Innovation in Apple

Innovation in Apple, Inc.

Part I: Thinking a technological innovation

Apple Inc, is incorporated in 3 January 1977 as a multinational corporation which serves as a manufacturer and designer in the consumer electronics sector. Their focus point is production, marketing and support service of personal computers, computer hardware and software portable mp3 players, portable video players and finally mobile phones with the multimedia function. The company is located in USA, California, Silicon Valley. Today the company has over 200 retail stores all around the world. Retail stores consist of products such as computers, software, iPod music players, iPhone cell phones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as the Apple TV. This retail stores function as Studio for training with Apple products, and also all stores offer a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs, as well as free workshops available to the public. In Genius Bar, customers can receive technical advice or set up service and repair for their products. So retail stores provide simulation and repair services. Current products of Apple Inc. is divided into two as hardware and software. For hardware segment Apple Macintosh family is the price premium products of Apple Inc with high qualified features and design. iMac, iBook, Macbook, iPod, iPhone are certain hardware products. From software side Apple develops its own operating system to run on Macs. iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand, and iWeb are sofwares which are compatible with Macs. The customer target of Apple is generally consist of consumers who search for superior quality and sophisticated design. Before iPod and iPhone the consumer range of Apple is limited with Mac. users. Their share in the market is very low because of the competition with Microsoft. The strategy of Microsoft interfere compatibility of software with other computers. Microsoft is providing practical and for everyday usage systems. Not much quality is concerned for Microsoft. So because of Microsoft monopoly in software systems Apple’s share is limited. Convincing an ordinary user switching to Apple system, quality but also price burden related to elegancy, is undoubtedly tough. Although Apple serves much more qualified products they are not preferred for regular usage. Apple accepted failure in computer market and search for another field to make a great impact. After a well planned strategy iPod portable media players are introduced to market as the innovative product of Apple. iPod first entered to market in 2001 with a great impact. The reason for involvement for this new product is based on it’s elegant design and compatibility with legal mp3 downloading system iTunes. Unquestionably there were existing digital music players. But the main problem with existing products is the memory limitations and design. With iPods circular console works through touchpad logic. In addition with color and size choices iPod provide variety. iPod can play MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless audio file formats. The iPod photo introduced the ability to display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG image file formats. The target market of iPod is namely young generation. Because iPod is a product which is practical, directly related with technology and reflecting lifestyle preferences. iPod is seen as the product which give rise to entry of Windows users to the Apple way of life. The most essential reason for iPod being so successful is iPod and iTunes compatibility. iTunes is a program which allows songs to be played on the iPods using company’s Fairplay Digital Rights Management system. This program allows users to do legal downloading. A standard digital format such can not be played on iPod. Users should use iTunes software to be able to download songs. So iTunes make encryption for audio