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Apple from the iPod to the iPad - a case study in corporate strategy
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Is Google more innovative than Apple? 

18/1/2014

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The Apple Case Study, Google is more innovatve than Apple
3 Ways Google Is More Innovative Than Apple ..
Chris Neiger, The Motley Fool  published in Business Insider Jan. 18, 2014,
In a recent interview with CNBC, Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Isaacson, said that Google is more innovative than Apple -- clearly a bold statement from someone who spent hours interviewing Jobs and many people from Apple.

While some investors will inevitably disagree, there are three main reasons he's right: wearables, automobiles, and the coming Internet of Things. Google is already strolling down these three avenues, and all of them could propel the company ahead of the iMaker in the not too distant future.

First-mover advantage in wearables
. With Google's Glass experiment, the company is one of only a few technology concerns that has produced and released wearable technology. While Glass is still being tested out by "Explorers," Google recently opened up invitations to purchase Glass to those with a Google Play Music All Access account.

While Glass may not appeal to everyone, and has come with plenty of criticism, the device still puts Google ahead of Apple and many other companies looking to make a business out of wearables. Of course Apple is rumored to be working on an iWatch that could release later this year, but that still doesn't make up for the experience Google is gaining tight now through Glass.

Juniper Research expects shipments of smart wearable devices like watches and glasses will hit 130 million by 2018, and spending on the devices could hit $19 billion that same year. While it's difficult to predict exactly how consumers will respond when an iWatch or Glass hits the mass market, the fact is that Google is already making a huge splash in the space and is gaining traction with consumers and developers because of it. When it comes to innovation, tech companies can only get credit for what products they actually have made, and that's why Google wins this category for now.

The other mobile revolution
Though wearables could eventually be a huge industry, there's already one industry that's undergoing a massive technological change right now: automobiles. Car companies are trying to keep up with new technologies, platforms, and apps but the pace of mobile is much faster than a carmaker's product release. To address technology in cars, Google recently announced theOpen Automotive Alliancewith chipmakerNVIDIAand automakersHonda, Audi,General Motors, and Hyundai to bring its Android platform into vehicles later this year.

Bringing the latest tech into cars is time consuming and expensive, and this alliance could make automobile infotainment systems tech-relevant, while equally spreading the developing responsibility across those in the alliance.

Critics will say that Apple moved into the automotive space first, with its iOS in the Car feature and Siri Eyes-Free. While that's true, what the automotive industry desperately needs is a cohesive platform, and it's doubtful Apple's legendary closed operating system fits the bill. Google has opened its alliance up to other technology companies and carmakers, essentially replicating the path it's taken to make Android such a popular mobile platform.

As The Motley Fool's technology analyst Evan Niur ecently wrote: "Apple's strategy is to integrate iOS devices with cars. Google's strategy is to power the car itself with Android."

The automotive alliance is in addition to the amazing strides Google has made with autonomous cars. That experience, along with automaker and other relationships it's made in the industry, could help make mass adoption of Android in cars a reality. Apple launched its car connectivity first, but Google is poised to revolutionize how we all use in-car infotainment systems.

Google and the Internet of Things
Aside from wearables and automobiles, the coming Internet of Things is another advantage Google has over Apple. The Internet of Things refers to previously "dumb" devices, like a refrigerator or a shipping container, that will eventually communicate with other objects around it to improve efficiency and send relevant information to users. Cheaper sensors and pervasive wireless connectivity are helping to fuel this movement, and Google is right there.

This week the company just announced its intent to purchase the in-home innovations company Nest Labs, which makes smart thermostats and smoke alarms, for $3.2 billion.

Nest's smoke detector connects to Wi-Fi networks, communicates which room smoke is coming from, tells whether the alarm is going off, monitors battery levels, and can send all of that information to mobile devices, in addition to sending traditional signals.

The company's smart thermostat is a learning device that tracks the temperature patterns of its users, knows when a user leaves the home, learns sleeping and waking patterns, and programs itself to match a all of those preferences. It uses light, humidity, and activity sensors to do all of this, without any need for the owner to set any pre-programmed instructions. While it may seem a bit too futuristic for some, it's part of the future of connected objects, and it's already here.

By 2020, Gartner expects installed base units for the Internet of Things to be 26 billion, which doesn't include PCs, smartphones, or tablets. International Data Corporation went so far to say that the Internet of Things is "poised to change everything" and will result in$8.9 trillion in global revenues by 2020.

And as for Google, its purchase of Nest puts it in a great position to benefit from this and to keep it a few steps ahead of Apple. It's not that the iMaker doesn't have the capability to create innovate products, or buy companies that do. It's just that at the moment Google is moving much faster and in more directions than Apple. That certainly could change this coming year, as Apple releases a smart watch or other product that shows off its innovative potential, but for now the future belongs to Google.



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The great Apple lull ...

2/11/2013

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The Apple Case Study, the great Apple lull
The great Apple lull ...
Dan Frommer, SplatF
An infant could not have drawn it better: This is Apple’s last decade in one line. (No, it’s not the snake from The Little Prince eating a genetically modified elephant.)

Technically, it’s a smoothed graph of Apple’s year-over-year revenue growth from September, 2003, through September, 2013. But the reason I left out all identifying symbols and values is that this is supposed to represent something less tangible —excitement about Apple. This feeling, while rising and falling as the iPod, Mac, iPhone, and iPad generated a lot of interest — not to mention sales and profits — seems to have lately settled into a slump.

It’s not that Apple isn’t making great products anymore: You’d be a fool to argue that the iPhone 5S, retina iPad mini, iPad Air, and various Macs aren’t the best computers that any company — not just Apple — has ever made. Step back more than a couple of product generations, and the newest models are amazing improvements.

And it’s not that Apple has stopped innovating. One particularly impressive feat — which will never get the appreciation it deserves — is that in half a decade, Apple has scaled from a company that can reliably design, produce, sell, and support 75 million gadgets in a year to one that can move that many in three months. (The first time Apple sold 9 million iPhones in a quarter was three years ago — September, 2010.

This year, it shipped 9 million iPhones in a single weekend.) This despite increasing competence and competition from Google, Samsung, Amazon, and Microsoft.

But where Apple has disappointed recently is in novelty, or surprise. Perhaps this is unfair, but it’s real. Apple became the company that delivered “new”.  People got used to hearing about new stuff all the time — iPod nanos, iPhones, MacBook Airs, iPads — and now it seems like it’s been a while. The more people got, the more they wanted. And then you have to work even faster.

What really happened? Steve Jobs spoiled us with two mind-altering substances in quick succession — the iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, the majority of people who have ever owned Apple products likely bought their first (and second…) during this period. So all of a sudden, a bunch of people who didn’t really pay attention to Apple before — people who never had to boot up a Performa with Extensions off, or upgrade RAM in a Power Mac 8500 — are now expecting some crazy new toy to appear every few years, whether it’s realistic or not.

And here we are, the end of 2013, and it’s been a while since Apple really surprised. You may reasonably wonder: Why is that Apple television taking so long? Where’s my iWatch? Is Tim Cook asleep at the wheel? Has Apple lost its magic? What’s going on here? This is how you start to get even Apple’s biggest supporters wondering about ho-hum product presentations feeling “off”.

So that’s the big question right now. Is all of this a windup to a new galaxy-changing Apple device or two over the next few years? Will that boom-boom succession ever happen again? Will two new Apple devices in a row ever sell so many units so quickly? Or was that an unrealistic coincidence? Is Apple’s ability to invent slowing with its sales growth?

Once again, on the company’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked up the company’s interest in new product categories — “specifically if you look at the skills that Apple has from hardware, software and services and at incredible app ecosystems”. Cook, of course, offered no timeline, and Apple tends to play the long game. An optimist might say that Apple’s most recent move — launching the retina iPad mini so close to the holidays, instead of waiting until next year — suggests the company is speeding up its overall product-release cadence. A pessimist might say that Apple has fallen behind, and that it should have launched yesterday.

I’d say give it another year. Tim Cook has now been chumming the water for a while, and if Apple was just going to keep rolling out iterative updates to the iPhone and iPad until we all fell asleep, it’d be a waste to keep bringing up the whole “new categories” line. It’s not like he just showed up when Steve Jobs retired. Tim has been around this whole time, and doesn’t seem like the bullshit-artist type.

If it becomes mid-2015, and Apple hasn’t shipped anything new, then it might be time to wonder what’s up. But for now, enjoy your new iPad, relax, and get excited. I risk sounding like a naïve Cubs fan here, but: If it’s “new” you’re after, my guess is that next year will be more interesting.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-apple-lull-2013-11#ixzz2qqa2XO00



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Apple Product Life Cycles, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad

25/5/2013

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The markets may have been disappointed with iPad sales in the final quarter of the year as sales fell back to 14 million units from the 17 million recorded in the third quarter but is this such a disappointment? For the year as a whole sales increased by 80% from 32.4 million to 58.3 million units.

The iPad has achieved cumulative sales of just under 100 million units in the first three years since launch. Compare this with the iPod with sales of just under 6 million in the first 1000 days and the iPhone’s 34 million units over a similar period, a quarter sales slow down is a minor setback. The launch of the iPad has been remarkable despite supply side constraints.

Consider, the iPod has gone on to sell over 350 million units and one can begin to see why the Q4 sales figures of the iPad can hardly be considered as a serious setback.

So much focus on the iPad performance, the iPhone success passed almost without comment. Sales increased by 73% from 73 million units to 125 million units in the full financial year.

Since launch the iPhone has sold 270 million units compared to the iPod’s 120 million units over a similar six year period.

The iPad is tracking a product life cycle curve which will exceed even this incredible number. Based on our life cycle model, the iPhone and the iPad series will sell over one billion units EACH.

iPhone sales growth in the current year will be much slower despite the success of the iPhone 5. The iPad mini, on the other hand, may push unit sales to between 75 and 100 million in the year ahead. The Christmas period will provide some interesting numbers for analysts and Apple lovers.

The Apple Case Study from the iPod to the iPad remains a classic Corporate Strategy handbook for success. Watch out for the Winter 2012 update coming soon as we review sales of the iPhone, the iPod and look at prospects for the iPad mini.


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The iPod Product Life Cycle, the case study continues

25/5/2013

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iPod sales in the financial year ending September 2012 were over 35 million units bringing the total sales since the launch in 2002 to a staggering 356.3 million units. Peak year for sales was in 2008 when unit sales hit 54.8 million units.

The iPod continues to dominate the music player market but sales have been hit by the launch of the iPhone and the iPad. Apple is never afraid to cannibalize own product sales as the launch of the iPad mini demonstrates.

The sales pattern shows all the classic signs of a product life cycle. But where next for the iconic player? Sales were down year on year by 17.5% but down by as much as 21% in the critical Christmas quarter.

We estimate sales could fall by a further 20% over the next twelve months to around 28 million units to fulfill a classic Product Life Cycle Pattern. Even so by 2016, Apple may still be selling some 10 million iPods. It is not yet time to write off the iPod.

The Apple Case Study from the iPod to the iPad
remains a classic Corporate Strategy handbook for success. Watch out for the Winter 2012 update coming soon as we review sales of the iPhone, the iPod and look at prospects for the iPad mini.

Originally published in October 2012

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Apple product life cycles - iPod, iPhone, iPad is this the future

24/5/2013

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Originally published in January 2012
On January 24th Apple reported first quarter results with the highest quarterly revenues and earnings ever. In this article,  we look at the product life cycles of the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. The Corporate Strategist – Apple Product Life Cycles iPod, iPhone, iPad

The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion. The results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion in the year-ago quarter.

It is a great result but what happened to the product sales?
The company sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads an 111 percent unit increase.

The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter and  Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Tim Cook Apple’s CEO said : “We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs, Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

For lovers of product life cycles, the Apple product line demonstrates some classic lines. The iPod is on the wane but the future of the iPhone and the iPad look incredibly strong.

In the charts, the performance of the Sony Walkman and the Disk man is compared to that of the iPod in the period from 1980 to 2012.

The second chart outlines the performance of the iPod from launch to the present day with a forecast of future sales up to 2016.

The third chart maps the performance since launch of the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

Is this the future path of the iPhone and the iPad. The only problem, latest sales for the iPhone suggest total sales could be off the chart in the current year with sales of 150 million units compared to the 88 million modelled here.


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