In my last blog I mentioned my arrant desire to purchase two particular products: a pair of Vibram five fingers shoes, and an Apple iphone 4. Well it’s been another fruitless week. Why might it be that I can’t acquire either of these very well known products, or is that just it, the fact that they’re so popular? It certainly wouldn’t seem that these companies would have such poor transportation practices that they couldn’t deliver a reasonable amount of their product to consumers. The answer: it’s a bit of both. Apple sold nearly 1.7 million iphone 4s during the first weekend they were on the market, and to date – a little over a month later – more than 3 million iphone 4s are in users hands. So why was it that Future Shop on Granville only got 2 in last week? While demand peaked on the debut weekend, the relentless line of impatient would-be iphone 4 consumers continues to grow faster than Apple’s strained factories can produce. Why is this product so popular that it is consistently gone from the shelves faster than it can be replaced? The story was the same with Vibram. Vancouver was my last stop on my family’s end-of-the-summer road trip, and I hit every stop I could on the way up from San Fransisco, Cali without luck. It was the same everywhere I went, “we’re all out” “you’re the eleventh person who’s been in looking for them today” “talk nice to Santa Claus”… Getting to the point, what makes five fingers and the iphone different, ie what is it that sets them apart from the competition? First of all, they – Apple anyway – have such a loyal costumer base that they were able to sell 1.7 m units on the first weekend. The fact that so many were bought before the product could even be used and proven by society to be a worthwhile product proves that there was so much trust placed in this company, in this brand, by its consumers. Both companies knew they had good products; Apple obviously anticipated selling at least 1.7 m iphone 4s, but neither company expected demand to sustain for so long , and therefore didn’t think there was need to increase production to accommodate it. So now I’ve discussed that these items are so hard to get due to their popularity, but what is it that makes them so popular?
The individual fingered/toed and bare foot running design of the five fingers shoes is completely revolutionary in the personal footwear industry, just like the iphone 3G was in the personal telecommunications industry when it first appeared, and people love it! Apple and Vibram have seen around the curvature of the market trends in their industries and capitalized on it by bringing something completely new and desirable to the table while competitors keep producing the same old staples. Of course over time competition will key into their rivals’ success and produce similar products, such as cell phone producers like Google, Samsung and HTC have already done to try to compete with the iphone. Until then, however, as in Vibram’s case, the company will still remain the sole provider of barefoot-running type shoes, and I will still continue to compete against the rest of society for a pair.