Consumer Electronics Friday: The iPhone is Apple's Infiltrator?

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Submitted by jonathan.tarr on May 2, 2008 - 5:08pm.
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Appending the usual disclaimer that I don't work for or have any financial stake in the Apple Corporation, I'm going to blog briefly about the company today. Their influence on business environments without actually focusing on corporate sales is notable, as covered by BusinessWeek in their current cover story. A short excerpt:

"Demographic trends may be on Apple's side. All those college kids wielding iPods have created a deep pool of potential Mac users. According to a survey of 1,200 undergrads by researcher Student Monitor this year, 43% of college students who intend to buy a laptop plan to buy a Mac, up from 8% in 2003. 'Many of today's technology decision-makers will ultimately be replaced by Mac users,' says Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor.

Of course, how far Apple gets in the corporate market depends largely on [Apple CEO Steve] Jobs. Industry and financial experts don't expect Apple to make any of the major strategic moves that would signal a substantial new focus on selling Macs to the corporate market. Jobs almost certainly won't license his software to others to create a second potential Mac hardware supplier, as most corporate buyers would like. And he's just as unlikely to introduce some bare-bones cheapo desktop model to satisfy cost-conscious CIOs. 'Apple is happy about its price points as they stand today,' says IDC analyst David Daoud."

The iPhone still appears to be generating plenty of buzz, at least judging by all the folks poking at the floor models when I was at the Apple Store yesterday. A major reason is the much-awaited software upgrade of the iPhone coming this summer, which might be the breaking point for businesses thinking of switching, at least in allowing their workers a choice, if not in switching entirely from PCs. Even NY Times tech columnist David Pogue sang its praises last summer, as you can see in the attached Youtube video. And, indeed, don't forget about the flood of iPods that introduced so many people to Apple products in the first place. And if you are one of the many folks out there with a "PC by day, Mac by night" life, you know what I'm talking about.

BTW: Consumer Electronics Friday isn't a real holiday; I just invented it. :)

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Posted on: May 5, 2008 - 9:46am #1
great post!
HI, Jonathan, Great post! I'm over here coincidentally writing a talk for the Digital Youth Asia conference in Tokyo next month and trying to factor into the digital youth equation the way patterns of consumption change and have an impact on patterns of production. Your post really drives that home. It's not even consumption/production/prosumption--the consumer as producer, in the Web 2.0 and DIY sense--but also the way consumption can immediately lead even big producers such as Apple to customize their products to a certain aesthetic, a need, a use, an IP requirement, and a demographic. Thanks for posting! Hope you had a great weekend. Here, it was Milano all the way . . . .
Posted on: May 5, 2008 - 5:26pm #2
Look forward to reading your paper
Indeed, big tech companies keep an ear very close to the ground when it comes to their consumer products. It's not that Apple just sincerely wondered how I was doing today, despite what a lot of folks might think.