Here come the newbies... iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and a U2 freebie

Behind the curve but ahead of the game -

While Apple has been accused of playing catch up by a host of competitors and early on Apple stock has taken a 1.5% dive, what remains beyond doubt is the fact that Apple is a game changer, unless you go back to the Apple I  everything in Apples modern history has been a reincarnation of some technology that failed to launch. Smart phones existed prior to the iPhone, MP3 players before the iPod and tablets before the iPad. But with the release of each of these products a market was defined and consumer wants were turned into consumer needs.

What Apple have a knack for is building products that people want. It's true that NFC has been included in numerous high and mid range android devices over the past few years, but the fact remains that using mobile phones to make payments at a point of sale never really took off, but with Apples drive towards using NFC for its Apple Pay platform, we are sure to see a surge in the number of people using the technology for this purpose.

A perfect example of this resonates in the newly uncovered and well received Apple Watch. Its fare to say that smart watches existed prior to the unveiling of the Apple Watch yesterday yet, Apple have finally legitimised the market for such a device, a year ago, the device category existed, yet I'm pretty sure that you would have been hard pressed to find someone who owned one, and even if on a rare occasion you did come across someone with one, I'm also pretty sure you would have written off the experience to the person being an eccentric. What this tells us is that the clout that Apple has far outweighs the power of its competition, just because the competition adopt a new technology does not mean that they are able to make game changing moves, this therefore reveals not Apples ability to give consumers new technology when they want it (as many commentators suggest) but rather Apples ability to tell consumers exactly what they want.

Many businesses succeed because of the excellence of their services - they simply do everything better then everyone else, others because of the simplicity of their products and finally the last group because they bring products and services into the market that change our lives so much that we systematically change the way we live our lives and therefore are bound to such advancements. What Apple does is all of the above but at the same time their focus remains on telling us what we need, so long as the company can woo the masses and create a desire for its products the company will remain at the pinnacle of the industry.

I guess in light of all the press, the good and the bad,  one is always reminded of the little but impactful story of the tortoise and the hare...

Some Thought On Apple

Apple is evolving, some may over look its discounted MacBook Pro’s as still being too expensive but if you look objectively at each lineup they have become hardware leaders in their class and are also massively competitive. $1099 for a 13" MacBook Pro would rank amongst the best bargains when comparing, build quality, longevity, and user experience.

Apple have a simple equation when it comes to product design, its marketing is equally simple, It focuses on what the world wants and then builds the best product that it can. Sometimes this takes time, other-times its quite obvious that an iteration has been held back for a future release, as long as it does not make a habit out of the second point it will continue to prosper. As the company matures its strategy has been slightly modified but on a whole it would be easy to suggest that Apple has been able to do something that most could only dream of, this is of cause is moulding the perfect customers. Apple is great at telling its customers what they want, such is its influence that the products of other manufactures hang in the balance until Apple make their move. A clear example of this is the currently sluggish take up of smart watches. One can almost certainly guarantee that as soon as Apple begins to sell its highly anticipated iWatch sales for all other types of smart watch will soar through the roof.

As a company, having the ability to convince customers that they are making lifestyle choices when they purchase your products is an extremely fortunate position hold, while the market is flooded with functional equivalents, in the world of business, fortune does not bestow itself upon anyone, fortune needs to be worked for, and Apple work damn hard, hence the reason why Apple is still able to charge hundreds of dollars above competitors prices, and we could go as far as to suggest that it is also the reason why it has been able to single handily created the fortunate market of premium products that its competitors now also occupy.

If one was to take a step back and question why anyone would pay over $500 for a mobile phone when one could also be bought for $100, to most the idea would sound ludicrous, but Apple has been able to fashion perceptions as far as making people believe that there is rather then a material want, a material need for the consumption of its products. The technology industry has always been about wowing people into believing in the necessity for the products and services that it produces, Today we have no iWatch, there is no real reason why we would need a smart watch, but nevertheless in years to come people will question how they lived their lives without such a device.

Over the years Apple have gone from being a quirky, artsy, or hippy company, to a a company that nearly went bankrupt, the genius commitment to music, helped shoot the stock price through the stratosphere, and kickstarted its journey to dominance. What has carried through its whole journey has been its dedication to a slogan that it first used in the 1970's. Apples dedication to simplicity has always been well founded and as long as it maintains its focus on this ethos, its dominant run can continue to march forward.