Apple’s greatest competitive advantage
I have spoken to a lot of people from the telecoms industry recently and it is quite striking just how many do not understand the key problem that they are facing. The key challenge telco people identify is how to create a better phone than the iphone, and therein lies their downfall and Apple’s greatest competitive advantage – the competition don’t understand the problem.
In a speech at the Design Council last week Jony Ive talked about Apple’s key design principles: seamless, accessible, affordable, attractive. That gives a strong clue as to where Apple are coming from. Ask a person with an iPhone what percentage of their usage is as a phone, and you will get an answer of about 5%. I have never met a person who says the best feature of their iPhone is the phone.
For me, my iPhone is a video recorder, sat-nav, train ticket, cash machine, news feed, manages my messages, gives me stock price updates, entertains my son in restaurants and measures the distance from where I am standing to the pin on golf courses.
That is why Apple are so far ahead and will stay there until the competition starts to ‘get it’; the iPhone is not a phone. Competitors think they need to build phones, pads, computers etc. Their staff are experienced at building phones, pads and computers so surely, that has to be the answer. Companies like Vodafone are hiring people who must have extensive experience of the telco industry thereby propagating the problem even further.
In a recent article in the FT, there was a forecast that by 2013 phone companies would be making more money out of apps than out of calls. By 2020, I doubt that any of the current phone companies will exist in the shape they are in today. In the mean time, I am sure that Apple will continue to smile every time it hears that someone is trying to create a better phone than the iPhone or a better pad than the iPad.
That sounds like a lot of features that I don’t need. But don’t listen to me. I knew Windows could never dethrone the command prompt, and I still believe in the one-bedroom house.
MichaelEdits
July 4, 2011 at 9:20 am
I agree. Here is a note I penned (reproduced below). I wrote it when faced with a talented team who were not quite deliverying the right product – but thought they were. The article seems to complement your blog as it appears to describe part of what Apple designers and other high performing teams do to be successful. Much myth surrounds success and many (not quite so successful) companies may well say ‘but we are doing everythng that Jony Ive said he was doing’ – I suggest that they aren’t and what iI saw may just prompt a few thoughts.
Chris Tyrrell’s thoughts on “In Search of Edges” or “Living Life on the Edge”
Summary – Product Development
Why do some products fail to make their mark, yet others pass into history as icons of their age….
When a Customer experiences something negative with a product or service then it is likely they have encountered an *’Edge Event’* or gap. This is where the product or service simply did not do what the Customer was expecting and they view this event negatively (as opposed to being pleasantly surprised!). There may be absolutely nothing ‘wrong’ with the product or service and the performance is exactly as intended. The issue is that it is failing to meet the Customer’s expectation or needs – these views are often subjective, but highly relevant – but strangely often overlooked by Companies and their Design and Development Teams. These edge events are highly corrosive to a Company and product reputation and despite the inclusion of the very best features, many have been sunk by a failure to appreciate where the ‘edges’ of the product or service are (from the Customer’s perspective). The error is frequently compounded by increasing the effort on better features, window dressing or spin rather than looking for a (complete) solution that the Customers wants.
Features sell, but the ‘edges’ build (or destroy) a reputation. This paper maintains that more emphasis on finding these edges and moving them ahead of Customer expectation is time incredibly well spent and much more likely to lead to success. Most importantly it keeps the Customer’s needs firmly in view.
Customers often think of and remember these ‘edge events’ as this informs and acts as a place-marker for their experience. They then go on and describe their views to other people in these terms. Good news if it’s a good experience – but edge events seen by Customers usually result is a negative association and they are highly damaging.
The point of this one-pager is that these ‘Edge Events’ are largely predictable if you actively look for them. Many successful teams do exactly this. Long-term success is more likely if the edges are known and are actively extended so a Customer never has a negative experience. Expecting the Customer to adapt to known limitations is simply asking for trouble.
Example
Take a car for instance; important and relevant details are often described in terms of it’s edge characteristics:- price, top speed, 0-60 time, bhp, number of seats, CO2 rating, ground clearance, or how long the engine, gearbox, and bodywork are expected to last. We naturally use this type of comparison in everyday life.
In addition a salesman will often attempt to woo a Customer with features such as engine size, turbo, colour, air conditioning, ABS, off-road capability, chunky tyres, alloys, leather and good looks. These features may help sell initially but the edge conditions become all important once the Customers start to experience the product.
In this example a car with a subsequent history of recalls, poor reliability, excessive fuel consumption, tendency to come off the road, brake failures, rust, limited space, discomfort, ride quality and other problem will quickly erode confidence and build the sort of reputation that can take years to recover from and for which even the best list of features will not save the situation. Underpinning this example is a whole series of Edge Events seen by the Customer that the manufacturer could and should have anticipated had they been actively looking for them.
Every time a Customer encounters (or is forced to encounter) an edge event then the folklore builds. It is here that the history (and future) of a product is born and it is the breeding ground for the myths, legends and horror stories that will become it’s epitaph. Many products, systems, applications and Companies fail or succeed because of the attention to (or failure to understand) the importance of these edge conditions. A browse through any newspaper will reveal a catalogue of articles which can be reinterpreted in terms of ‘Edge Event’ encounters! This approach to managing the boundaries of performance has to be actively encouraged throughout the lifecycle as it is all too often ignored at the expense of building function or expecting (or ignoring) the adjustment a Customer has to make in order to take on the new product or service.
Feeling the Edge
The happiest Customer will be those whose needs are met (and indeed exceeded) and where they never, ever experience an edge event. However there is a special class of person whose job it is to explore this territory right up to (and beyond) the edge and find out where these boundaries are. This really is life on the edge. These are people like Formula 1 Racing Drivers, Test Pilots and most importantly, Product Designers and Developers!
People and teams that think primarily in terms of features or think that the Customer should be tolerant of ‘known edges’ will constantly be surprised by the negative feedback coming back from the Customer base or lack-lustre sales. Typically they will be observed fire-fighting and reacting to get rid of ‘anomalies’ that the Customers have tripped over and have complained about. The team may well ultimately fail through lack of Customer patronage and declining interest and the product set will likely acquire an unenviable reputation. before being consigned to history.
Those that build good features and assiduously look for and know where the edges are and extend them to meet anticipated demand and expectation are more likely to have a long and happy future and few complaints. It should also be said that like Formula 1 car design, this approach should be there right the way through the whole concept lifecycle, and part of everyone’s thinking. It is definitely not just something that can get inspected in at the end of the line, and never something left for Customers to do!
In summary: Here are a list of questions that might just trigger a thought about whether the boundaries in the Programme Deliverables are being looked at hard enough.
• Are the boundary conditions known and recorded of where the performance of your system/application/processes/product become unacceptable or breaks (even approximately)?
• Is the feedback or error reporting from any stage in the design-to-delivery ever classified in term of a simple design mistake or an Edge Condition?
• Is any part of the design review, testing and performance programme providing an early comparison with likely Customer needs and reaction?
• Where would you go to look to see what the ‘Performance Spec’ was for your operation/delivery/product – does anything like this exist and does the reality align with the sales and marketing story? Does it push the customer experience boundary out further than the competition
• Is there a policy to actively review the boundaries and move them forward?
• Is there a tendency for the team to accept known events as ‘charted rocks’ for which the Customers have to be advised to make ‘adjustments’?
The trick is to look for and track the edges and *relentlessly* keep them ahead of the game. It’s what the Customer wants and what the future needs.
Copyright Chris J Tyrrell 2005, 2011
This may be reproduced for personal use providing copyright is included
Chris Tyrrell
July 4, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Chris thanks, a thorough and thoughtful piece.
ddinsdale
July 6, 2011 at 11:48 am
From what I see Blackberry rules with the majority of young people – Apple still expensive
Sacha
July 5, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Sacha, a good point. I have not been able to find any research on the adoption of different mobile products by sex / age. Have you seen any?
ddinsdale
July 6, 2011 at 11:47 am