The discussion on whether I am or not an Apple-head myself can be put aside. Objectively speaking, even if you’re one of these people who hate them to death I think we can agree (as long as we’re still rational) that they’re good at creating experiences.
When you’ve got queues that stretch along blocks of people that wait — and not only wait, but camp up to WEEKS — in order to buy you product, i.e. created that much demand, I think it’s pretty clear there’s a lot of emotion and user immersion in there. It’s the same case for Supreme or for Gucci in their fashion industry, where (at least in London) you see the same thing happening though at a smaller scale.
So hey, if you’re a totally anti-Apple it’s still just a fact that people do this. It means they do something well.
We’ve got this in place that Apple is good at creating experiences. What I’m trying to point out now is the following:
The better experiences are created by a company, the wider they can go.
Let’s talk AirPods
They were not the first Bluetooth headphones. Not the first wireless earbuds. Definitely not the first “
To quickly explain if anyone’s confused, you’ve seen people in the gym with those headphone which are connected with a wire that goes around the neck — they’re wireless but not “true wireless”. The ones secret agents have in movies? Those are the “true” ones.
I’d have to ask an audiophile if in the period of time between the first true wireless earbuds and until AirPods the concept of
The idea is this: Apple might as well not invent shit with these AirPods.
Good Invention?
I’d say yes — they bring in figures estimated at $4.3 Billion in revenue. And the same study says they’re expected to mean $13 Billion by 2020, placing them next to products like the iPad — the latter bringing $19 Billion.
The Point
Apple created experiences that are so strong and compelling that they can get away with not innovating that much and dominate this field of the market. Why?
Simply because of the integration with their other devices — which is one of their core principles of the experiences they’re building.
So to recap: based on the past success of the mobile devices and computers, getting away with creating your own headphones that are not really different on paper than some cheaper alternatives seems to work. And hey, if they are an innovation or not is not the subject of what I’m writing here. We’re assuming the lowest-case-scenario.
Is it the first time they’ve done it? Hell no — there’s armies of Android fan-boys that don’t get out of their echo chamber of how it doesn’t make sense for them to pay more and get less from the fruit-company counterpart.
Did it mean Apple did bad? Looking at their September-October 2018 valuation wouldn’t call for that (hint: the $1 Trillion valuation period of time)
If an out-of-nowhere company came with exactly the same product before them, it makes sense why they wouldn’t get as far as $4.3B after some time — they’re not offering as much. Why is Apple offering so much?
The answer to this question coincides with the recap in a not-coincidentally manner: The better experiences are created by a company, the wider they can go.
How good your company’s experience is created is a matter of vision and not only that. Keep up with my posts on this blog as in the following years I’ll make a science of what it takes to create an experience and how to craft it.
About Ch Daniel
I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.
If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email
I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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