Apple has been one of the most innovative companies in the field of information technologies. It owes a good part of the merit it has accumulated in recent decades to its co-founding genius and CEO, Steve Jobs, one of the great world masters of Marketing and segmentation.
In its recent history, the success of its line of portable music players, the iPod, is what has changed the company’s image. That product’s sales success has been so great that its very name has become synonymous with an MP3 player. At the end of 2004, the company had sold more than 10 million units worldwide, 4.58 million in the last trimester of that year alone.
What’s the iPod’s secret? As in the case of iMac computers, the iPod is not only attractive for its notable technology, but also because of its appearance. With a perfect design, the device has connected more with its users’ emotions and feelings than with their IT and digital music knowledge. The iMac discovered that, while “early adopters" and IT “geeks" notice features before aesthetics, there was also another important potential consumer group for whom the object’s beauty and its extremely easy use (turn it on and its ready to use) represented the key to opening their interest in technology.
The iPod is now an icon of innovation. It is setting a trend, and for many of its users it is a status symbol. Very intelligently, Apple presented the iPod Mini in 2004, which is smaller than its older brother, but cheaper and available in different colors. In January of 2005, the company announced the arrival of the Shuffle, an iPod with a smaller capacity that is very cheap, not much bigger than a pack of gum, and does not have a screen. The user does not select songs, but rather the songs play randomly, thus the name of the device. Making a virtue of necessity, transforming a potential lack into excitement for the unexpected, Apple has hit the nail on the head again... which is proven by the fact that the Shuffle sold out immediately, as well as by the very recent success of the new “Mac mini”, which sold out as soon as it was launched, for the greater glory of marketing wizard Steve Jobs.