“In a keynote address at the CTIA Wireless trade show, EMI’s Eric Nicoli warned the industry that it would not reach its potential if mobile operators, handset makers and content providers don’t work together and put the customer first. He said they need to make sure that every product they develop for consumers is one that people want, is easy to use, and provides value at an affordable price,” Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET News.
Reardon reports, “Nicoli pointed specifically to the iPhone, Apple’s music-playing phone set to debut in the U.S. on AT&T’s wireless network in June. Announced in January, the iPhone has created a stir and buzz not achieved by any other handset maker in the industry. And the company isn’t even showing off the device at the CTIA trade show. During a keynote on Tuesday, Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s COO, said the company had heard from more than 1 million customers who wanted more information about the phone.”
Reardon reports, “‘Apple makes stuff that people love to own,’ Nicoli said. ‘They love the simplicity and user-friendliness of the iPod and iTunes. Apple doesn’t employ any sorcery or dark magic to achieve this. They listen to what consumers want. And that shouldn’t be Apple’s unique privilege.'”
Full article here.
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AT&T has received 1 million Apple iPhone inquiries so far – March 27, 2007
Sony CEO Stringer talks Apple iPhone: ‘I wouldn’t bet against Steve Jobs’ – March 17, 2007
Intel CEO Otellini praises Apple iPhone, OS X; says Windows can’t cut it in mobile space – March 06, 2007
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Warner’s DRM-loving Middlebronfman warns wireless industry it may lose music market to Apple iPhone – February 14, 2007
Well, this is sort of true. Apple also creates products that people didn’t even realize they wanted so badly.
Actually, it is more like …Steve figures out what we want, and then… WOW!
He gets it. Now let’s hope that Microsoft continues to NOT get it.
MDN word is about, as in it’s about customer service idiots!
Microsoft hasn’t gotten it in over 30 years of operation, so the chances look pretty slim that they’ll magically get it now.
Way to go.
> And that shouldn’t be Apple’s unique privilege.
But it is, because everyone else is in a cut-throat race that is based mostly on price and feature-count. Besides the attention-to-detail and caring about what the customers wants (often before they know they want it), Apple competes by making products that others cannot produce (not without significant effort and investment), and therefore removes the competition.
* Macs are the only personal computers with Mac OS X.
* iPods are the only music players that work with iTunes.
* iPhones are the only phones with Mac OS X AND the only phones (other than the ones from Motorola) that work with iTunes. And the will be the only commercial devices with a multi-touch interface.
Other companies will only become more like Apple when they decide to not be like each other, and continue to compete on price and feature-count. I doubt that will happen.
Apple creates pure lust for its products… It’s possible for other companies to do this.. even Microsoft could do this.. if they cared enough to try.. but it’s something that takes a great deal of time and effort and attention to detail..
You really have to love what you do and want to produce the best possible products, and not settle for something half ass or “good enough.”
Good enough products might sell, and make a profit, but they will never create an army of loyal customers, they will never produce lust and will likely never rise above the din of mediocrity which prevades our lives in the modern technology driven world.
Apple is not satisfied with good enough.. hell they are not even satisfied with revolutionary.. I guarantee you just as Apple is wrapping up the development of the iPhone, they are working on the next great thing that will take the platform to the next level and make even the iPhone look dull and ordinary.
No, it’s more like Steve figures what Steve wants and they make it. Yes they actually use the products they make, unlike others who just push crap out and they never know how bad the user experience are.
“Steve” has it right. Remember when Keynote was announced? Steve said that they had been developing it to his specifications for his keynotes, and only when it was good enough, did they release it as a consumer product. The iPhone is another example. It is being designed *exactly* to Jobs’ specifications.
It shouldn’t be a unique privilege, but it is.
didn’t even realize they wanted so badly
–
A computer that actually works.
Seriously, they’re not brainwashing you, they just make great stuff. I wish other guys would just realize that vertical integration has its advantages…
Steve Jobs has said that he never asks people what they want because, by the time you build it, they want something else.
Empty Tank,
yes, but you can go even further and say that his statement:
“They (Apple) listen to what consumers want” is plain wrong.
He still doesn’t get it.
The cell phone companies are going to make a big mistake if they now start organizing surveys trying to establish what the customer wants.
Steve Jobs plays around with the ideas of his designers, technicians and himself and when something good comes up, he says: That’s insanely great; they’re going to love it!
They would never have arrived at the idea by asking the public.
It’s innovation.
I heard their process was rejecting the 999 good ideas for the one great idea. Only hit home runs. Cut your old products off BEFORE they go stale. Apple DO make crap products, its just that those ones don’t go into production. And they DO do testing, but it is in-house.
Mostly true. But the Sorcery and Dark Magic Department at Apple is going to feel less than appreciated.
Those buttons don’t turn lickable on their own, y’know. And DO NOT touch their red staplers.
I have been following apple products since 2000. Apple does not always give people what they want. Apple is out to make money like any company.
remember when iDVD wouldn’t work with an external DVD, why, so you would have to buy a new computer from apple with a DVD burner.
Apple gives you what it wants you to want.
I’m in Canada and I do not want a GSM phone and I do not want to switch my service provider to Rogers, but it seems I would have to do so to own an iphone.
I love my mac but Apple is a very controlling company and if the time comes when Apple has 95% of the market I wouldn’t doubt it will be as evil as Microsoft.
It isn’t their unique privilege – no one else cares as much when they make a product as Apple does. No cutting corners for Steve-O.
Twisted Mac Freak got the early morning mojo going on!
Troy,
You haven’t been following closely! It wasn’t Apple that wouldn’t let iDVD work with external drives. It was part of their licensing of MPEG2 to use in iDVD, similar to their current licensing agreement with the music labels, which requires DRM on the songs they sell.
When any company is run by salesmen the bottom line becomes more important that the actual product.
Idea people become a necessary evil instead of the reason that you are in business.
It takes more than listening to people because people most of the time have no idea what they want. They just either put up with something or wonder why life is so difficult.
It takes people like Steve Jobs to look at something and think about what would make this into a life improving thing. It isn’t all about the money.
A salesman will almost Never think like that. The money will always get in the way.
And some people just have the worst aesthetic taste (i.e Dell – a salesman).
“It takes people like Steve Jobs to look at something and think about what would make this into a life improving thing. It isn’t all about the money.”
What an irony it would be if it were those people that ended up with the most money.
Bill Gates…a smart techie geek who knows a little too much, and that is why he doesn’t get it.
Steve Jobs…a wise and simple average consumer who has extremely high standards and is able to put himself in the shoes of the average Joe.
Ballmer…a next-meal sweaty monkey who is really super lucky to have a wife at all.
Troy,
Apple is not going to put the iPhone on Bell’s or Telus’s networks in Canada because Bell and Telus want to take control away from Apple. They want to turn off features, add software, put on a logo and sell you music, TV and Movies from their own stores.
Apple wants to keep control and Rogers is the only provider in Canada that will let them do it.
Bell and Telus will get the iPhone when they absolutely have to have it and they will do absolutely anything to get it.
Should only take 2 or 3 years.
@ F Mertz
LOL! Thanks for the reality check, Bro. Sometimes you’ve just got to get Paleolithic, to get to the facts.