Apple and it’s consumer centric approach

The main reason that Apple entered the bigger screen market is definitely due to the changing demand from consumers worldwide. “Why the bigger screens?” It may be easy to conclude that the market demand could be the prime factor. But I’m convinced that there’s more than that to this. Steve Jobs famously in an interview with Walt Mossberg said that Apple’s focus is to make great products and if the market tells them they’re making the wrong choices they listen to the market. They just did that, but the obvious question still looms largely over the cos decision-making process. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch screen that is significantly larger than the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5 and 5S. And, as its name implies, the iPhone 6 Plus is bigger still, with a 5.5-inch screen that approaches the size of so-called “phablets” like Samsung’s 5.7-inch Galaxy Note. Furthering the Inquiries below –

Why did Apple move onto bigger screens!!!. The ‘hummer phones’ as so referred to by Steve Jobs earlier on has emerged as a key player in the smartphone industry. Details and technical specs aside, the success of the 6 and 6 Plus has been remarkable with over 4 million units in the per-order itself, contradict and perhaps have outsmarted the legendary ‘Steve Jobs’; “No one’s going to buy that,”- He once clamoured about phones having larger than the original iPhone ‘s 3.5 inches. “You can’t get your hand around it”, but the demanding smartphone users around the world have proved this wrong. The constantly evolving smartphone market has a huge demand for the bigger screens and coming of age phablets. The iPhone, for me, isn’t just a phone. It’s a portable computer for emails, music, checking Twitter, reading the news, keeping an eye on Business Insider, and just about everything else. The big screen size makes all of that a lot easier and enhances the user-experience.

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” – Niccolò_Machiavelli

A quick comparative of the industry leaders shall illustrate another opinion. Whilst Apple scores highly on the all-important measure of brand retention and unbeatable user experience, Samsung is actually not that far behind. The irony here of course is that wherever Apple goes, Samsung is usually right there alongside, including and having its own version of the unquestioning fanaticism. 76 percent of Apple customers will replace their current iPhone only with another iPhone, while 58 percent of Samsung’s do the same. Samsung has taken the lead forward in terms of market share as it has been attracting customers from other brands as well, around 34 percent of all migrating customers! No other phone company comes close to the two leaders. The point to be noted here is the staggering growth by Samsung and the consequential decline of Apple’s popularity juxtaposed with both of its smaller and bigger screens iphones. Samsung has emerged as the industry leader. The Korean multinational has emerged as the biggest player in this context riding high on its device specs, the screen sizes, user-experience and specific releases such as the phablets and this is again another big reason for iphone 6 and it’s variants with big screens. It also isn’t just the consumers that are demanding bigger screens, the smartphone market has indeed evolved with time beckoning companies like Apple to inculcate changes in its attitude and the outlook.

On top of everything, the reluctance to change that has been so aptly expressed by the downfall of both Blackberry and Nokia. It so seems that coming to terms with this dynamic market is the safest step ahead for companies including Apple. In times of such massive growth and uncertain brand retentions, releasing phablet sized bigger phones after having condemned them earlier at numerous occasions publicly must have been a difficult cake to bake!

So where Apple did had it wrong? Was it the arrogance or the Unwillingness to adapt and or change. Or did the Research and Analytical Departments had the decision-makers crawling for breathing space over the screen size and related specs. as bigger is not always better but it has been proved to be so in this context. Whereas Apple led a form factor revolution in 2007, it now follows. Samsung is the undisputed driver of big screen smartphones of Samsung and arguably the inventor of the so-called ‘phablet’. The new age iphones armed with bigger screens for its users has surely been the highlight this fiscal year with pre-bookings breaking all the sales records. Consumer-centric approach and or industrial adjustments or perhaps capitalist profits, the persona of the “Genius Bar” did receive certain flak and has been dented to a degree of uncertainty. All eyes are on the upcoming fiscal battles between these two giants and the resultant pandemonium that shall follow next year.