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| The Newyorker: Laurene Powell Jobs |
Seeing Steve Jobs wife listening to Obama's homage to her husband in The NewYorker, inspired me to write.
Apple is now earning about the same amount as the Norwegian Goverment on oil and taxes. We're five million inhabitants. Compare that to the fifty thousand working in Apple. Apple makes hundred times what the richest goverment in the world.
So somehow Apple financial conference call is their State of the Union. And it's equally important to the rest of the world. I would actually say more important.
Apple has, as the first company I'm aware of, solved what Clay Christensen named "The Innovators Dilemma".
I took a train-trip to Oslo yesterday, and tried to elaborate this, writing on Notes on my iPhone. But looking at it today, it's not that good. It's difficult stuff to express. But I try again:
Clay Christensen lays out three rules for product innovation in the case study, telling that the product must be:
- Simple, reliable and convenient
- A platform in which feature, function, and styling changes can be made quickly and at low cost
- Have a low prize point
Adding the way Apple seems to attract "Nonconsumption" by exploring new markets, and the press and competitors ignorance and joking about their products, I see Apple fulfilling a lot of Christensens disruptive innovation "template". Finally there is of course the proof of the pudding: the numbers. The financial numbers Apple released Tuesday show explosive growth. So I add these three points:
- Noncomsumption
- Press, competitors and market analyst ignorance
- Explosive growth
Sitting in the train, I spotted both iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air as product which could fit the template. And I would add iBooks Author and Apple TV as well. The last two are in the coming however. And that's only cover some of Apple's recent products.
I need more thinking, reading and writing though. Do you have recent Apple products you want to add. Or do you have any comments to my "innovation template"?
I keep you posted!
