The late Steve Jobs is one of the prominent inventors and pioneers in the field of information technology. Some of his creations such as the iPhone speak highly of his vision in recognizing technologies of the future. By introducing products such as the iPhone, he took Apple Computers to new heights through its exceptional performance and features. It is interesting to study the origin and development of a mass phenomenon like the iPhone in the backdrop of Malcolm Gladwell’s and Steven Johnson’s ideas on the subject. The rest of the essay attempts to tie in the ideas of these two scholars into how Apple products came into being and how their appeal spreads among consumers.
The late Steve Jobs is one of the prominent inventors and pioneers in the field of information technology. Some of his creations such as the iPhone speak highly of his vision in recognizing technologies of the future. By introducing products such as the iPhone, he took Apple Computers to new heights through its exceptional performance and features. It is interesting to study the origin and development of a mass phenomenon like the iPhone in the backdrop of Malcolm Gladwell’s and Steven Johnson’s ideas on the subject. The rest of the essay attempts to tie in the ideas of these two scholars into how Apple products came into being and how their appeal spreads among consumers.Apple Computers adopts a culture of innovation which is the key to their success. This is best exemplified by the company’s attitude towards some of its main rivals. Take say Microsoft, which spends upwards of three years and millions of dollars to release new upgrades to its flagship operating system software. Though Microsoft has a near monopoly when it comes to OS software and has loads of resources to splurge on its research, the news of a new upgrade or a new release hardly excites consumers. There is almost a feeling of ennui or product fatigue with respect to the Windows line of versions. It is ironic that the world’s most powerful software firm, with unmatched resources at its disposal, and no significant competition to talk of, takes years in delivering a product that their own marketing campaign terms as a ‘tune-up’ to the earlier versions. This is where Apple Computers’ philosophy of product origination becomes distinct. Despite being in the doldrums during the 1990s, the company has managed to risen from the ashes, merely as a result of its product excellence. It is quite clear that companies with little to no competition, such as Microsoft “tend to deliver solid but stodgy products.” (Laurent Belsie, 1998) Companies in a free-for-all, such as Apple, on the other hand, can only survive through innovation. Not only does Apple prices its products competitively but it also uses its own indigenous microchips, “which run graphics software much faster than even the newest and most expensive alternatives.” (Laurent Belsie, 1998)
One of Malcolm Gladwell’s famous assertions in the book The Tipping Point is that “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do”. (p.25) Gladwell equates the birth and progress of social movements to that of epidemics. Considering that the popularity of Apple products are mostly based on word-of-mouth publicity, its dynamics are similar to that of epidemics. One of the features of this process is the ‘law of the few’, whereby 80% of the work is done by 20% of the participants. In the case of Apple the creative energies spent on the initial stages of the product’s development take up bulk of focus and resources. Moreover, it is the small team of designers and product architects who have the greatest impact on the success of the product. To this extent Gladwell’s observation is true vis-à-vis Apple. Further, he deems it necessary to have charismatic leadership for the sustenance of mass phenomenon. He posits that these leaders with “a particular and rare set of social gifts” will take up responsibility for 80% of the work. (Bush, 2013, p.38) This is very true of Apple, for much of the key innovations is the brainchild of a few individuals working for the company – Jobs being the foremost among them.
In order to promote any product, innovation is a key element. Without innovation the business would stagnate and will soon be consumed by more competitive firms. At the beginning of Apple Computers’ corporate life, the Mac computers were a great product innovation. In more recent years, it is products like the iPod, iPhone, etc. The quality and popularity of iPhone is such that it has even overtaken companies like Blackberry. At the beginning of the IT revolution in the 1990s companies like Microsoft were taking huge strides in Graphic User Interface (GUI) operating systems. These systems were so user-friendly and intuitive to operate. Instead of competing with Microsoft in making the interface more attractive, Steve Jobs focused on improving functionality and features, as is evident in iPhone. This bold step has paid off since. Those who like the iPhone, come back to it for its superior technology, rich features and robust functioning. And Steve Jobs deserves a great deal of credit for this achievement. He created a unique space for Apple products through his imaginative inventions.
Malcolm Galdwell proposes a theory on leadership, which is relevant to the study of the origins of the iPhone phenomenon. According to Gladwell leaders could be of three types – connectors, mavens or salesmen. But when we study the birth and spread of Apple products, it is difficult to identify leadership of all these types. In many ways, the consumer base for iPhone does not fit the description of epidemics that Gladwell posits. In fact, there may not even be a ‘tipping point’, whereby a gathering stream broke into a forceful torrent. It is a movement of consumer awareness characterized by steady sharing of information, word-of-mouth publicity and gradual increase in sales. To critique, the statistical and analytical tools employed by Gladwell to arrive at his inferences were based on linear models. Real life events, on the contrary, are shaped by several factors whose exact influence is unknown. To this extent social phenomena can be said to progress non-linearly. This is true of Apple products and similar consumer movements witnessed in recent years. Gladwell, as well as much of the popular press, got it wrong for this reason. Hence Steven Johnson’s idea of the ‘slow hunch’ is more relevant to analyzing Apple consumer behavior than that of Gladwell’s theories.
While Gladwell’s theory credits a select group for major innovations, Steven Johnson widens this group across timescales and includes all prior inventors who had brought the technology to its current state of sophistication. In other words, according to Johnson, great innovations are due to accumulative processes rather than spontaneous ‘eureka’ moments. Almost in any major technological or scientific innovation of modern times, the break-through was made possible by the robust groundwork laid by accrued prior knowledge. In this regard, a key idea put forward by Steven Johnson is that of ‘convergence’. This is the process of the gradual accumulation of information, concepts and their interrelationships that are precursors to the occurrence of ‘insight’. Although the decision to synthesize and analyze them is that of an individual (like Steve Jobs), the fundamental facts and concepts can be fetched from a disparate range of sources. To this extent, though great innovations are not one-off events of brilliance, they are the result of ‘collective intelligence’. Collective Intelligence, in this sense, is the phenomena of deducing insights based on running basic analytic tools over the gathered data pool. As a result, innovation can actually be a mundane statistical operation as opposed to some extraordinary out-of-the-box thinking. To validate his theory of the ‘slow hunch’, Steven Johnson presents several case studies based on substantial data and empirical observation. The study of cholera outbreak in London is particularly instructive. The more recent example of Google’s attempts to map Flu Trends is also very interesting. In these two examples, despite the value of mapping key trends, one cannot point to a single ‘break-through’ moment that was instrumental in the ultimate design and execution of these projects. Instead what we witness is the ‘slow hunch’ as persuasively expressed by the author. This is exactly how sales of Apple products grow, in gradual geometric progression rather than sudden bursts or spikes.
Though author Steven Johnson’s idea of the ‘slow hunch’ is not intuitive at the outset, it holds up upon closer scrutiny. The technical processes behind innovation as articulated by Johnson are evident in the birth of Apple products. I would like to add to it the sociological and philosophical dimension. Drawing upon the famous proverb ‘No man is an island’, oftentimes, innovations are the fruits of communities of people as opposed to one individual. The acknowledged innovator is only the beneficiary of all the ground work done by numerous predecessors. Although the latter group does not get the claim of ownership or patent to the idea, their vital role is lucidly illustrated by Steven Johnson. In his interviews and product launches, Steven Jobs implicitly acknowledges his indebtedness to those who enabled his innovations. I find this to be an important message for the society at large, for, far too often, individual egoism overwhelms the primacy of the community. If only we understand the interconnectedness among individuals, strife and conflict would be substantially reduced in modern societies.
One of the reasons for the stupendous success of Apple products in general and iPhone in particular was their offer of unique features that are not part of other mobile devices. Although Steve Jobs is the face representing these novel features, the whole company has to be credited for introducing one-of-its-kind pioneering products such as the iPhone. So much so that the Apple brand of products have come to attract a cult following. This fan following is for the feature rich and robust computers and gadgets. While most companies resort to the formula of gaining market share through increased operational efficiency of products, the Apple leadership sought a different method to improving market share. Instead of introducing a product in an already existing market, they would introduce a new idea and create a niche market for it. For example the new portable Internet connectivity revolution is enabled by products such as the iPhone. The device has set new technological standards. The iPhone is marked by its robust and smooth functioning. Moreover, the hardware is specifically built to align with the software. Hence it breaks down less frequently compared to peers from the same class. This is the reason why iPhones have a large customer base. Almost every format of music or audio could be played in it. It also offers high-speed Internet connectivity through wi-fi or telephone options. Steve Jobs deserves a great share of credit for this accomplishment. Unlike several other technology companies, design was the engine in Jobs’s philosophy. Designers
“were not injected as foreign organisms into the middle or end of the conceptual and engineering process, after the engineers and marketers did the meaningful work. Rather, designers were involved at the outset as equal creative partners. Form did not follow function; it was an integral part of the functional calculus. Jonathan Ive, Apple’s visionary product designer, didn’t just make boxes in which circuit boards and chips were tucked out of sight. He designed machines that were gateways to satisfying, and often ecstatic, user experiences.” (Heller, 2011)
To fully comprehend Apple’s approach to new products we have to take a deeper look on their approach to design. Steve Jobs, more than anyone else in the organization, had been instrumental in inculcating the importance of design. In common parlance Jobs described Apple’s designs as cool, clean and friendly. The mantra of ‘Think Different’ is also at the core of creative processes in Apple. While many major corporations use design with the aim of bolstering bottom lines, Apple’s entire ethos was design. Even when Jobs was heading NeXT, the educational-computer company he founded, product and graphic design drove his strategy. He went so far as to “get special dispensation from IBM to commission the NeXT logo from Paul Rand, designer of the IBM, ABC, and Westinghouse logos.” (Heller, 2011) When Jobs rejoined Apple, he took this design philosophy to an altogether new level, profoundly impacting the nature of 21st century digital products.
Another of Steven Johnson’s concepts is applicable to the success of Apple products. Johnson proclaims the importance of applying insights from parallel or allied fields of study to the problem at hand. For example, an astrophysicist trying to solve a problem pertaining to inter-galactic matter may actually find a solution by looking into quantum mechanics. The former deals with an expansive time-space paradigm whereas the latter seeks to understand the sub-atomic world. Yet one could see how, despite the stupendous contrast in the dimension of space the two disciplines attempt to solve similar problems. In the modern corporate culture, young entrepreneurs often find the best operational models for their business ideas by studying examples from other industries. In the case of Steve Jobs, it is well known that the six month calligraphy course he took later helped in the visualization and design of Apple products. Yet Jobs did not take the calligraphy course with the intent of improving his designs. He took it out of developing his hobby and also to take a prolonged hiatus from work. One can see how the uniqueness of the software and hardware interfaces of Apple products are informed and shaped by the aesthetics of calligraphy. In this respect, Johnson’s idea stands vindicated. One could extend this observation to the more generic vision for the company and its brand. For example, the foundation of Apple’s creative culture lay in its capacity for envisioning new devices and gadgets that competitors had not thought of – the iPhone being a prime example of this. The device has changed the way we read books, listen to music, communicate through text and voice, or access the Internet on the go. But what is standard and commonplace today was once unimaginable. The sense of experimentation and calculated risk-taking has paid rich dividends for Apple Computers, which has now created a unique specialized market for its products.
In conclusion, it is a fair claim that the success of Apple products is due to the company’s unique culture of innovation. But to credit the success of products like the iPhone and iPod with Steve Jobs alone would be misleading. Although Jobs was a technological pioneer and an inspirational leader, innovations did not happen in ‘eureka’ moments or through momentary insights. There is a lot of persistence and perseverance behind the development of each product. Each Apple product represents two ideas – one social and the other technological. It is through the synergistic combination of both that a strong loyal consumer base could be established. This is the mantra of Apple’s success. By being able to anticipate future directions in technology and social interaction, the company is able to create products that have a niche consumer base. More importantly, instead of depending on chance moments of inspiration and insight, the company has cultivated a culture of innovation and experimentation. In this atmosphere, creativity and experimentation are carried out for their own sake, serving as incubators for revolutionary new ideas.
Reference:
Bush, Harold K. “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.” The Christian Century 3 Apr. 2013: 37+.
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Heller, S. (2011, October 10). Design Different. Newsweek, 158(15).
Laurent Belsie, W. O. (1998, May 21). Apple Computer on the Mend through Innovation and Fun. The Christian Science Monitor.
Leadership and a Vision of Change. (2011, October 13). The Journal (Newcastle, England).
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Farhat-Holzman, Laina. “The Next 100 Years-A Forecast for the 21st Century.”Comparative Civilizations Review 64 (2011): 117+.
Karpf, David. The Moveon Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy. New York: Oxford UP, 2012.
Karsh, Brad, and Courtney Templin. Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management. New York: American Management Association, 2013.
Steven Johnson, The Slow Hunch, Chapter 3, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, published in 2010.