Last September the iPod turned seven years old. Amazing huh. Gizmodo did a cool timeline to show how far the media player has come since its' origins. Take a look at the image above and I'm sorry that it doesn't shrink well.
The image got me thinking about something I used to follow religiously about the same time that the iPod came out – the concept of Kaizen, or the Japanese word/concept for continuous improvement. Toyota is a big believer in Kaizen and was often cited in the book that introduced kaizen to the masses called Lean Thinking, by James Womack and Daniel Jones. It ushered in 'just-in-time' manufacturing or the idea that large material inventories are wasteful. Great book, if you haven't read it.
The idea is that while there are big leaps that products naturally make, there is much to be said for constantly tweaking things here and there – from the product to the means of production.
One can see kaizen at work in the timetable above. Apple has made some big leaps in the product but seen in aggregate, many of the changes have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. With the exception of the iPod Touch and iPhone, it's quite easy to see the resemblance between all of the wheel-based iPods. For a tech world enamored with 'Great Leaps Forward,' Apple's discipline has often received unkind words. But the iPod is still the gold standard of media players, regardless of the others that may offer more features or a low price. I think kaizen has something to do with it.
Another thing that struck me while writing this is how Apple has managed to stave off competitors this way. By making the improvements gradual, it avoids two things.
- Owners of current iPods don't feel as they they are hopelessly out of date. There's enough to entice them to upgrade in a couple years but nothing tooo radical.
- By avoiding huge leaps, Apple makes it difficult for customers and prospects alike to cross-shop other media players. If they moved too quickly, competitors could made a valid case against it. Case in point, BMW's Bangle revamp that gave competitors like Audi an opening for those who liked German engineering but didn't like the new BWM wrapper.
I do come off like a total Apple fanboy sometimes but the company makes smart business decisions – not just smart branding decisions – that are worth discussing.
1 comment:
What Apple has always understood is that their products are not about technology but rather what that technology can do for the human mind - whether that be in terms of pure enjoyment (iPod) or empowering the individual human mind to be more productive, more effective - this aspect is particularly true when considering the massive effect of the Mac, as evidenced by the changes it alone was responsible for in Desktop publishing, to video editing and more.
They have always understood that it is all in how you use a piece of technology - does it make you want to pick it up, to sit at it, to explore it with little fear? You can do most of what you can do on a Mac on a PC - but the comparison is like that between a TV without a remote control and one with a remote. You can still watch the same channels - but one is much preferred.
Apple products are like musical instruments, they are beautiful and in their form and in their function and they make your day.
Except, of course, my iPhone - which sucks.
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