When most think of Apple products, they think of sleek gadgets and a user experience second to known. For most of us who at one time or another had a client say, “I want it be Apple-like, I want the site to be simple yet beautiful”, we see the company in a very different light. That’s not to say we don’t enjoy Apple products. I absolutely love my 27 inch iMac and my iPod is always providing me with jams to get me through the long grind of design. But Apple does something that few companies can pull off successfully. Bringing you into their world. From buying their desktops to laptops, mp3 players to tablets, they provide you with what you believe is the very best. You couldn’t possibly buy that HP tablet, it wouldn’t work as well with your Macbook Pro or have easy hook-up to your iTunes library. Plus you love your magic mouse and tablet, which are musts for what you do.
Google is exceptional at this as well. You use their search engine to find relevant results. Gmail provides you with the best e-mailing service out. (I dare you to prove me wrong!) Youtube gives you hilarious videos of cats doing shenanigans. (Youtube is also owned by Google) Oh yeah, and one of the best Analytics services out there as well. They give you all of this for FREE! Why? Because if you start to feel comfortable in their world, you are more likely to pay for something. That being Adwords.
Instead of Apple giving away a ton of quality services or products (like Google), they somehow got you to not only buy it all, but buy updated versions of all of these products again and again and again. Absolutely brilliant!
Now, why do I ask what Apple be like in a few years versus say, tomorrow? Apple isn’t a one man show no matter how much it appears Steve Jobs is doing everything there. There are plenty of products that will be released in the next few years that will have his “funk”, even if he isn’t there to promote it. But moving forward after that period, who’s vision do they go behind? Tim Cook is set to run the show and while I have the utmost confidence he knows what he’s doing and could do EXACTLY the same thing Steve Jobs has done or would do, he will not be perceived in the same light. The world will not believe him. Steve Jobs tells truths, everyone else is Bo-Bo the clown.
Steve Jobs has been the black shirt wearing, blue pants styling face of Apple since the beginning. Of course there was a little bit of time he got pushed out, but boy did he come back with a bang. He showed us why the iPhone would change the phone industry. He showed why the iPad would change the way we do business. Of course there is the iPod, and how the music industry would be turned on its head. Which makes me think, did Apple ever release a product that wasn’t, revolutionary? Well, yeah… but Steve Jobs sure did a hell of job selling it to us like it was. There lies the problem with Mr. Jobs leaving the company. Who will make us believe that what we’re seeing is worth our hard-earned dollars?
“Consumers don’t buy products because of Steve Jobs,” Gartenberg said. “They buy products because it’s Apple and those products meet their needs.”
I don’t believe that Mr. Gatenberg nor does anyone else. Apple isn’t a company that builds products for needs. It creates a need then tells us that we need to fill that need with their products. I don’t need an iPhone. I don’t need an iPad. But when I walk into the absolute Apple-Experience which is the Apple Store, I sure do believe I need it, even if it’s for a second.
Of course I don’t think Apple will go under or that their stock will drop, but I think people will wonder and worry that without Steve Jobs, products aren’t the same quality as before. Where will Apple be in a few years? Still innovating of course, but will have to start approaching consumers with reality versus the Steve Jobs sales pitch.
