You know, in 1997 an American, with his college mate came to India in search of spirituality and inspiration, in search of finding his inner self.
And that's Steve Jobs, right?
Yes! Steve Jobs and Daniel Kottke. This visit to India literally changed the way Apple was before then; not only that, a respected Indian, Mahatma Gandhi, became the inspiration behind that iconic Apple tagline: “Think different”.
You serious? Mahatma Gandhi was the inspiration behind Think different?
Yes, this visit to India moulded Apple the way it is today.
Today Apple is one of the worldwide technological giant. But one question that makes everyone wonders, that despite facing so many hardships, how did Steve Jobs manage to bring the once small company to the fore.
Enlighten us.. please.
What is Apple?
This all started in 1976, when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started a company named Apple.
In its early days, Apple was started at Jobs's bedroom and later moved to a garage.
And now, Apple is an American multinational company, specialized in consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. It is one of the Big tech companies along with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.
But this not just what Apple is today; it's more than that. And if you want to truly know what Apple is today, you have to experience it.
Because Apple is not just a brand anymore, it’s a culture; it’s an incredible experience, which is so simple, so minimalistic, so clean that once you’re in, you are never going to leave it.
But why?
Well that’s the reason why the blog was written, isn't it?.. keep continue, you’ll get your answer.
Why Apple uses data analytics?
Apple is a product based company; it sells a different range of products like iPhone, iPad, Mac, apple watch, and a lot of stuff. And we know what makes an Apple product an Apple product is the simplistic user experience.
Now when can we make the user experience better and better with every product we deploy?
Feedback?
Yes, feedback! By directly learning it from the user, and this is where they're leveraging the power of data. This is where they’re using data analytics.
For example, with the iWatch Apple has joined with IBM to develop health-related applications. This will help Apple to track their users in a better way, thus helping them to live a better and improved lifestyle.
With iTunes Apple is learning from the user; what kind of music he/she likes and suggesting them music of their own taste.
Apple’s Siri collects user data to analyze it, so that it can answer the question what the user is asking for. Also it learns from us, the way we talk, the way we spell a word, thus improving its voice recognition pattern.
These were some of the fileds where Apple is using big data and using it to make the user experience better; and this is what makes an Apple product an Apple product.
How Apple uses data analytics?
If we compare Apple with the other companies, Apple got into this data analytics sector after a few years. But the way Apple is leveraging it, is we can simply understand from the example when a hefty price tag of over $1,000 don’t stop us, with every release, without fail, we seem to drove of the waiting line.
It’s quite safe to say that Apple has dominated the market in a unique way, which is known as behavioural economics.
Wait wait wait, what is behavioural economics now?
So behavioural economics(BE) is a psychological study where they study how we make decisions. According to BE, people are not always self-centered, benefits maximizing, and costs minimizing individuals - our thinking also depends upon insufficient knowledge, feedback, and processing capability, which often involves uncertainty and is affected by the context in which we make decisions. Most of our choices are the result of not having a clear vision. We are influenced by readily available information in memory.
Apple is using this for a long time and this is one of the superpowers which is making Apple one of those tech giants.
Apple applied this in many different ways:
Tribalism: The word “Tribe” means a social group of people, sharing the same interests, beliefs, and same sense of identity.
Apple is literally standing out in this thing. Any person who owns an Apple product, does not only own that product but also they get into a social group of people who also use the same brand products. There’s also a website named Apple Tribe which only posts Apple related news, posts and reviews.Using an Apple product is not just having a phone or a laptop, it is something more than that. Usign an Apple product is about being cool, it’s about being creative, it’s about living a totally different life-style.
Like the Apple tribal, we also have the Android tribal as well. And if we have a debate over iPhone or Android and if you count on Android, Apple is still going to win.
But why?
Because Android hasn’t got a clear company dominating this market, with several companies like Samsung, Google, Huawei, LG and more battling for the same customers. But Apple on their side remains uncontested.
The Endowment Effect: Apple uses this to enhance their retail experience. And that is why they’ve working models of all their products, ready for you to interact with.
We can use as much as we want, no Apple employee is going to kick us off. All because they want us to feel that it belongs to us. And when we feel that, according to big data we’re more likely to pay for it.
Heuristics: Heuristics are like mental shortcuts that ease the process of taking a decision. They’re designed to shorten decision-making time, which allows people to continue their task, without stopping to think about their next course of action.
Apple uses this in their product packaging. Every part of their package is so simple and minimalistic that people automatically become attracted towards it. That package made up of elegant white colour and contrasting black looks so neat and clean, I mean how can someone ignore this beauty.
Every single detail of the package is designed to show quality and ease of use.
The Halo Effect: The "halo effect" is when one trait of a person or thing is used to make an overall judgment of that person or thing. For example, if a person is attractive, we might perceive them to be funnier or more charming than someone who is less attractive.
Apple has cultivated this effect in our mind so well, that every time an Apple product arrives, we automatically think that this is going to give us a better user experience or at least the same user experience, if not better.
A Strict Price Image: Pricing is a very crucial point, especially when it comes to Apple. It has always been following a very strict price image to maintain a particular image and perception of their brand within our mind.
Apple always keeps a high price range for any of their products and never has a sale. This is because if they put a sale(even just for once), the customer might start to wait for the next sale and don’t buy the product at the launching time.
Also Apple customers don’t have this perception. They know if the product costs this much, then there has to be something which is compensating this cost; which means that "quality" which Apple always ensures will remain the same. That is why whatever Apple sells never comes cheap.
All this is because pricing isn’t just some numbers, there are many psychological factors attached to it.
All these business decisions Apple makes might not be that great for any other company, but if there is one thing that every one of us should learn from Apple, it is…
Learn more about it here.
What analytics tools does Apple use?
We all know that Apple has been using data in quite an interesting way, but the thing is it always remains highly secretive about how they use big data. All though there is some information out there through which we can study Apple, and get some really good insights from it.
Apple uses its products to gather data about us, about its users. Any device which Apple sells is not only highly popular, but they’re already designed to capture valuable data. This is how Apple learns about us.
Application design is one of those ways, where Apple is developing applications which we can not only use, but it also can be used as a data collector. These apps can be used in both mobile and tablets. Previously, we have to make people use the application to know whether they’re liking it or not; but now with this tech Apple can easily know actually which are the features and applications we are using the most. And according to that it can easily make futuristic designs, which completely fits customer tendencies.
Now that Apple has this huge amount of user data, it studies it and makes all these different products. The main reason for taking all this data is just to improve the user experience, and we can easily say that Apple is excelling in this game.
Among all these devices, with the wearable one Apple literally brought a revolution in the way of using big data. With the help of Apple watch Apple is trying to build a healthy ecosystem, where they can measure and improve people’s health. There are many sensors within it, which can collect information such as how many steps a person walks, their temperature, how much they eat, and numerous other factors that are then sent to Apple’s data warehouse for careful analysis. This technology is still in the early stages, but the potential behind it is intriguing.
Also, Apple has done a partnership with IBM and take it one step ahead. Apple hopes to collect information on whole populations to measure health and improve lifestyles. This information may be used to treat illnesses, prevent the rapid spread of diseases, and even provide better protection against preventable sickness. The partnership is also looking to use big data to create health-related mobile apps, which can then be used with Apple devices.
This is how Apple is using its own devices to make those same devices better and better.
The Apple approach towards data analytics
They say, “Privacy. That's iPhone”. Well, turns out it’s true.
To learn about this thing, about the approach of Apple towards data analytics, I read many articles. And after reading tons of articles, finally I found one!
It was a conversation between a fabulous editor, Samuel Axon(from Ars Technica) with John Giannandrea, Apple's Senior Vice President for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, and Bob Borchers, VP of Product Marketing in Apple. I mean the knowledge I got there is overwhelming.
As we know, Apple is using its own devices to make those same devices better and better, but how?
Machine learning? AI?
Yes, you’re right!
After Apple got into this machine learning field, it started showing machine learning with improved features in its recent marketing presentations like the iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad or any other device.
There are numerous examples of machine learning being used in Apple's software and devices, most of them new in just the past couple of years.
In iPad, machine learning is used to help the iPad's software distinguish between a user accidentally pressing their palm against the screen while drawing with the Apple Pencil, and an intentional press meant to provide an input.
In case of any iPhone, the machine learning is behind the Photos app's ability to automatically sort pictures into premade galleries, or to accurately give us photos of any friend when his/her name is entered into the app's search field.
Our phones includes an image signal processors (ISP) for improving the quality of photos digitally, but Apple speed up this process in 2018 by making the ISP in the iPhone work closely with the Neural Engine, the company's recently added machine learning-focused processor.
There's a lot of new demonstrations that are powered by machine learning. And these are things like language translation, or on-device dictation, or the new features around health, like sleep and hand washing. There are increasingly fewer and fewer places in iOS where they’re not using machine learning.
Okay, but if Apple is taking this much user data, we must be aware of it no?
Well, that’s where Apple actually wins the game of trust; hence the iconic dialogue: “Privacy. That's iPhone”.
What Apple does here is it takes data from the user, but stores it locally on the user’s device.
So, if you say something like, "Do something for me." The synthesis of the text to speech is happening on the device, on the Neural Engine - the combination of the Neural Engine and the CPU. And because of that, there’s no server between you and the AI - thus it's not the servers reading it out. So, the content of that message never made it to the server.
Not only data, Apple even makes its device and the chipsets so powerful and effective that it can use machine learning directly within the phone or laptop or any device; here also they don’t need the data to send to the server. Hence no delay between the improved output.
One example of it, when we are trying to capture a photo, because of the internal machine learning process the camera automatically knows how much highlights and shadows to capture to make the photo “picture perfect”. When it comes to other devices which usually do all this machine learning stuff on the server, they first need to capture the photo and then send it to the server to get the improved output. Hence there is a delay. While in the case of Apple devices, it’s all happening in real time.
And this is the secret of Apple, it is so simple that there's be nobody who is not going to accept it. Just look how Apple simplified it by removing the servers between the user and the data or all that machine learning stuffs. Very simple, yet very complex.
I’d strongly recommend you to read this complete article, there’s still a lot to learn from it.
What makes Apple different from other companies?
Do you know about the product - Service Ecosystem?
No, what is it?
A product service ecosystem is a method where the company tries to place its products so strategically in the lifestyle of the consumer, that over the new course of time the customer ends up buying the product from the same brand or finds it extremely difficult to switch to another brand.
This idea was pioneered by Steve Jobs himself, where he tried to create an Apple ecosystem for the Apple users.
This ecosystem model of Apple consist of 3 different stages:
Entry level products
Retainers
Upsells
Can you elaborate them please?
Yeah yeah! Let’s take an example.
Assume you bought a Macbook Air, and this becomes your entry level product.
Then you started using it and for some reason you bought a video editing software, to edit your videos which cost you almost $300. Now as you’ve invested in this software, you’re going to use it more often, and thus you’ll be more habituated with this software. This habit of that software and all your edited files are working as your retainer(mostly because you cannot use the same software on any other OS).
Now, after some years you’re going to be so used to that software and its user interface that if you try to switch to another editing software, it’s going to be very tough. Also you’ve already invested an amount of $300 on that software, therefore whenever you’re going to buy your next laptop it is more likely to be a Macbook Pro. Because your laptop might get outdated, but you still want to hold on to your investment which is the retainer. And thus the upsell happens.
This is the basic idea of the Apple ecosystem model. And once this magic happens, the retainers like Fitness Plus will get you to buy a smart watch, iMessage gets you so habituated that you cannot live without it, and the touchpad is so crazy that it makes you practically incapable of using another touchpad at least for a week.
And this is why Apple is not just a brand anymore, it's more like a culture - an ecosystem.
The thing we need to keep an eye on here is the entry level products give Apple the customers, while retainers and upsell are the steps which gives Apple exponential revenue and growth.
To learn more about this product - service ecosystem and how some Indian companies are using it, go here.
What fascinates me about Apple
Honestly speaking, I’ve always admired Apple devices, especially because of their seamless performance and minimalist design. Also, I knew that we get a high level secure environment, thus our data is safe. But never came to know the reasons behind all these.
Now that I'm almost done with this article, I'm quite sure why everyone always chooses an Apple phone over an Android one; why people always say that Apple is more secure; why people always go for this brand even if it costs way more than the other brands.
The research and experiments Apple did just to make sure that the data remains safe and the AI engine can work efficiently on the real time and the way it builds its huge ecosystem, I think those are the reasons which made me say or write: Apple is all about thinking differently.
That’s it?
Yeah man, that’s it for this one.
Cool, waiting for the next one!
Yeah, please!
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📌 “#30Days30Companies” is a blog project about 30 different companies, where I'm learning and documenting how these companies leverage the power of data, how do they perform data analytics, what is making them different from others, and why I am fascinated to work with them.
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