“Apple isn’t the biggest consumer electronics company, nor the most profitable,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld. “So what do I mean when I say it’s the No. 1 consumer electronics company?”
“Basically, you can divide consumer electronics companies into two groups: Apple, and everyone else. Apple really is that different. Its influence on global design is many orders of magnitude higher than its nearest competitors. It engenders customer loyalty significantly greater than that earned by any other company in the consumer electronics space,” Elgan writes.
“It’s no accident, and it’s not a passing phenomenon,” Elgan writes. “Apple knows something that other companies don’t. Here are the eight secrets that make Apple the best company in the industry.”
1: Engineering supports design — no exceptions
2: Fewer is better
3: The experience is the product
4: The product is the product
5: You can’t please everyone, so please people with good taste
6: Leave the past behind
7: Product names are important. Really important
8: Group affiliation is the driver
Elgan writes, “Most surviving consumer electronics companies know and use at least one of these secrets. But Apple is the only major company I can think of that employs all of them. And that’s why Apple is No. 1.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sean” for the heads up.]
An interesting article, but that last point of Elgan’s just isn’t the whole story, that Apple’s successful because “people want to belong to a group that immediately identifies them as being superior to other people in other groups… [Apple] products get a ‘B’ on features and functionality — they’re almost best in class in most of their respective categories. But they’re an “A+” on what really matters — coolness, which translates into both boosted self-identity and appealing group affiliation.”
There’s probably some of that “appealing group affiliation” stuff out there, but Elgan tries too hard to downplay the quality experience that Apple products often offer to their users. By doing so, he’s also putting down Apple product users and Apple themselves. Elgan also has way too much “Get a Mac” ad campaign on the brain; he comes off as a PC user who takes those ads a bit too personally. Look up “inferiority complex” when you get a chance, Mike.
Note to Elgan: we love Apple because they make superior products. Often vastly superior products. We love Apple because they strive to invent new things and reinvent old things. Because they try to change things for the better. We don’t buy Macs, iPods, and iPhones to gain admission into some group of superior beings; that’s just a side benefit. 
