Right now a lot of mobile phone companies are trying to design a competitor for iphone. So they are either looking at making it cheaper, faster, more features, bigger camera, bigger memory, bigger storage. Whatever. They might even make a better iphone.
They're missing the fact that they can't overcome Apple's position. OK, Apple might not have hit every feature right on the head when they launched the iphone, but competitors aren't going to be successful with incremental steps. That's because Apple has won the position in the minds of consumers for their phone. Not everyone will buy one, but everyone knows what it is. And they know that the future versions of iphone will contain the incremental steps. So most of them will buy another iphone, and convert more friends as well.
So what is the mobile phone company to do? Easy. Do what Apple did. Pick a consumer segment, meet and delight it, and you have something. Just one example - the way that the iphone screen flips from vertical to horizontal. Cool, practical, intuitive all in one. The little gizmo that is inside the iphone that does this has been available for some time. I remember getting pitched by the company that makes it. I thought it was cool but too expensive for the products we were thinking of making. I still think I was right, but I missed what the Apple team didn't. Combined with a touch screen, fast software and a good operating system it works like a dream. Apple probably weren't the first company to see the pitch. But they "got" it and made it core to the iphone.
So to be truly successful and gain a clear position, you have to have a great exploring technology mind combined with a clear focus on how to deliver to consumers. It doesn't get done by committees. It does get done by small teams with both great technology awareness and consumer focus. And that's not easy to do. The best their competitors can hope for is that Apple trips itself up. Or go and really think about what consumers want from technology.
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