An interesting article from New York Times presents the Apple company as a platform on which new and new products are launched year after year that generate tens and tens of billions of dollars in revenue for Apple but at the same time bring more and more attention to the company. The iPad tablet, for example, which was launched in the first part of 2010, would generate revenues of 20 billion dollars for Apple, according to some American analysts. This means almost a quarter of the company's total revenues for 2010 and it is only the beginning. The iPad tablet was so successful that I am curious to see how Apple will manage to maintain the interest of its customers.
"Apple has hit that magical combination of gradually shifting from a product to a platform strategy," says Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and author of "Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World" (Oxford University Press, 2010).
The journalist who wrote the New York Times article presents a rather interesting theory that simplistically sounds something like this: you buy an iPhone, you like it a lot so you decide to buy an iPad tablet and then maybe an iPod Touch or a Mac. Later, you decide to buy it for your wife or children, and seeing the products at your place, others will be interested in making the purchase. The theory is as real as it can be and it applies to many people, including me. I bought an iPhone (actually 3), now I want an iPad tablet and in the future a Mac. Apple makes great products, but a good part of people buy them motivated by the "herd spirit", by the desire to have the latest, regardless of whether it is useful or good.
