Ten Key Factors To Help Apple Succeed

At 2:30 p.m. on May 26, 2010, Apple Corp became the largest company in the field of technology, and became the second largest company in the United States after Exxon Mobil Corp.

In the past few months, Apple Corp's market value has been tightening up Microsoft Corp.

Over the past few years, the development of Apple Corp is just like the launch process of space rockets - a series of fast and orderly explosions and then heading straight into the sky.

Apple Corp itself, its leader and its products have become a cultural lingua franca.

DELL wants to become a Apple Corp in the commercial field. Zipcar also wants to become a Apple Corp in the field of car sharing. Bill Maher, even a drama actor, even said that if the president of Apple Corp is president, the government will provide better services.

How can a company or individual become an apple in certain fields? We can clearly see the answer to this question by discussing with former Apple Corp employees, current partners and other professionals who are concerned about Apple for a long time. They focus on the following ten key factors.

1, unconventional

When Apple led the apple team to design the product in 1980s, Stephen Jobs often instructed engineers in the question of "what the notebook should look like."

"Once he saw an unusual kitchen utensil in the department store," Andy Herzfeld said. "Then he asked the designer to design the notebook as the look he saw." another time he asked the designer to design the product as Porsche.

Andy Herzfeld is one of the founding engineers of apple and wrote the book "revolution in Silicon Valley: a great history of the growth of Apple Corp".

Computers look more like sports cars and kitchenware, while Apple Corp followers are just high-end people - those who have bought or will buy Porsche.

Obviously, it's hard for you to attract them only by following the market trend of Silicon Valley, through technical experts or other conventional designs.

The magic of Apple lies in its own research, so as to attract its target customers without exception.

2, overstepping the routine

Technical experts generally believe that the opening of source code is the general trend and embodies the principle of sharing.

Against this background, apple is regarded as somewhat closed.

But in Apple's philosophy, closeness does not conflict with freedom.

"We are doing everything we can to make the user experience the desired effect," Jobs wrote to Ryan Tate in an e-mail.

In the past, Lane criticized apple for prohibiting the use of Flash technology on iPhone and iPad.

"You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure."

"The technology is banned because Apple stores provide too much freedom," Jobs wrote. "You can buy programs that steal personal privacy, you can buy programs to destroy batteries, and you can buy pornographic movies."

Nonetheless, programmers have been complaining that Apple stores are too closed, and they think Apple stores have been authoritarian in designing applications.

The problem is not that it is closed, but that it is exclusive, covert, and frequently changed in rule making.

If Apple Corp can relax pparency, it can avoid most of these disputes.

But fundamentally, apple doesn't care about controversy.

Although criticism continues, Apple stores have achieved great success, and even their opponents have to admit that it is extremely convenient and interesting.

3. Refuse to be complicated.

"Rejection" may be Jobs's primary role in the Apple Corp.

"He's a filter," Apple Computer Engineer Herzfeld said.

Every day, designers will show Jobs the idea of adding new features to new products and existing products, and his answers are almost always rejected.

"I'm proud of the products we haven't done, just as I'm proud of the products we made."

Jobs said in an interview in 2004.

The reason for Jobs's rejection is not only the constant dislike for complex design, but also the cost consideration and the expectation effect.

For some complicated designs, we can not lower the cost, reduce the characteristics of some products, and create a kind of expectation.

"Deliberately ignoring a product that people want to possess will inspire people's desire for it."

Reid, a former engineer of Apple Corp, said, "when you add this function to the new version, users will be happy if they get what they want."

Apple Corp has been using this strategy over and over again. The latest example is iPhone O S4, which adds multitasking functions.

In fact, the user has been asking for this function since 2007.

Look at iPad again. Is it really impossible to add video cameras?

4, serving customers

No matter how good your product is, it always goes wrong.

In recent years, in the field of notebook and mobile phone, Apple's competitors mostly adopt strategies to avoid customers rather than serve customers.

They shut down their own customer service departments and outsource it to a telephone service center made up of low paid employees.

They even ask customers to search for answers to common questions on their own.

Twenty years ago, when Apple Corp was formulating its retail strategy, it defined an overriding priority: creating a retail store that would completely associate customers with the computer industry.

They are committed to creating a friendly atmosphere similar to the Four Seasons Hotels lobby in the store.

GeniusBar is the representative.

The staff in GeniusBar will diagnose every Apple Corp product for you, no matter where you bought it.

Unless the warranty period is passed, the company does not charge any fees for the above services.

Why is Apple Corp so generous? Del, who worked in Genius Bar, said, "sometimes customers come in to seek help, but when they leave, they buy new products."

5, ignore opinions.

Jobs always quotes Henry Ford's famous quotes on various occasions: "if I ask customers what they need, they always say" a faster horse! "

In this sentence, Jobs explains the philosophy that Apple Corp believes is that people do not anticipate what they really need.

Customers will tell you a lot of things they need, but when you create them according to their intentions, this is not what they want.

It is not easy to visualize things that are not yet there.

But Jobs did not regard customer feedback as nothing.

He saw it as an inspiration rather than a direction; it was a way, not a result.

So apple can always launch new products that can meet customer needs and exceed customers' imagination.

6, everywhere

Just as G enius Bar has proved to be a genius creation, today's global Apple slogan "think differently" has also been proved to be empty talk, because Apple fans are really different in their way of thinking.

Fans' loyalty to apple is comparable to Christian loyalty to Jesus.

Apple's brand is so powerful and attractive that Apple has become a religion for some people.

Apple Corp has developed a series of subtle ways to cultivate fans' religious fanaticism towards Apple brand.

Including the mystery of rendering products.

And the most important way is to enhance the symbolic meaning of Apple products. The most effective marketing strategy is rooted in the product itself.

Apple Corp uses a combination of elements such as color, voice and shape to build a clear brand image.

Apple uses these strategies to make its brand image deeply rooted in people's hearts.

This is especially evident when Apple releases new products.

Through a series of unified and coordinated steps, apple mobilized the appetite of the public and attracted more attention.

When the public's attention is highly concentrated, Apple will announce its ready information or new products at the right time.

All this is centered around marketing.

7, bring forth the new and bring forth the new.

Don't be surprised if Apple unveiled a desktop computer someday.

Is it just fantasy? Absolutely not, all of these will be written in Apple's patent application document.

Although we haven't seen these products yet, we should not doubt Apple's innovative ability.

In fact, no company has ever reflected and reconstructed the basic links in its field as frequently as apple.

In the past few years, Apple Corp has made great innovations in the production process of its notebook computers. This is also the fastest and largest innovation in the history of notebook production design, and no other company has done that except apple.

8, proper dictatorship.

In 2000, as the operation manager of Apple's American business division, Mike iwan Lester was responsible for the development of DVD burn technology, which is about to install DVD on high-end computers and turn it into iDVD in the future.

The interface of the project is presented with a variety of windows and menu options, as well as large functional interpretations.

"When Jobs came in," Lester recalled, "he did not look at our work carefully, but drew a box on the whiteboard."

"This is the new design."

Jobs said, "as long as a window, push audio and video data into the window, then click a button called play, this is what we want."

"Everyone is dumb," Lester said. This style is quite different from the company he used to work in.

In the field of technology, we pursue an inclusive and thorough innovation that integrates the wisdom of the masses.

Apple engineers spend 100% of their time designing products that are planned by a small group of senior managers or Jobs.

There are so few people who have the right to make decisions that apple can only produce one or two innovative products a year.

9, re inventions

"

Apple's products are not revolutionary at all, depending on our definition of the word revolutionary.

Apple Corp is good at collecting and summarizing the latest ideas in the field of technology and pforming it into itself.

Apple is good at finding the problems and shortcomings of other similar products, and will solve the above problems and deficiencies in the products it launches, or innovate and innovate other similar products on the shelf in Apple mode.

IPad is a typical example.

As early as 2001, Bill Gate launched a product with almost the same function based on the w indow s operating system. But at that time, there were many problems to be solved in the interactive interface and application software development, and the Microsoft Corp did not continue to carry on.

Jobs found that the above problems were not a problem on the basis of the existing technology of Apple Corp, so iPad was born.

In the two months just launched, iPad sold 2 million units.

10, methodically

After several weeks of listing in iPad, HP, Microsoft and other companies have postponed the listing of similar products.

They are trying to produce products that are more sophisticated and functional than iPad.

They are working to create their own version of "fast horse", so they postpone the market and return to the design room.

Meanwhile, Apple's other competitors, such as Google, Intel and so on, are also rapidly advancing in the field.

The Apple Corp did not contain such competition. It acted strictly according to its timetable.

The timetable of Apple Corp is strictly established in accordance with its own business strategy and long-term vision goals. Its impact on market situation and competitors' situation is relatively slight, so that Apple Corp can always grasp the initiative and launch some new products timely to seize the market opportunities.