The French web and tech consulting firm, faberNovel, has uploaded a nice Slideshare presentation this week, analysing the core dynamics at work in Apple's market success over the past decade or so. It's called 8 Easy Steps to beat Microsoft (and Google) and covers such points as consumer lock-in, the arrogance of design simplicity, vertical integration of products and more.
So, if you fancy learning a thing or two (I certainly did) about doing business in the tech and web market, you could do a lot worse than have a gander at faberNovel's excellent analysis. Perhaps most interesting for me was the role that services such as the App store play in the Apple revenues (the contribute almost nothing relatively speaking - less than 1%). Nonetheless the App store is an absolutely essential facilitator of Apple's consumer lock-in and vertical integration goals.
iTunes for example once occupied a similar position a few years ago (before digital music sales really took off), but now forms an indispensable component of Apple's overall product line. Clever stuff indeed - and very thought-provoking for anyone involved in this market sector, whether in web or hardware design, consultancy, analysis or whatever else. Many of the lessons of Apple's success can be applied and localised across various tech sub-sectors, so it's a pretty smart idea to learn a thing or two from the current sector high-flier!
Enjoy!
Dejan Levi
