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jeffkinn · ‎28-01-2015

Today Apple has announced the largest ever corporate quarterly profit of $18 billion - a staggering figure. What makes Apple so successful despite charging very high prices? How can they sell 75 million iPhones in a quarter?

Thoughts anyone?

Jeff

drey_p · ‎28-01-2015

It seems to be their advertising that does it and the perception of their brand that does it for people. If you think back to the earlier iPhones, as an example, they couldn't even send a picture message but their owners were adamant that it was the best phone around despite there being other handsets that did loads more.

Also, it has something to do with keeping up with the Jones'. A new phone comes out and people have to have it even though there really isn't much difference between it and the previous version. Apple manage to leverage off that in order to get people to want and upgrade to the newer version.

At the time that the original iPhone came out, it was revolutionary but now, like all phones, things are more evolutionary. It's the perception that it is something newer and better that is driving forward those sales.

PWIAC

jeffkinn · ‎28-01-2015

I agree with that to a large extent but there is more to it than that. No company can ship 75 million phones based on perception and advertising alone. No one becomes so intensely brand loyal and upgrading within the same brand year after year based on keeping up with the Jones'.

Something else is going on - what is it?

hrym · ‎28-01-2015

I suspect it may have something to do with the closed-community/ecosystem they have. Both Microsoft and Android are to a degree diluted (and you can argue whether that's a good thing, strategy-wise) by being more open - Android explicitly, Microsoft by having made themselves available to anyone who wants to use their product. Apple software only runs on Apple hardware and, apart from a brief flirtation with the Power PC, as far as I'm aware, reverse is also true. It keeps the fans loyal.

As with politics, there's a truism that you don't win elections by appealing only to your core voters, so something else is, I agree, going on. It could be that Apple, by never really pushing the boundaries of technology and only doing what they know they can make work, have never let their customers down. OK, there was an update the bricked a few phones, but it was limited, and there was the Maps fiasco, but they fixed things quickly or other people found workrounds. The bendy iPhone 6 was a true blink-and-you-miss-it moment. People can forgive things like that and maybe it even makes what can seem like a faceless corporation look just a little human. There's another adage that seems quaint now: "no-one ever got fired for buying IBM" The same is also true of Apple in the consumer market. Buy an Apple device and you'll believe it's going to work. It may not be the best, but an outsider will have trouble convincing a fan of that. I used to work with a designer who used PCs and got very frustrated by people who said "You can't to that", when what they meant was "You can't do that on an Apple". He maintained PCs were actually more flexible - as long as you were pprepared to spend time learning the technology (and there's the rub, right there).

So, good luck to Apple, I say (even though I don't like them). If they can convince the world that they have a premium product it's worth paying a premium price for, they deserve their profits. They do seem to have a problem about what to do with them (they're currently in banks in tax havens if reports are to be believed), but that's a problem I'll have a bit of!

Actually, the most interesting thing to me is that Apple have become more sucsessful under Tim Cook than they were under Steve Jobs, who you might think was an impossible act to follow.

Getafix · ‎28-01-2015

I think it was the iPod that really created that Brand Loyalty. And since they came out with a very successful product that everyone wanted to be seen with, that trend continued with iPhone.

And also let's not forget they changed how we listen to Music and also what a Smart Phone should be.

The other thing they have stuck to higher price so owning one would show your Status.

I remember a Study based on Average Income of Different OS, with BlackBerry on top and Apple was at the bottom.

jeffkinn · ‎28-01-2015

I agree about the iPod and the idea that Apple hasn't pushed the boundaries of technology is way off the mark.

Apple has created new technologies, new devices and, as you say, brand new ways of doing things that we've been doing for ages. Their success is firmly based on customer satisfaction.

I'm not an Apple fanboy - far from it - but these are just truisms.

The really successful companies are greedy - they don't want a share of the market, they want everything. It's like the famous Coca Cola quote that their major competitior is water. They want to replace water. Apple wants to sell a smartphone to everyone.

Nabs · ‎29-01-2015

jeffkinn wrote:
Apple has created new technologies, new devices and, as you say, brand new ways of doing things that we've been doing for ages. Their success is firmly based on customer satisfaction.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with this. I know quite a few iDevice users who would love to move to something else but are far to heavily invested in the ecosystem with hundreds if not thousands of £'s invested in app or movie purchases that they can't transfer over. Their choice is either to repurchase on an alternative platform or stick with Apple.

I don't think Apple's products are anything near what they used to be, there is a distinct lack of innovation coming from them where other manufacturers have be taking risks. Even their very latest devices lack some features Android and Windows phones have had for years. They are simply riding the wave they created several years ago in the iPhone 3G and 4 era.

jeffkinn · ‎30-01-2015

@Nabs wrote:

I wouldn't necessarily agree with this. I know quite a few iDevice users who would love to move to something else but are far to heavily invested in the ecosystem with hundreds if not thousands of £'s invested in app or movie purchases that they can't transfer over. Their choice is either to repurchase on an alternative platform or stick with Apple.

Not sure what apps could have cost so much money unless they are games, and I'm not a gamer. Music bought from iTunes cab be played on Android devices just as easily and so should films, unless DRM protection is preventing it. Even if there are file formats that don't play on a particular Android device there are lots of programs to converts files from one format to another. The fact that I've moved easily backwards and forward shows that it can be done seamlessly.

@Nabs wrote:

I don't think Apple's products are anything near what they used to be, there is a distinct lack of innovation coming from them where other manufacturers have be taking risks. Even their very latest devices lack some features Android and Windows phones have had for years. They are simply riding the wave they created several years ago in the iPhone 3G and 4 era.

Not true at all is it - Apple doesn't ride the cutting edge like Samsung does but nevertheless their products are full of innovations to chip sets, screens and cameras. The 6+ is as fast as any Android device I've ever used, the screen is terrific and the battery life is just fantastic.

hrym · ‎29-01-2015

@jeffkinn wrote:

Apple has created new technologies, new devices and, as you say, brand new ways of doing things that we've been doing for ages. Their success is firmly based on customer satisfaction.

On the other hand, the original iPhone was 2G only (my Symbian Nokia was 3G) and had a rubbish camera.

I'm not an Apple fanboy - far from it - but these are just truisms.

I'm aware of that. An even slightly dispassionate view is a rare thing.

jeffkinn · ‎30-01-2015

hrym wrote:

On the other hand, the original iPhone was 2G only (my Symbian Nokia was 3G) and had a rubbish camera.

True - but you're missing the point that the original iPhone was truly innovative and unlike any Nokia feature phone that preceded it. Android didn't exist. Blackberry tried to copy the iPhone with the Blackberry Storm that achieved universal derision (although I had two and loved them).

One of the features of iOS 8 that drew me back to the iPhone was the opening up of the OS to alternative keyboards. Having used Swiftkey, Swype and Minuum on Android I have them now on iOS. But the Apple keyboard is frankly better than all of them and most Android keyboards and so I am using the default iOS keyboard.

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