"It's the product, stupid"

[Magnus]

Michael Hyatt writes that everything in the end comes down to whether a product is good or not and he applies his thinking to the introduction of the iPhone. He says in this respect there are three main lessons that any other company can learn from Steve Jobs' keynote.

1. Create products you would personally use.

Whenever Steve is up on stage and demos something don't you find it amazing that he does demo the stuff himself? How many other CEO's of the same level and stature does that? This gives people a feeling of trust and security, Steve is just like anyone else using the product. You also get a feeling that he truly believes in what the presents and that he is the most frequent user of his own technology. Can't you just see the Apple TV in Steve's living room, the iPhone in his pocket, and the Mac Pro at his desk?

2. Create products that solve problems in unexpected ways.

I think case in point is Microsoft. Microsoft's products may solve problems (arguable point) but they don't usually solve problems in new and exciting ways. They are in a sense predictable. Apple is far from predictable and for better or for worse they show us the new, exciting, and unexpected technologies and how they can help improve our lives.

3. Create products that exceed our customers’ expectations.

Companies live and die by customers' expectations. Set the expectations to high and you run the risk of not delivering, thereby disappointing customers. And let's be clear, disappointed customers are bad. Set them too low and you may be able to deliver fairly easily but people may also get suspicious. Apple are masters of this game. By keeping things secret they build up expectations to levels that would be deadly for any other company but they also manage to deliver and exceed those expectations.

[senthil03]

Apple's strength has been more on the design as well as the product functionality uniqueness. They have positioned themselves as a compnay which creates uniquely designed products which the owners is proud to own as well as the functionality of the product which is superior to what is available in the market.

The only problem Apple has faced is the premium that they ask for what they give. With the exception of ipod, i think they got their pricing strategy wrong.

[Superglue]

[

=senthil03;7552]Apple's strength has been more on the design as well as the product functionality uniqueness. They have positioned themselves as a compnay which creates uniquely designed products which the owners is proud to own as well as the functionality of the product which is superior to what is available in the market.

Absolutely ! Wouldn't you think that Apple has been targeting a niche market ? A market, who is passionate about Apple products ?

The only problem Apple has faced is the premium that they ask for what they give. With the exception of ipod, i think they got their pricing strategy wrong

How about then, may be with the exception of iPod, that Apple's pricing strategy probably based on 'premium' products for select group of 'premium' customers, those who expect to pay a 'premium' price as Apple knows, those who are loyal to their products would not hesitate to pay that 'premium' price

[senthil03]

Point taken. I think even Apple seems to have got the message, if not they would not have launched the Mac Mini, lower cost mac books etc.,