Demystifying the philosophy of Apple.

Photo credit: Medhat Dawoud

This month Apple announced the new iPhones, bringing back the iPhone 4-like design. But the design and the spec sheet weren’t the only highlights of the unveiling event.

Next time you are unboxing your newly purchased iPhones, don’t go looking for the charger you’d come to expect when you buy a new mobile. Yes, it’s official that Apple won’t bundle chargers with iPhones. They have justified the infamous decision by saying that it would help them become 100% carbon neutral by 2030. The rumors and reports of this happening were making rounds since June of this year.

But let's be honest, this news didn’t raise eyebrows for most of us. This isn’t the first time when Apple had removed a vital feature. Apple has had made headlines when they removed the much-loved headphone jack or when they rolled out updates to slow down older generations of iPhones.

Moreover, this is not only limited to iPhones, we have seen Apple neglect the Macs as well.

Besides the decisions they have control over, they also find them at the receiving end of many other controversies such as the labor plights in China, but somehow they have always managed to get past this bad public image.

How does Apple survive such negative press? Are they really too big to care for these transitions?

To answer these questions, we have to understand how Apple operates and the rationale behind some of their most controversial decisions.

Apple values its own judgment.

Most businesses and companies try to implement features in their products and services keeping the customer needs in mind. This couldn’t be further from Apple’s philosophy.

Apple, for decades, has heard the valuable inputs of its customers but in the end, prioritized their own judgment. They tend not to focus on the demands of the existing market, instead, they try to inject their own futuristic vision onto the market. Apple repeatedly conveys the message that they know what’s best for the consumers, even when the consumers themselves don’t know.

This is very well explained by Steve Jobs,

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Although it sounds viable, this approach has fallen short various times in the past. For instance, Apple arrived with a bigger screen iPhone after its competitors despite recognizing the strong market shift towards the larger display.

Apple, however, doesn’t care whether or not they have the first-mover advantage. Their brand alone can sell anything at any price point, like selling a monitor stand for $1000, but they focus on controlling the end-user experience for years, which they can only do by simplifying their product lineup.

This also allows them to provide software updates and support for 3–4 years. They supported the iPhone 5s for 5 years which speaks volumes about their after-sale software support.

Apple has spent years trying to simplify its lineup, making it easier to maintain for a long period of time while also making sure that they give their best attention to every single device they ship.

They keep investing in a single product, as they did with iPod until they find a better alternative, as they found in the iPhone after which they safely discontinued iPods.

Simple product lineup

Photo by Michał Kubalczyk on Unsplash

Apple can, if they want to, create an iPhone and MacBook for every price segment out there, similar to how Samsung has an offering in every range. Even so, Apple maintains a strictly simple lineup. They only make one product for each market but make sure it’s really impressive.

For regular notebook consumers, they have MacBook Air and for pro-consumers, they offer MacBook Pro. Similarly, they have iMac for consumers and Power Mac for professionals. One other point worth noting is that Apple doesn’t compete with others, that is, their only real competitor is they themselves.

iPod was a massive hit and instead of focusing on creating better iPods every year, they ditched it for the iPhone primarily because the iPhone had the capabilities of the iPod and also offered much more. As a matter of fact, I won’t be shocked to see them discontinue their MacBook lineup in favor of their iPads.

The point I am trying to make is that as soon as a product doesn’t meet the Apple standards or if they have come out with a better option, they discontinue the product.

Apple has always prioritized simplicity over everything and even though they received a lot of backlash for removing the headphone jack, today we are now all accustomed to the wireless earbuds. Not only that, but many other market leaders have also started following Apple’s footsteps. The same can be said about the fullscreen navigation gestures, which led them to discard the home button.

For Apple, working with electrical components such as capacitors and circuits is solely incidental. Apple wants to provide its consumers with devices that simply work without them having to think about the device, that is, they want consumers to write messages, read a book, or watch a movie without getting distracted about the device and they aim to achieve this in the best way possible by replacing technologies of the past with newer ones like replacing wired headphones with wireless ones.

Feature-oriented marketing strategy.

Understanding their marketing strategy is crucial to get insights into how they handle the negative press. Apple is striving to differentiate themselves as a solution-oriented company and not just another tech giant. This becomes much more evident when we see just how much they emphasize features rather than just spec bumps.

With the increasing number of gadgets released every month, Apple recognizes that the consumers don’t actually care about the marginal increase in RAM or slightly bigger storage capacity.

Yet the rival brands such as Huawei keep advertising their product on different social platforms using various accounts, trying their best to turn as many heads as possible. Apple, on the other hand, takes a radically different path.

With the constant advertising, the message the marketer is hoping to convey becomes noise. That’s why Apple does not post anything unless they really have something important to say. And when I say they don’t post anything, I mean literally. They have been on Twitter since 2011 but haven’t made a single tweet yet.

Apple’s empty Twitter account. Photo by author.

Even their official Facebook page doesn’t seem much active for a brand as big as Apple. This is why when Apple holds a conference and makes announcements, they instantly top the news.

Their marketing is aimed towards showcasing the possibilities of their products instead of just talking about the technical specifications. When they announced the iPod, they didn’t tell that it comes with 5GB of storage, instead, they advertised the fact that it can store over 1000 songs.

Every year Apple stresses the feature-oriented marketing approach. Moreover, Apple never compares itself to other brands. They seem to subconsciously instill in the minds of their viewers and buyers that Apple is the only brand in the world. For instance, they only talk about how much longer the battery will last on their latest iPhone as compared to the previous model, with no regard to brands like LG and Samsung.

Final thoughts

Even though the market share of Apple is just 15–20%, they still manage to make the headlines and have loyal customers around the globe despite the enormous pricing of their products.

Even if you are not an avid fan of tech news, you might have still seen news circulating regarding the vile decisions Apple takes from time to time.

However, by understanding the fundamental principles followed by the conglomerate, we can form an understanding of the history of Apple and also predict the future.

Apple wants to provide its consumers with an ecosystem rather than just a physical product. As mentioned above, Apple has a small market share but they are not eager to increase it because they make so much money per model.

A company like Samsung or Huawei would try to make you upgrade to a newer phone every year but Apple, instead of convincing you to purchase the newer iPhone every year, offers an array of subscription-based services such as $10 a month for Apple Music, iCloud, etc.

They don’t need the majority of their consumers to upgrade to a newer iPhone every year to maintain a steady flow of income.

However, with that being said, it is intriguing to notice that Apple has copied some of the highly sought after features of Android such as floating window panel and the ability to create folders in their latest iteration of iOS. This seems like a clear attempt to convert some of the Android users into iOS users.

By portraying themselves as not a tech giant, they don’t have to bring the best product in the market that competes with the likes of Samsung, instead, it provides them the breathing room to experiment and truly lead the market with risky, yet innovative decisions, along with a simple marketing formula centered around features rather than specs.

Hence, they have always laid emphasis on the value their product and services bring rather than the technical nitty-gritty.