Apple’s market-dominance strategy
According to research firm NPD, Apple’s iPhone was the best-selling cell phone in the U.S. in Q3 2008.
Which, frankly, is remarkable: a company that didn’t make mobile phones until 2007, and which introduced its phone at a staggering $599 price point, has in less than 18 months come to dominate the market.
Perhaps Apple isn’t the biggest cell-phone maker overall; that’s left to mobile-phone companies that produce multiple models. But in having the best-selling, and arguably best, product in the industry has completely altered the landscape.
The one-two punch of the iPhone and iPod underscores Apple’s incredible product strategy. The company creates a product, optimizes the user experience, markets it like mad, and basically comes to own the product segment.
A decade on, iPods still represent more than 75% of the portable music device market. The millions of iPhones suggest that Apple is succeeding in its goal of becoming the default option for consumer-grade smartphones. No other product–from video game systems to household electronics to automobiles–has such dominance from a single player with narrowly focused product segments.
This is now a company that plays to win. It’s a far cry from the Macintosh era, when Apple was content to make products that were simply better than the competition. Now they are the best, and the marketplace is responding in kind. No wonder so many companies look to Apple as their aspirational benchmark.