Apple’s ‘culture of innovation’ will help it to outperform
While others retrench staff and cut back on research (for companies like Dell there was very little to begin with), Apple is succeeding in this downturn in the same way it thrived through the last one — by investing, inventing and innovating its way forward. Sounds like a textbook response, but how many companies are actually putting their investment in the future first?
Quoting Technology Business Research (TBR) data and analysis, iTWire reports that Apple’s “culture of innovation” while allow the company to outperform the economy and its competitors by growing market share and staying profitable. According to Technology Business Research:
We anticipate that customer satisfaction with the utilitarian models purchased during the recession will result in a price-consciousness that lingers even after an economic recovery. Consequently, we believe the drop in ASPs will force vendors to change their relationships with buyers, causing them to emphasize services such as premium support, online backup and cloud-based access to content and data.
See also: Apple growing like a start up
However, whereas nearly everyone else believes this “utilitarian” trend bodes ill for Apple, TBR says that the Cupertino, CA-based company’s updated iPods, iPhone, portables and, most recently, desktops have not only cushioned the worst of the economic downturn but also helped propel the company forward. Of course, the house that Jobs built is also a leader in online and cloud-based services (ie iTunes Store, App Store), which have served to further buttress the Mac and widget maker against economic headwinds.
My take here is that this means products that “just work” and feature deep hardware, software and cloud integration have a distinct advantage over things that are simply “cheap” in dollar terms only.
Further, TBR adds that iPod touch sales have been underestimated to date and that mobile Web traffic trends will bear out this insight. Thereupon, as the iPhone is the touchstone of the smart phone revolution sweeping the wireless industry, Apple will benefit doubly as it holds leadership positions in the both the high and low ends of this market.
Investors have increasingly come to recognize these fundamentals and pushed up the company’s share (AAPL) price by about 50 percent since January to $120. Apple at $80 seemed like a bargain then and even more so now.
It’s Apple’s extraordinary attention detail—investing and innovating aren’t optional budget items—that is really shining through…
Did you get in when the getting was good?
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April 14th, 2009
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April 19th, 2009
I bought at $90.
July 21st, 2009
Like most of the coverage of this story, the article makes it sound like Apple was rated “most innovative” company by business week; perhaps even by some meaningful metrics.
The methodology is published for anybody who feels it important to scrutinise information from a single source posted and quoted widely on internet web sites:-
“the BusinessWeek-BCG survey got an 80% weighting, while three-year revenue and margin growth each got 5% and stock returns were weighted 10%”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081062882948.htm
Clearly, what this story really tells is that “Apple is believed to be the most innovative technology company” by the people who responded to the survey invitation by the magazine. People who are collectively described as “executives” but about whom we know little else.
When people give their opinion about a famous brand or a product, whether or not they work for one of the “largest global corporations”, marketing is a factor. Apple’s marketing is extremely good.
The word “executives” seems to lend credibility to the result, but one thing is certain: the credibility of the result of a survey depends on the participants. Unfortunately, the survey is “anonymous” therefore we have no idea who these people are or even how an “executive” was defined.
Is Apple innovative? Yes, probably. Think of the iPod, or the iPhone, which good marketing has helped to exalt to the status of must-have gadgets of the day. The touchpad interface, made famous first and foremost by Apple’s very well-marketed products, which characterises Apple’s core brands, is certainly an innovative feature.
But it seems that Apple may have stolen the idea, using it in “wilful, wanton and deliberate” infringement of the patent held by Tsera, in reality [apparently] the company that actually invented the idea.
http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/jul/apple_sued_for_stealing_touchpad_idea
July 21st, 2009
Is Apple innovative? Yes, probably. Think of the iPod, or the iPhone, which good marketing has helped to exalt to the status of must-have gadgets of the day. The touchpad interface, made famous first and foremost by Apple’s very well-marketed products, which characterises Apple’s core brands, is certainly an innovative feature.
But it seems that Apple may have stolen the idea, using it in “wilful, wanton and deliberate” infringement of the patent held by Tsera, in reality [apparently] the company that actually invented the idea.
http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/jul/apple_sued_for_stealing_touchpad_idea