Apple's phenomenal success

The founder of the Apple empire, Steve Jobs, never particularly cared about the financial well-being of his company and did not put this goal first. One of the main things in his life was the "future" and the creation of revolutionary "ideal" products. This is evidenced, for example, by the opening of the Apple University educational institution, which used a specially written series of textbooks to prepare employees for life at Apple. These books describe Apple's business strategy and internal political culture. Contrasting “Apple vs PC”, “Apple vs Microsoft” and “Apple vs everyone”. Everything is different, everything is different - one of the basic principles of Apple. And this otherness is not underground, but beautiful, stylish and deliberately simple. And that’s why it’s commercially successful.

At Apple, no one has ever cared about the generally accepted norms and standards of computer “designers” and licensing of the operating system. Only a complete product, completely interconnected within itself, fully compatible with all other Apple products. The most stupid misconception among manufacturers and sellers, the company believes, is that demand creates supply. The company hates it when consumers climb into devices themselves. For example, the 2012 MacBook Air series came with new tricky case screws for screwdrivers, which are only available in official Apple services. “Use what you are given and don’t meddle inside” - oddly enough, this tough and to some extent unethical law is also one of the secrets of Apple’s success.
 
The main principle of Apple devices is that they just work. All you need to do is take it out of the box and turn it on - the device, be it a computer, phone, tablet, is completely ready for use. “I want a good thing that is simple to design and doesn’t require a lot of production costs,” Jobs said. This has become part of Apple's philosophy and one of their main secrets of success. At the dawn of the history of personal computers - at the time of the founding of Apple Computers - there was no talk about design as such. A few years later the situation changed dramatically. PC sales grew exponentially, and competition also grew. And it was then that Apple realized that the computer that looked better would be bought better. Attention to the design of its products has become one of the company's key strategies. Compared to its competitors, the new product looked simply amazing. 

The main principle of Apple devices is that they just work. All you need to do is take it out of the box and turn it on.

The strict pricing policy, which makes poppies more expensive than almost everything else, works despite its paradox. Apple lovers pay a premium for the emotional experience and convenience they get from using Apple products. And, of course, for involvement in a great brand.

An indicative example of Apple's meticulousness in relation to details is the icons of standard applications. Have you noticed that the silhouette of a man at the microphone in the “Artists” tab of the “Music” application belongs to the famous musician and U2 leader Bono, who was a great friend of Steve Jobs. And the funniest icon of the entire OS X set is a Windows computer in a networked environment, which appears as an old yellowed monitor with the so-called blue screen of death on its screen. Every time work on a particular product is completed, Apple spends maximum money and effort to make it perfect, from their point of view.
Non-disclosure policy and strict confidentiality are among the key principles of corporate life on the Apple campus. The company, in an effort to protect its developments and innovations, is taking the most unusual measures. For example, it confiscates all the equipment of journalists writing about prototypes, forces testers of unreleased gadgets to send a special PIN code every 12 hours, and sends future new items to its partners in special boxes.

 

Many people know that the start of sales of the iPhone 3G in 2008 was accompanied by the extremely problematic launch of the MobileMe service - a remote storage of mail, notes and other data of the owner of Apple equipment. Users who registered in the system and paid for a subscription encountered constant connection interruptions, server crashes, and extremely slow synchronization speeds. Steve Jobs called the entire MobileMe team on the carpet and literally told them: “You should hate each other for not living up to the trust of others. Can anyone tell me what MobileMe SHOULD do?” As the team rattled off a rote list of features, Jobs exclaimed, “Why the f*ck is he NOT doing this?” And such stories were not something surprising for the company’s employees. Each new vice president of the company was called to Steve Jobs' office, where he gave the newcomer a lecture on the topic “The difference between a janitor and a vice president.”

"Can anyone tell me what MobileMe SHOULD do?" As the team rattled off a rote list of features, Jobs exclaimed, “Why the f*ck is he NOT doing this?”

The famous glass cube on Fifth Avenue in New York, shops that are ideal in design and ergonomics and endlessly friendly consultants who are ready to do anything for you. Their strange name "geniuses" is also part of the retail concept, providing a complete immersion of the buyer in the incredibly convenient world of Apple. Any customer at the Apple Store will be drowned in care and attention, and all this is carefully spelled out in standards and instructions. Apple relied on the emotional state of a person and the communication of employees with the buyer. After all, a happy customer is one who bought what he wants.

Denying something is a cardinal sin for a Genius Bar employee. The customer is always right, even if he is wrong. You don’t need to correct him, but simply give your point of view. This gives the client the false feeling that he has remained true to his principles, but in fact he has just been very subtly corrected.

The story of Samsung paying a billion dollars in five-cent coins instantly spread throughout the Internet. Apple's litigiousness has long been the talk of the town. Their ideas are stolen, their technologies are borrowed, and they never tire of filing lawsuits, shaking them with patents. Steve Jobs owned several hundred patents, which covered all ideas - from technical details to packaging elements. At one time, he said: “I will prove you wrong to the last breath and to the last cent of our 40 billion dollars. I will destroy Android because it is a stolen product. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android. And that's all I want." One way or another, lawsuits and general awareness of what exactly will happen if you try to borrow even a screw from Apple allow the company’s products to maintain their uniqueness, which is so valued by users.

Apple has become such an iconic brand largely due to a well-planned advertising strategy. All the hype around the company with far-fetched reasons and holiwars on the topic “Apple vs. Microsoft” or “Apple vs. everyone” is not the result of a random coincidence, but of pre-planned steps.

The strategy of opposing himself to everyone else was chosen by Steve Jobs at the beginning of the company’s formation. This has made the brand a litmus test for how different it is from others. By entering into the brand wars, Apple has once again proven that even from negativity you can also benefit.

Despite the high quality of Apple devices, Apple lovers, frankly speaking, are slightly overpaying. Users are willing to pay for the feeling in their fingertips when they touch the touchpad, for the degree of muscle tension when they open a MacBook, for the sensations they get when working with Apple devices, and for belonging to a famous brand.