Apple has become the ultimate consumer electronics brand. Steve Jobs resigns as CEO but how will the Apple ship steer now? Apple’s marketing is phenomenal in the fact that it carves out a specific demand for their products only. When the iPod, and iPad both came out they were marketed and sold as Apple products within that niche. The market for MP3 players and Tablets weren’t much influenced, the demand was created for the iPad and iPod, not tablets and MP3 players.
With Jobs as the CEO for many years he has created a culture within Apple for their branding, marketing and IP. He has spent the time to create a trickle down culture with everyone on board to fulfill the company mission. Customer service, product innovation, and listening to customers has largely created Apple’s success. The entire company follows this mantra, thereby achieving their mission of being a dominant force in the technology game.
Upto now as the tablet market begins to evolve the iPad is still the leader within the segment. The recent flops of the HP tablets and blocking of sales of Samsung tablets in Europe due to IP and design patent wars the iPad will continue to have a two – three year market lead over all entrants in the space. The other tablets will play catchup to equal the quality of Apple products and to incorporate the features and experience gained by listening to customer feedback for newer versions. The time elapsed will have seen Apple grow their lead in this market as it will evolve and add features and functions that customers demand.
The growth of the company through strong consumerism and adoption even towards the enterprise has created an opportunity for Apple to tackle printers as mentioned by Tim Cook. Since more people have Apple computers it only stands to reason that a MAC printer is next. With the supplies market being as lucrative as it is it will now be easier to sell a MAC printer because more people have MAC’s. As long as Apple does a decent job in its first iteration of printers that should satisfy the demand for their printer line. The second generation of the MAC printers is where all the fun innovations will begin to happen.
As long as customer service stays as one of their core strengths customers have overlooked the battery problems in iPods and Macbooks and have remained loyal. Apple has remained relatively unscathed from product defects and other quality issues although they do exist. The same company culture was built at Zappo’s and because of their customer service policies they remain a top retailer. Create the right culture, stick to your core strengths and adapt to change is the winning formula that Apple uses. Mostly, successful companies all seem to follow this formula. Even when smaller companies start here the money usually follows proving there must be something to it.
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