Apple Inc. - A Case Study In Innovation - Part 2

This is the Continutation of the article. Look here for Part 1 of Apple- A Case Study for Innovation.

The Innovation

The good old portable CD player could now be replaced with a more compact device that could hold several thousand songs as opposed to the 10-12 that an average CD could hold. But this portable device in itself was not the pinnacle of achievenemt. Add to this remarkable device, the ability of customers to pay less than a dollar to download their favorite song, instead of buying a whole album as they used to. Most people who used to plunk down $10 to $15 for a CD would now spend $3-4 dollars to download and listen only to the favorite tracks on the CD.

This is radical. Even the average Schmoe who borrowed his friends CD only to make his own copy, could now buy his own songs on the cheap, without really feeling pinched by big media. Add to that, the ability to download radio programs or lectures or even video on a portable device. An entirely new term was added to the dictionary - a "PODCAST" (squishing IPOD & broadcast).

Digital music and video has been around long before Apple came along. But what the company did was to integrate their device, the producers of the content, and the cosumers of the content in one nifty package!. The device was just a vehicle to transfer music from the producer to the cosumer. That is a simple but radical change to the way business was done.

But it did not stop there. What people don't realize is that the success of Apple, Itunes and digital media in general, also resusicated another industry which was on the brink of innuendo continium - At the same time that Apple was in the pits, the hard-disk manufacturers were in the pit too. PC sales were flat, almost everyone had a PC, people were not eager to upgrade their computers - since there was nothing more than using your computer for editing your favorite recipe or doing your homework.

With the ipod, and digital media in general, the hard-disk manufacturers found new energy. Each of the high capacity devices needed a compact storage disk. With the demand for digital music, video, and pictures growing dramatically, the disk manufacturers quickly adapted, re-configured their assembly lines and began rolling out micro-drives. Really tiny hard-disks that would fit into a portable media player. In addition, with all the digital media that an average family produces, the need for storage can reach up to the terra-bytes. A tera-byte is 1000 Giga Bytes or 250,000 songs. Heck even storage space these days is expressed in "songs" than "bytes" !!

All this did come with a passion for innovation. In challenging, and pushing the envelope on even the most sacrosanct and widely accepted concepts. On recognizing the fact oppurtunity lies even in the space of established systems and processes and "truths".

There is no magic to innovation, it requires and enlightened and inspired leadership. To recognize the fact that oppurtunity lies even in the most sacrosanct,and widely accepted concepts, norms and cultures. The willingness to listen even to the most inane and even insane ideas that come up through the chain.

Author : Ronald Robson for ManagementDiary.com. Your reference for effective management

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