Apple: The Change

Before Apple has launched its latest products in this September, a lot of people are already looking forward to obtaining the new iPhone and all the other new products, wondering how innovative the products are going to be. iPhone 7 features dual cameras, water resistance, stereo speaker and the design of dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack which leads to a debate. However, it doesn’t seem to have much innovation in the new iPhone. By looking at these decisions made by Apple, it has started to change its business strategy. Apple is now transitioning from creating new products with a distinct design and features to creating its own ecosystem that consumers in this case are not really beneficial because it is difficult for them to escape from Apple. Based on the article, iPhone 7 is like an incremental improvement over the iPhone 6. Therefore, we do see improvement in iPhone 7 yet there is not much innovation. By doing this, Apple is able to strengthen the ecosystem that it forms and it allows the other products from Apple to catch up. For instance, iWatch 2 is much more innovative then its former version. Apple’s goal is now changing from simply creating a new product to making its products collaborate and combine with each other.

According to my peer Xin Wang’s blog post, I agree with the notion that the public might argue that removing the headphone jack wasn’t a beneficial move for both consumers and Apple. It truly is hard to see the benefit to the consumers. On the other hand, Beats, the headphone company which Apple owns, actually benefits a lot. As the number one Bluetooth headphone company that controls over a quarter of the Bluetooth headphone market according to NPD figures, Beats certainly has the advantage in terms of the launch of iPhone 7. “Some people have asked why we would remove the analog headphone jack from the iPhone,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief said, “It really comes down to one word: courage. The courage to move on to do something new that betters all of us.” Is Apple making the right choice? The time will tell if Apple really makes a good business decision.

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