Well fasten your seat belts – the Apple iPad is now officially launched and what a launch it has been. Of course the sceptics have been busy moaning about how it won’t work (mmmmm, I remember those people saying similar things before the launch of the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone etc etc).
Well I have seen the promo movie for the iPad – it is incredible, it will change the way we interact with the electronic world and Apple will sell boatloads of them to every corner of the planet.
But really, think for a moment about how smart Apple actually is. The build up to this launch has been amazing. Millions of dollars worth of free advertising before it even hit the shelves. Thousands of blog posts speculating about the product, the price and what can it possibly do that will make it so amazing? The pent up demand will be unbelievable, regardless of the quality of the product.
But most importantly, the thing that Apple seems to just keep getting right far more often than it gets wrong, is they make products based on what people want. A simple concept but one that many larger corporations have forgotten. Apple makes things better, easier, more fun, sexier, more visual and hard to believe, but more practical. To me this shows that their design people clearly understand their own customers and they go out of their way to always exceed expectations.
I could write a book about what the Apple corporation does right and maybe I will. For the record, I am obviously an avid Apple user, for all of the reasons I mentioned above. It will be interesting to see how the competitors spend the next few months trying to fault the iPad, and whilst they are, Apple will be busy shipping millions of them around the world to customers who will love them from the minute they open the box. And I guarantee there Apple R&D team are already well into their next secret project that will change the world in some way.
In my opinion, there are many businesses, large and small, who could really learn a lot from the Apple Corporation.
PS Apple has a lazy couple of billion dollars in the bank, at a time when the GFC emptied so many other larger corporations bank accounts. It makes you wonder about the relationship of giving people what they want (even if they don’t know they want it yet) and profitability.
Well Andrew I absolutely agree with you that Apple are already working on their next big project – they seem to be that one step ahead of people’s wants.
Thank you for another great read.
I want one…. *sigh* (((chuckles)))
Fine Post. I searched the whole net for something like “Apple just get’s it. The Andrew Griffiths Blog”. Thanks very much, it had helped.
@Markus I get your drift on where you were going there. I often think of my past and use it as a means to analyze where I am and where I want to get to. Where I struggel is balancing it all out. How do you guys balance things out?