Apple has truly become the perfect brand/company/service. Everyday millions of people speak of how much they love their Apple products and how “when you go Mac you nevery go back.” Apple started a revolution in computing and mobile devices that sent a ripple effect through their userbase that made it grow exponentially. But, Apple has a secret to its multibillion dollar value that other technology businesses lack. *cough* microsoft *cough*.
Apple’s current growth appears as though it has no limits. Especially now, just after the WWDC, Apple is looking to have another successful year with several new products and updates to their existing products. How do they have success with everything they try? They start with the customer.
Really it’s as simple as that? Yes. Let’s think about this and, for the sake of this article, we are going to have to compare Apple to its closest competitor, Microsoft.
Apple has a distinct advantage over Microsoft because they appear as though they want to help every individual person. They give out free Expert tutorials both online and in the store just so you can adjust and learn how to use their product. What does Microsoft give you? Well you have to pay to get an overworked and underpayed Indian man to help with an existing problem instead of telling you how to avoid your problem in the first place.
They make every product easy to understand even if you choose to not to use their tutorials. Mac OSX is an extremely easy OS to understand. Whereas Windows relies on prior knowledge to start using it effectively. I’m not saying that Microsoft is any less of an OS than OSX but, I am saying that compared to the OSX operating system would take a lot more of a learning curve to figure out and use to its optimal efficiency.
Apple also has an advantage over Microsoft in mobile department. With the use of an iPhone or iPod, you can carry all of your data with you wherever you go. Yes, Microsoft has Windows Mobile and Zune, but those require the right installs, reformatting the data, then finding the right folder to put the data in. Apple has made it easy to sync your data by including the programs required in the iLife ‘09 suite that comes preinstalled with a Mac laptop.
Where does Apple go from there?
Well its simple, because they make such a good impression with simplicity and easy support, people come back. Plain and simple. People buy their products because the experience in which they purchase, customize, and use their Apple products. It’s simple math. When you take a customer, add how much he spends on Apple products, then multiply that by the lifetime of purchases and you get one healthy profit.
That is the secret to the success of apple. The way in which they handle their customers and the care they have for each individual one.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As a long-time Mac driver I can say that it has not always been peaches and cream with the Apple experience [although I was always profoundly in love (in that good, wholesome geeky way) with my Mac.
I don’t even evangelise anymore. People want to stick with Windows Vista? As long as I don’t have to they can drive a bike with square wheels for all I care.
As of OS X the experience has really taken off. 10.0 wasn’t quite there yet, but it was brand spanking new, needed a whole lot of polish, some patience (after all these years) was certainly not too much to ask.
Now, as of Jaguar it has been nothing but a wonderful experience. I’m driving the Leopard now, this system is good, clean, solid, sheer bliss to work with. Apple cares about their product and it shows.
It used to be you couldn’t get very much decent software. It was there, but not that much of it and you had to look hard for some of it.
Now, there’s tons of great applications, some really amazing stuff that I’m happy to pay for. If it’s the price of shareware and it works great, I pay with a smile. The crew behind it needs to pay the bills and they’re doing me a huge favor by building apps that I need and very much like to use.
I see people carefully peeking in, hesitating whether they should take the leap. But when they do, if they do, they are invariably happy they did so.
I am a very satisfied user, there’s never been a better time to own a Mac, and I’ve had some. I don’t promote a Mac. I just fire up iPhoto, show family pictures and the photobooks you can make and have delivered to your door. People go: “I want that!” My response is: http://www.apple.com sugar. It’s not a secret, you don’t need a special handshake, you’re welcome to join.
I agree with all that you have just said. People always complain about the prices of Macs, but I think the programs and all around solid programming pay for itself. And hey, it’s one less headache for me to deal with.
I always found that Windows software always had problems with it. Constantly glitching and not working the way it was supposed to. I just learned to live with it. But when I switched to Mac I found that I didn’t have to use a computer that constantly had problems. The Leopard OS really does welcome you and I enjoy using it everyday.
Thanks for your comment hank, I hope to be seeing you more around here in the comments.