The theftnology behind iPod.
In the TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, when put on the spot about the graphical user interface for the Macintosh, (the soul of Mac’s operating system) which had been developed by Xerox, the character Steve Jobs uses the Picasso, quote, “A good artist borrows. A great artist steals.”
Apocryphal or not, that philosophy may still be alive at Apple, and in part it’s behind the iPod’s amazing success.
In his book The Perfect Thing, Newsweek writer, Steven Levy, points out that most all of the technology inside the iPod has been developed by companies other than Apple; Toshiba, Sony, Texas Instruments and others. So what exactly did this “innovative” company, Apple, do?
They recognized a need - personal music device. They saw an opportunity - the emergence of mp3 technology. And they put together a product that, while 2 or 3 times as expensive as other early mp3 players, was brilliantly designed and ultra simple to use, essentially reinventing and owning an emerging market.
Of course, they did plenty of other things well. They created iTunes, first as a song organizing software, then as a music store. Plus, they catapulted well beyond the base market of Apple’s tiny share of personal computer users, with the introduction of iTunes for PC, giving virtually anyone with a keyboard access to iTunes and the iPod.
They turned the classic give-away-the-razor-to-sell-the-blades marketing ploy on it’s ear by virtually giving away the songs at 99¢, and making their near-obscene margins on the iPod device.
But all this success comes back to the “stolen” technology. By using ready-made components from other manufacturers - essentially a whole bunch of cheap bits and pieces of technotrinkets - they have been able to quickly produce wave upon wave of new products; the iPod, the Shuffle, the Mini, the Nano, the video iPod, the U2 black model, and all the other special editions and size variations in between. Always keeping the product fresh, and always wrapping them up in the usual elegant Apple packaging and promotion. Coming at the market with such ferocity that it’s kept all other player back on their heels, unable to get a toe hold, further entrenching users in a franchise that borders on monopoly. A pretty cool trick, if you can do it.
Now, let’s bring this discussion home. We all worship the big idea, the fresh concept, the market differentiator. But that isn’t always the win, is it? So, your company doesn’t own an exclusive technology or service. So, you haven’t developed THE creative blockbuster that will blast you into the future. Big deal. That still doesn’t mean you can’t be an innovation leader. All you have to do is identify an emerging trend, go out and “steal ” the wherewithal and do every other aspect of marketing to perfection, and you too can be considered a creative giant.
And, oh yeah, pray like hell that Apple doesn’t enter your category.
