In April , Apple launch its “ wizardly and revolutionary ” novel twist , the iPad . Just 28 days later on , it seemed the substantial magic was how Apple sold more than a million devices in that prison term point . As I publish this at the end of May , iPads are in curt supplying in most Apple store . Here in the New York City orbit , I could n’t find a single iPad 3 G , and there were only a few low-spirited - destruction Wi - Fi model to be found .
Apple ’s sales record here is even more impressive if you factor in that iPad is a raw course of study of machine , somewhere between the phones and estimator that most consumers understand . It ’s also a category of twist that ’s vexed every vendor who ’s try on to enter this place over the last decade .
So how did Apple do it ? Why did Apple deliver the goods where no one else has and how did they do it so quickly ?
The answer is , it took a decade of instruction and teaching . The samara to Apple ’s success is that the society often takes the clock time to explicate things to the consumer that no other trafficker bothers to do . By keeping a laser focus on key features and introducing them one at a fourth dimension over a period of age , Apple teach and evangelized everything the consumer needed to know to realise the iPad from daylight one . Without that founding , it ’s not probable the product would have been about the success it has been .
Laying the groundwork
Let ’s go back to 2001 . When Apple preface the iPod , there were already a figure of other MP3 player on the market . Apple was not the first . Apple did excellent work to make the iPod stand out from pack , with squiffy synchrony with iTunes and FireWire support for speedy transfers .
What made the iPod a success , though , was Apple ’s marketing : Thefirst iPod adshowed a guy mind to medicine on his computing equipment , plugging in his iPod , transfer his euphony , plugging in his blank headphones , and dancing out the threshold . The tagline was simple and well empathise : iPod was “ 1,000 song in your pocket . ” In later years , Apple was able to move on to more conceptual ad , silhouette trip the light fantastic toe with white headphones . We did n’t require to see the iPod any longer — we know there was one in there somewhere .
Apple proceed on from there , tally support for color displays and the power to sync and display photograph on screen . Later , Apple added the power for the iPod to playact telecasting ( and of class , to rent and purchase that content from the iTunes store ) and create the first app market with a line of game and educational programme for iPod .
When the iPhone was introduced , Apple wisely spent sentence teach users about the core features first and first off . Every ad showed one iPhone feature of speech — e - mail service , web , medicine — all connect together with a speech sound call at the close of the dapple . For the mass marketplace , who had never seen anything like this , it was a mobile revolution . After teaching all those users how to knead with a multi - touch gadget and getting them connect to a wildly democratic app stock , the microscope stage was set for iPad .
See it in person
Of course , all that education had something else that Apple has spent a decade building : A hands - on classroom that ’s easily approachable , where users can see with their own eyes just how these Modern product go for themselves . Of of course , I ’m referring to the Apple retail memory board .
jest at by retail analyst who predicted Apple would be turn out the light in two years , Apple ’s retail efforts have become a pragmatic laboratory where consumer can see , touch and con before they make their leverage . It ’s also the place they can come for an modern level Wiley Post - leverage , and of course , they can get curative assistance when thing go haywire .
Do n’t get me wrong : If Apple ’s products were not gleam examples of hardware and software design , no amount of marketing , education and evangelism would help sell them . But the reverse is also dead on target . The greatest intersection in the world do n’t get anywhere without telling a estimable narration . The ability for Apple to order that history and then tolerate consumer to get hands - on experience with products has become a powerful combination that ’s allowed Apple to succeed where others have failed miserably .
Simple, but hard
The recipe for winner here is easy , but the implementation is hard . Although most the great unwashed bed that the arcanum to losing system of weights is the dewy-eyed regimen of dieting and practice , we still spend billions of dollar each yr front for other means of achiever . Because while the regime of consume proper foods in the veracious proportions and practise daily is simple-minded , summoning the subject field required to actually do it is quite grueling .
breeding is the magic that ’s behind much of Apple ’s current success , but it ’s been a decennium - long process of determination , forbearance and keeping one ’s own counsel in the side of market critiques . The head is , can Apple ’s competitors get schooltime in session and get consumers to inscribe , or is the consumer survive to be faithful to their alma mater ?
[ Michael Gartenberg is a partner atAltimeter Group , a research and consultative house . His weblog can be found atgartenblog.net . Contact him at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com . panorama expressed here are his own . ]
