In September 2015 I did a short presentation about Apple for developers in the Microsoft ecosystem. Here's a rough transcript of what I said a couple more reflections on what makes Apple different.In the nineties Apple became famous because of the "Think Different" ad campaign. Today Apple's not "different" : they're solidly mainstream & in the right places (colleges, coworking spaces) even their weakest product, the Mac, will outcrowd Microsoft-based PC's.
Apple is now where Microsoft was in the late nineties: king of the (consumer) world. So let's have a look at who the Apple user is & who is Apple.
Who is the Apple User?
- She's rich. iPhone users tend to frequent more affluent areas of cities. Think San Francisco vs. Oakland, Newark vs. Manhattan.
- Far more likely to spend money on apps, especially when compared to users who live in an ecosystem where free is the norm (think Android, Windows Phone).
- Blindly Loyal. "I can't imagine having a different type of phone" is something 78% of iPhone users say.
- Happy. Tim Cook's top metric is "customer satisfaction" & Apple has been consistently topping the charts.
- Apple appeals to women in a world where tech is still predominantly male. So does the launch of fashion-centric Apple Watch still surprise you?
Who is Apple?
One thing's sure: Apple is everywhere. Apple is wearables (Apple Watch), music & media (iTunes Store & iPod), computers (both pro & consumer), home automation (Apple TV & HomeKit) & mobile (iPad, iPhone).
Apple is a whole ecosystem where content producers can sell their content: Magazines, Podcasts, Books, Education, IOS Apps, Music, Movies & TV, Mac Apps. There's a place for nearly all types of content in the Apple Ecosystem.
Apple is fashion: they have been hiring major executives from the fashion industry. These people now are VPs & run major parts of the Apple operation, e.g. A. Ahrendts runs the stores.
Apple is still a minority player in the mobile space. Apple is happy taking a minor but solid part of a market (think 10, 20%) because they are insanely profitable even with such a tiny market. At the time of writing Apple as a company was worht more than Samsung, Mc Donald's, Coca-Cola & Google combined.
Apple can be best categorized as a producer of "Affordable Luxury" goods. Their devices are consistently more expensive than the competition, their margins are far higher. One way of thinking about this is that as the middle class is disappearing in the West it is more profitable to create products that targets only the bottom (free products, Google) or very top of the price range (Apple).
So the launch of an Apple Watch, even a gold one, is not so surprising when you understand this. Apple Watch is expensive enough to have a certain air of exclusivity yet cheap enough that the upper middle-class in both shrinking (Western) & growing (Eastern) markets. Expect Apple Watch to sell like hotcakes in China.
Apple is secretive. 3 of the major announcements Apple made in the last few years were completely unexpected: the Apple Watch, the Swift programming language & the new Mac Pro.
So how does Apple treat their users & partners? Apple always puts the interests of the (average) user first. This means that if you're not average, tough luck. Think about becoming a developer in the Apple ecosystem? Know that at Apple the user comes first, Apple second & develpers a distant third.
Up next: Developing for Apple
Now that we've seen that Apple is a different kind of company & Apple's customers are kind of different we can have a look at what it takes to become a developer in the Apple ecosystem. I'll write that up in a separate article.