Apple\'s iPhone the Apple Company

Apple's iPhone

The Apple Company is the path finder of the technological era, which is currently focused onto new technological gadgets, in the detriment of personal computers. "Computers are still an important part of its mix, but these days music-related products are at the top of Apple's playlist. The company scored a runaway hit with its digital music players (iPod) and online music store (iTunes)"

After the success registered with the iPod, the organization proves its worth and status by launching the iPhone. The iPhone incorporates a wide series of operations and you need not be a software engineer to operate it. "It's the most advanced phone ever made; and easy to use. It is not just a phone, it is a computer [...] it is the best iPod ever made."

Aside from the conventional features of a telephone, the iPhone can also handle a new series of operations. "Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes with CoverFlow out of the gate."

The iPhone covers five series of traditional and new technologies:

Phone: calls, SMS, voicemail, photos, ringtones iPod: music, software, Wi-Fi store

Internet: Safari (browser), mail, maps, widgets, You Tube

High technology: multi-touch, OS X, wireless, accelerometer, proximity sensor"

The iPhone's capability to detect motion is revealed by its turning the photograph and repositioning it according to the position of the gadget. For instance, if the user views a photograph while holding the iPhone in a vertical position, when turning the phone to a horizontal position, the photograph will also turn and be displayed horizontally.

The launch of the iPhone was expected ever since the rumors first began to circulate in 2004, when the partnership between Apple and Motorola was initiated for the production of the gadget. However considered a real success, the iPhone has also been criticized for a series of limitations, such as:

No possibility to cut and paste

No A2DP support

Impossibility to use music, even simple mp3 formats, as ringtones

Impossibility to edit files, only read them No MMS and no voice dialing capabilities

Aside from these, the iPhone was built on rather limited platforms, and leaves little room for the creativity of buyers. To better explain, the iPhone basically addresses young and wealthy consumers, and the major segments are the adolescents and the it "geeks." The market segment of the hardware and software engineers could easily be widened if the company decided to incorporate new platforms, more common platforms, which could be used by buyers to customize their iPhones.

Currently, the Apple Company is trying to implement SDK - software development kit, which will be based on the Cocoa platform. The usage of Cocoa in the creation and development of the iPhone will be done by the implementation of numerous frameworks, such as "Core Foundation, Foundation, Core Graphics, Core Audio, and CFNetwork."

Another feature they should consider in order to develop the product and make it more appealing to new market segments revolves around their incorporating of the Java platform. This would allow numerous developers to create personalized applications for their telephones. But the current platform discourages Java programmers from purchasing the item, since they cannot use their personal skills and knowledge personalize the iPhone.

Therefore, in order to increase sales by addressing a new market segment, the Apple Company could widen their programming platform by the addition of the Java programming language. This would benefit the company from numerous perspectives, such as:

The Java platform is one of the most common platforms currently available on the market and its incorporation would attract Java developers; this means the company would be able to approach a new market segment (that formed from Java developers), and by this expand their it "geeks" market segment

The incorporation of Java would improve the product, not necessarily in terms of quality, but because it would presented the customers with a larger variety and more opportunities

Finally, the incorporation of the Java platform would help Apple support the community and industry development as it would create new jobs for the Java programmers.

Since the iPhone is such an elaborate tool, it is likely to be used more as computer than as a telephone. This narrows down their market. Apple's main consumers and iPhone buyers are the teenagers, who make the purchase as the product is cool, and the it community, which buy the iPhone for its utility.

The adolescents' market segment is a highly important one as the teenagers represent a main target in promoting the iPhone. They buy the product to be in fashion, to make a statement. And most of these purchases are based on the strength of the Apple brand. "Apple is one of the leading branding companies in the world. Marketing experts like Marc Gobe argue that Apple's brand is the key to the company's success."