. Apple also has a brash image of a revolutionist a reformer, much that resonates with Che' but Che would not be Che in China or say India. Size of your primary audience and what you are fighting against play a key. Apple was a consumers friend (the perception of it) when it was small or not a market leader, its hard to carry the same image with same things that you do when you are big or a market leader. Remember no one like Microsoft but a large majority of us use it directly/indirectly.
Any profit making company has to make money to keep the stock market happy. Its hard to make boatloads of money and still be cool at the same time (Chevron, Mobil, Microsoft, McDonalds, Walmart anyone). So its important to build a eco-system like iTunes where folks can buy or rent music movies etc which is a big offshoot industry by itself (Amazon Prime/Kindle) (I hate iTunes too!) But with iCloud things are much better off late.
Design is what Apple is good at, Thanks to Mr. Jobs! and his accidental class in arts that he took back during his college days. They do take credit for design even thought the idea or tech was borrowed (read stolen) from Xerox.
Nonetheless, it a wonderful company made many rich. Keeps many happy and motivated and gives us something to read and talk about :)
I do like Steve for a lot of reason and he is my icon by far. I know he is not perfect but so in no-one. As one of my colleagues put it he was a b*****d but he was a great man!
Cheers
Abhi
Abhi - Completely agree on the fact that "Any company has to make money to keep the stock market happy"......But seriously i still feel the iTunes thingy was a little crappy......Haven't explored the iCloud thing but im assuming YOU MUST HAVE A NETWORK CONNECTION to download ur preferences from the cloud ...........
DeleteAll said and done there is no doubt that both Steve and Apple have change the world and probably continue to. I just think that they would be have even more successful if they planned some things better.....Again, Its just my opinion :).......Let's see what iPhone5 has in store.
yalla habibi! hey looks good ya... i wont comment on the content 'ardent fan of apple tat i am' so i only like the part whr u were bein good abt apple ;) jokes apart - good and lively read! i lik ur free flow of words.. importantly it feels u r jus sittin acrross n talkin... its crisp, to the point! u inspire me - its never late to start anything.. n yah.. i also felt tat i was actually lookin fwd to readin more.. it wasnt borin - so u ve chosen ur topic well! although i say - no pear can beat apple :)
ReplyDeleteRashmi - It feels good know that i inspired somebody with my first blog.......Thank you for the comments although i know i have some grammatical mistakes out there :)......
DeleteI like to convey message in simple english and to the point , KEEP IT SIMPLE is the rule :)
I'll look forward for your blogs ,In the mean time keep reading my blogs ;) Chao !!!