Apple's iPhone: technology innovation and customer adoption strategy

¶ … Technology on Customers in Regard to the Following

The greatest change in technology has been in the delivery of information. This has impacted the developed and developing world alike. So the firms in U.S., for example, spend more on office-based functions of information handling which has been the major change and has dominated the patterns of development and brought about a change in the structure of work and growth. The modern business depends upon the way information is processed and made useful. (Allen; Morton, 1990) Based on that, companies have changed their strategies of manufacture and technology to suit the needs of customers.

The mobile bandwidth gave more impetus to the merger of the internet, music and the basic telephony and the 'mobile phone' has been converted to a workstation that has become multipurpose. Thus gadgets like PDAs, iPods, and camera phones, Blackberry and Wi-Fi have made the consumer technology's momentum and this has been cashed in foremost by Apple. The technology that was available was used by Apple to create an innovative product for the customer where the mobile phone became a multipurpose machine. This is the example of a prime impact of technology on the consumer preference. The additions to the mobile phone of various features like the computer, song player, internet and game consoles and blue tooth have marked a significant development in the growth of mobile phones. The creators of iPhone 4 claim that their three years of experience in designing and building the phones have put several features in a 9.3 millimeters thin container, making iPhone 4 the world's thinnest phone. Customers demand the latest technology and therefore unifying all available technology into one gadget is the best marketing move which Apple caught on first as far back in 2008. During that time, Apple had been successful with its music machine iPod and the strategy to enter and dominate the mobile market began at that time.

Steve Jobs and his colleagues at Apple unveiled the 'iPhone 2.0'. At that time it was considered to be a powerful handheld computer which runs UNIX and has a nice user interface and the ability to make voice calls. The iPhone was touted to be a 'platform' that would become a "computing and communication device." (Naughton, 2008) This was innovative considering that at that time mobile phones did not have any additional features except to be used as a phone and with text message services in some brands. This is an example of creating new technology from various needs and gadgets. The iPhone has come a long way from the original revelation and it is the gadget that brought new technology to customers, and also used existing technology that was found in many gadgets familiar to the customer and bundled it into a single machine.

How the company introduced the new product to customers

Not all technology ventures are successful. One important fact that makes the company lose is the lack of business experience. They rely more on the hype on the product rather than business principles and customer orientation. Apple is also guilty of this error. Apple with the success of its machines assumed that it can beat the mobile market with its gadgets and fanfare. Thus in the world of marketing, "pure marketing plays to pure technology." (Burke; Morrison, 2001) This was a policy well recognized by Apple because the changes in communication technology was noted with interest and in 2010, the commentators of Apple products let it be known that there may not be new product introductions in 2011, and the company was expected to limit itself to "incremental improvements and cost reductions." Apple also continued to state that the company will claim small additions to the existing products and leveling of prices as an "amazing breakthrough!" (Meyer, 2010) It was said that Apple will come out with Verizon iPhone to boost the Apple tablet/iPad and Apple will push its FaceTime, which are a video calling tool and also the iPod line. Apple was expected to find leverage with the Apple tablet that is superior to the Amazon Kindle book reader, and Apple will also go in to promote iCow and the competitors like Android phones will overtake the iPhone. (Meyer, 2010)

The predictions became false in 2011. In 2011, Apple rose to the position of the world's biggest phone vendor by capturing the total handset market with the revenue from iPhone reaching over $11.9 billion taking over the rival Nokia's phone revenues that fell to $9.4 billion. (Skipper, 2011) The marketing strategy was also unique and the unique features of the phone were the basis of the marketing strategy. The Apple iPhone was introduced into the market as a high end feature and filled gadget that was crafted well. There was also a new marketing strategy that insisted on trusted brand. Released back in 2007, the iPhone has reached the 4th version in 2001 and is the most sought after phones in the world. (Techie MacDaily News, 2011)

Apple iPhone marketing strategy formed diverse patterns and the basis of making the product well-known even before the distribution date was the use of television commercials. The brilliant move made the product popular even before its launch. There were four sets of television commercials in the United States, the United Kingdom and specific market areas. It was linked to other famous products like iPod which was most popular and thus the phone attracted the attention of customers. The company also put good use of the rumors and its own press releases. The strategy to start a rumor was to release the information in very small bits and product was thus made to be advertised on a free basis. (Techie MacDaily News, 2011) Small pieces of information at a time like this led to the rumors about the product and a market was created even before the iPhone was released. That was the strategy of Apple in marketing the product.

Outline support plan for customers who may have questions

Apple does not have much of an online support except its website that gives out detailed information on the product. The website is informative, interactive and showcases all the features of all its products and lists its outlets. However the support for the customer is at the point of the vendor or the outlet and customers get to interact with the retailer and seller more for queries than through the website because the website is very large and queries and information requests are not entertained. It also appears so on the visit to the website of the company.

Emphasize new partnerships with technology partners and enhanced customer

Partnerships in the case of mobile phone are inevitable because it is the mobile phone connector and service provider who sells the phones too. While Apple did tie up with some service providers for selling the phones, it got around the hurdle by making its phones compatible with any SIM and any service world wide. This makes it independent of cellular service providers and while the same strategy was seen to be useful in the music market where Apple's iPod has captured more than half of the MP3-player market, with 60 Gbytes of storage and in collaboration with the iTunes Web service, it has created a perfect system that customers are willing to invest in modern high priced technology. (Dornan, 2006) Although it is independent, the company is having strategic support from many organizations like RealNetworks have allowed the iPod users play music from RealNetworks, and in turn the company will change its music service to promote the iPod as its player. (Andrews, 2004)

The company Apple and its founder Steve Jobs are not in a mood to collaborate and from the times of the first Macintosh, Apple have been keeping to itself and therefore how far it will collaborate with these offers is a question. In the music industry, iPod has been going it alone and seems to have done well. However in the phones sector Apple needed to form alliances with the cellular service providers in various countries to enable the seamless use of their phone. Apple will not open the iPod segment but the prices of the phones will be so prohibitive that it also will have the same handicap as the Mac. (Andrews, 2004)

The problem is still the price of the iPhone. The problem with pricing is that it must be done based on an evaluation based on competition and positioning in the market. The prices decline as more and more competitors emerge in the market and the customer having more choice seeks the low priced but high quality product. (Mohr; Sengupta; Slater, 2009) However the price factor has not been a constraint for the success of Apple but it can access the bigger market if it comes down with the prices and gets ready to collaborate with other vendors.