Good Apple pie needs good apples – but that's not all

Today we at Stimmt were all thrilled by Apples quarter results. You might wonder, why Apple is so successful and if you listen to the analysts the answer sounds pretty simple: they sold a lot of iMacs and iPhones. Of course the next question arises immediately: why do they sell so many iMacs and iPhones?

Glenn commented on this already. They build superior products from an experience point of view. And I am very greatful for the Apple pie analogy, which I’d like to stretch a little further.

Too me a quality product like the iPhone is like quality apples in an apple pie. They make for the bigger part of the good taste. But good apples alone don’t make a tasty pie. You need to fix a lot of other things to get it right.

The secret is to have it all right: choose the right ingredients, fix them the right way and present the pie in a way that makes your mouth watering before you even taste it. As a result you won’t just enjoy a wonderful apple pie, but you will keep an extrordinary experience in your memory that will have you wanting more.

I have this feeling right now with the new iMacs coming out. Allthough kind of embarassing I have to admit that for the whole of October I was really excited and almost anxiously waiting for the this news. With all the rumors placed very subtle (I have a hard time imagining this happens all accidently) I have been building up high expectations. My speculations running wild. What will the new iMac be like? How is Apple going to surprise us?
This is actually kind of crazy. It’s just a machine. Yes it does a very good job and you can do great things with it, but it’s still a computer, isn’t it? This goes far beyond liking a good product. Of course I am an engineer, a techie. I appreciate nice technology. But there are no other products I get so excited about. And I’ve actually never met an Apple user that didn’t show at least some enthusiasm for their products. (I wonder what these stats in Redmond look like).

So what is the secret ingredient of Apple? Actually I doubt there is this one ingredient – that extra magic – that causes Apple users to be embassadors. It is the clever mix of a lot of very good ingredients like continuous innovation, great products, packaging, service, marketing, distribution – online and offline, community building efforts and maybe some more. I think that all of these ingredients blend in a consistent and homogeneous way creating this unique Apple experience.

I found one quote that, for me, gives some explanation where these ingredients come from and why they blend so well:

«Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.»
Steve Jobs, The wall Street Journal 1993

I’ll leave it to future blog posts to further discuss the underlying principles and mechanisms of Apple’s success. I invite you to give your view of the matter in the comment section.