Abandoning Jobs
Apple has changed. The company has abandoned its product philosophy that it had been sticking to since the era of Steve Jobs, and changed its survival strategies to increasing sales by actively accepting the demands of the public.
It is interpreted that Apple is directly targeting Samsung, the world’s number one in the global smartphone market.
Furthermore, Apple needs to maintain its position of market leader, standing against the stronger attacks of Chinese smartphones including Xiaomi.
Accordingly, the latest battle in the war between Samsung and Apple to dominate the global smartphone market will officially begin soon.
On Sept. 9, Apple introduced the iPhone 6 with a 4.7 inch display and iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.5 inch display at the new product release event held in Cupertino, California. Apple abandoned its existing display size of less than 4 inches and launched gigantic iPhones.
Apple has previously not produced products bigger than 4 inches because it has been adhering to the iPhone production guideline established by Jobs. There has been a strong belief in which users have to be able to control smartphones with only one hand. However, global consumers preferred smartphones with big displays rather than those smaller than 4 inches, and this made Samsung the world’s number one.
Accordingly, the new Apple led by Tim Cook resolutely escaped from the obsession in the past and changed its direction to actively attract the demand of global consumers. Apple’s strategies have basically became the same as the existing strategies of other smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which have been targeting various consumer segments with various sized smartphones around 4-5 inches.
As Apple has become open to other companies’ strategies, competition with traditional superiority in smartphone hardware and software platforms such as Samsung Electronics and Google is inevitable.
On that day, Apple also introduced the Apple ‘iWatch’ to target the smart watch market, a still relatively untouched segment. This product is released as to prevent Samsung and LG from dominating the smart watch market.
Apple also showed its attempt to increase stable sources of profits as a platform company in order to make up for decreased profitability due to expanded demand on less expensive smartphones.
Apple also introduced ‘Apple Pay,’ a smartphone simple payment service using near field communication (NFC) and a fingerprint verification sensor. Apple also decided to eliminate the 32GB model for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and maximize charged subscribers for iCloud Drive.
On that day, Apple broadcasted the new product launch event simultaneously in Chinese to capture Chinese consumers, the world’s biggest market.
According to a market research company Strategy Analytics (SA), the market share of Samsung Electronics and Apple in the global smartphone market during the second quarter this year were 25.2 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively. Both of these figures are lower than the 32.6 percent of Samsung Electronics and 13.4 percent of Apple in the first quarter. The main reasons for this decline are the remarkable performance of Chinese smartphones.
Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus showed substantial differences in hardware, but there was no remarkable innovation in software, which has been the most important feature of Apple in the past. The popularity of the iPhone has been exceptionally enhanced, showing Apple’s ambitions to regain the hegemony that Samsung Electronics is currently enjoying with its global popularity.
Apple’s strategy to create a new iPhone for mega sales is receiving positive feedback. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) projected that 182 million new iPhones will be sold from October this year to October next year, quoting Bernstein Research. This is a 9 percent increase from the previous year.