Stephen Pritchard writing for IT Pro raises the intriguing question whether the launch of iCloud offers an opportunity for Apple to do what few other technology brands have been able to achieve: popularise cloud computing.
The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones takes a somewhat downbeat view on the potential of Apple’s iCloud, pointing to the merits of the competitor technologies and services that already exist, such as Google Apps, Amazon Cloud and Spotify.
But it is worthwhile remembering that when Apple launched it’s iPod there were any number of other MP3 players available, but it was Apple who became the market leaders virtually overnight. The challenges were even more intense with the launch of the iPhone into a market dominated by a number of highly successful and innovative brands. Within two years the iPhone was the brand leader. It was a slightly different scenario with the launch of iPad. Up to that point, there had been plenty of attempts to kickstart the tablet market, but while much had been promised little had been delivered. Significant numbers of pundits thought the iPad would crash. The reverse was true and it sold in huge numbers.
The reason Apple so often succeeds with its digital technology, even when it doesn’t have first-mover advantage, is because it is as much a marketing and branding company as a technology company. And when I use the term marketing I use it as defining a customer focused organisation. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1998 its mission came to be redefined as offering products and services that would be at the centre of people’s digital lifestyles. For Apple, it as much about understanding people as realising the potential of technology.
The reason the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad have proved so successful is because first and foremost they are intuitively easy to use and are not just for geeks and techies! This has the not inconsiderable benefit of making them accessible to a much larger market. Secondly, these devices were launched in tandem with online services (iTunes and the Apps Store) that ensured they were seamlessly – and easily – integrated into modern lifestyle, and business, priorities, namely the digital consumption of entertainment: music, photos, video, books, conversation. Thirdly, as a combined communication product and service they have made themselves an integral part of a social networking lifestyle driven by the anxieties of status-seeking and the comfort of mutual ego-stroking. Fourthly, quality, along with functional and stylish design, complete Apple’s virtuous circle of placing themselves at the centre of people’s digital lifestyles, who in turn become advocates for the company and its offerings. What is distinctive about Apple’s augmented products/services is that it often anticipate the desires of its customers, even before they are fully realised.
In many respects, what Apple has achieved constitutes a benign version of ‘Trojan horse’ marketing. By anticipating and offering upfront the type and levels of service customers will want, Apple is able to ‘release’ demand for its product range in its entirety. In essence, by creating the iTunes and Apps stores, Apple created a vehicle which encouraged consumers to buy their hardware. Incidentally, when Apple launched the iPhone it was initially aimed at the consumer market, but such was its appeal and versatility that it ‘released’ demand from within the business market. Something of a Trojan horse within a Trojan horse!
It might well be that iCloud will represent the pinnacle of Apple’s strategy in the integration of its devices and service offerings as a means for gaining access to the centre of our digital lifestyles. Having created a huge user base for iPods, iPhones and iPads, the convenience of instant ‘push’ synchronisation should not be underestimated and could well encourage further switching to the Apple brand.
To return to the beginning, comparing Apple’s technology with what already exists is to miss the point. The source of Apple’s competitive advantage is that they are able to anticipate how customers would rather relate to, and delight in, the products and services that become available to them via new and innovative technologies. It will be interesting to see how iWorks, Apple’s version of the PC loaded Microsoft Works and the cloud based Google docs square up in the coming months. I suspect the appeal of the quality, versatility and user-delight of Apple’s iWorks (Pages, Keypoint and Numbers) will benefit significantly from now being accessible via iCloud.
As something of a footnote, it will also be interesting to see whether Apple’s iCloud will help overcome the reluctance of many CEOs to migrate to Cloud computing.
