Why Apple Events are a Must-Watch for Business Developers
Five takeaways from the recent Apple event
Let’s admit it — Apple’s September presentation is a standard-setting event of the year. And it’s not just because of the technologies it demonstrates. Instead, it’s all about Apple’s new vision and strategy for the next year. Looking beyond the lines of the event, you can see who is going to be Apple’s friends, which competitors it strikes, and which audience is its priority.
It’s always worth learning from the best, and Apple is by all means one of the best. So here are top 5 lessons I (or any business person in tech) can learn from the latest event to take business to the next level.
1. Don’t be afraid to change your mind
Steve Jobs said those famous words just eight years ago. Yet it seems like Tim Cook thinks differently, and this year Apple introduced the Apple Pencil together with the new iPad Pro.
Does it mean that Apple is no longer living by Jobs’s vision? Partly. First, it means that Tim Cook has finally earned the legacy and acceptance to do things his way. Apple has never been more valuable and has never had a bigger best-selling product line in its history. Second, Apple Pencil is far more advanced than the styluses Jobs was talking about. So now is a better time to monetize on it than it was before.
Finally, Jobs was referring to using a stylus with a phone (the 3.5 inch iPhone) at the time. Now Apple shows it together with the biggest iPad it has. There is no shame in reversing a company’s position when it’s the right time, when you have the right products, and when you have the right audience who’s ready to buy everything you do — especially a $99 stylus.
Dive in with @nickstatt, reporter at The Verge.
2. Expand your customer reach
Apple was once famous for its snobbish approach to customer targeting. Indeed, there was one flagship phone and one flagship tablet — take it or leave it! Now we see Apple going for different customer needs with iPhones and iPads in multiple sizes and colors (even rose gold).
Even more exciting to see is how Apple is playing on the money side. Everyone loved the rose gold Apple Watch, but just a few could afford spending over $10k. Now we see an aluminum Apple Watch in rose gold. Want a bit of style to your simple Apple Watch? Here is the Hermes collection!
And it’s not just about wearables. Apple TV is now targeting gamers (read more here), offering a real threat to console makers, and iPad Pro is targeting the corporate sector. Moreover, Apple is stepping onto mobile operators’ ground offering its own upgrade plans. The truth is that there is a time to go deeper (exploring your current audience) and there is a time to go wider (finding new niches). And Apple is doing both.
3. Turn your competitors into partners
“Hell froze over in the tech industry after Apple invited a Microsoft executive to appear on stage at its latest event.”
That’s how Fortune reacted to Apple’s decision to invite Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s Office division, to its keynote.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone from Google or Samsung there, too. What it truly means is that you cannot conquer the world alone, and your competitors can be your best allies. Deep integration between market leading solutions created an unbeatable synergy. And Apple fully utilizes it in the corporate sector, first bringing IBM and now Microsoft on board.
Why not? If you are both interested in educating customers and growing a market segment, it’s better to work with competition and double the effort. That’s when 1+1 equals much more than 2. In this case, reviving tablet sales.
4. Rethink the ideas creatively
Here is where things are getting interesting. We saw how Tim Cook made a move against Steve Jobs’s opinion on the stylus, but he actually went against his own words!
“Our competition is confused. They’re turning tablets into PCs and PCs into tablets,”
Cook said when Microsoft first showed Surface. Now Apple itself is producing the iPad Pro with attached keyboard and stylus, proving that “Microsoft was always right about the Surface.”
Apple might have mocked Microsoft, but in the end they came up with a product better in many ways: a bigger screen with a higher resolution, less weight, more power and battery life. This is an example of how creative rethinking can revive an idea and take it to a new level, especially with Apple’s expertise behind it.
5. Take your time to get your product to perfection
It’s no secret that tech companies are under great pressure. It’s now a matter of days — not months or years — when new technologies can be created. And good luck, if you’re not demonstrating a totally new product or service at least once a year! “Failed market expectations” will be your reputation for quite a while.
What we can learn from Apple is to use just enough time to bring a product to perfection. Apple TV wasn’t updated for over 3 years, and each time Apple invited media to any event, a new Apple TV was “expected” from the company.
When Apple finally showed the Apple TV last week, it wowed the audience. Touch remote control, Siri, tvOS, App Store, and gaming capabilities, made it one of the most interesting media devices of the year (read more about the features on Quartz).
And it proves that sometimes you just need to take your time.
Have you learned any other business lessons from Apple this year? Let’s discuss on Twitter and in comments.
