Apple is the fashionable company

Apple is the fashionable company, the trendy, the one to imitate and follow when we talk about design and usability. They launched the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and are probably designing the iWho-knows-what-else.

Their business model is shocking and very very successful, based on a few principles: a) scarcity marketing, b) high quality hardware and wide offer of software applications through the App Store and c) high edge prices. They sell a expensive product but customers perceive it is worth the price. Reason for that is not easy to explain but very real though.

We all know where Apple comes from, they were defeated by Microsoft in the PC software market and, as a side effect, in the hardware market too on the 80's. In those days, using an Apple product, namely, a Macintosh computer, was only for a minority and rare (strange?) group. They even had specific group names (Maqueros in Spain) and they became the “indie” version of the personal computer's users, they did differently for years because they did believe their product was the best. That conviction makes a difference on marketing.

When an Appler pays for an Apple's device, they purchase something more than the product itself, they buy the right to be part of a group of people who deserve the best devices on earth, who will enjoy the best customer experience ever imagined, who will consume the most creative applications and trendiest content offered by the App Store and who do not mind to pay a higher price for that.

Who is competing to whom?

Reading a post on Martin Varsavsky's blog and clicking one of the links, I came across an article where Nokia's CEO recognized that Microsoft, Google and Apple are their competitors. One expects to hear Nokia's competition is one or all of SonyEricsson, Samsung, Motorola and LG but it looks like Nokia is positioning itself in another market or maybe the gang of three moved from their original niche to somewhere else.
Let us go throught it.

Just a few years ago, Microsoft was a software vendor, just making money out of selling Windows, Office and other product's licences. They added messenger, msn.com and hotmail services and entered in the internet sector, but still having their focuss in software market.
Just a few years ago, Apple was failing in their strategy of competing against Microsoft for a stake in the PC market. However, they launched very succesfully iPod and, more recently, iPhone and became a big fish in the mobile entertainment sector.
Just a few years ago, Google began providing best-in-class search engine based on PageRank, they launched adwords service to monetarize their success and, as a result of the 20-80 employee policy, http://www.gmail.com/, maps.google.com services were also launched becoming a reference in the internet market.

But all that happened a few years ago and situation has changed.

Microsoft needs to compete against Google in their terms (and here is where the bid for Yahoo! makes sense), as proprietary licensed software market for PCs seems to be slowing down as Linux, Firefox and other open source projects are a tangible and sound alternative.
Apple is still re-creating itself as the mobile entertainment leader but in terms of revenue, they are quite behind any other mobile manufacturer.
Google has a numerous bunch of services and most (or all) are quite sucessful: code.google.com, sites.google.com, docs.google.com (I am using the latter one to write this post). Most of the internet players are following Google's strategy as all cyclist follow the maillot jeaune at the Tour de France, knowing that when he moves everybody must respond quickly.

Nokia seems to know what is wisely stated in Alice in the Wonderland: "to stay where you are, you must run fast and, if you want to move, you must double the speed"

While writting this post, I saw there is material to write much more, but for the sake of article's length, I will stop here and keep the remainder for upcoming posts.
Should you want more, come back to this blog in a few days.