Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

FINDING NEW CONCEPTS 161
for product training, and solution zones for such elements as digital
photography and video editing. The stores go beyond the
shopping experience to the ownership experience and lifestyle
of the customers. The idea that Apple ’ s going retail would fail
because retailing requires different skill sets or because its entry
would antagonize its existing distribution channel was proven
wrong. The remarkable success of the Apple stores was in part
due to the design and layout, the energy of the Apple brand and
products, the power and penetration of the iPod, and the crazy
loyalty of the users. In sharp contrast, Gateway Computers closed
its chain of 250 stores because its undifferentiated products, unappealing
locations, and the lack of inventory — customers could only
order computers.
Two other major new subcategories that emerged were
related to the iPod phenomenon: the iPhone introduced in
January 2007 and the iPad in March 2010.
The iPhone is an iPod with internet connectivity and a
phone. It is very Apple, providing a simple, elegant product
that is easy to use and contains features that combine to create a
very different user experience. Although not the first, it quickly
became an exemplar for smart phones. Interestingly, the iPhone ’ s
development started with an objective to build a tablet computer
with touch technology, in part because the mobile phone
business was messy. However, the product evolved to include a
phone and a connection with AT & T, and was a runaway winner.
The hype around the product ’ s introduction by one estimate
was worth $ 400 million of advertising. And after two years something
like 150,000 applications had been written for it all readily
available from the Apple “ App Store. ” Because it is linked to
the iTunes store and Apple software, the iPhone is not easily
matched.
The iPad is a new type of tablet computer, which Jobs called
a “ truly magical and revolutionary product. ” 4 The iPad connects
to a Web store and thus allows access to a host of books, magazines,
newspapers, movies, and video games. It is positioned to