Apple Inc.
A company name that is synonymous with changing the face of technology. Apple have been at the forefront of making technology easy for everyone to use. This is the reason why they are now worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined and why 50% of their revenue (last quarter it was 12 Billion dollars) comes from a single product that they only launched 4 years ago, the iPhone.
Let’s have a quick look at what Apple have achieved over the years.
1984 – Apple introduces the first home computer with a graphical interface and mouse (before that, consumers had to use command lines to interact with their computers)
Late 1984 - Steve Job leaves Apple and returns in 1996
2001 – Apple launch the iPod - over 297,000,000 sold worldwide as of December 2010
2003 –Apple launch the iTunes store to access digital music – over 15 billion songs have been purchased
2007 – Apple launch the iPhone – over 200 million sold worldwide
2008 – Apple launch the App Store – over 14 billion apps have been downloaded – over 425,000 apps available
2010 – Apple launch the iPad – over25 million sold – 90,000 apps available
2011 – release of iOS5
Over 2.5 billion paid to developers for the sale of their apps
And now in 2011 comes the iCloud, bringing with it the ability for anyone to store their music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more.
What really makes it stand out is its ability to wirelessly push all that content automatically to every one of your devices — seamlessly. A single change on 1 device, whether it is your Mac, iPhone or iPad is automatically synchronised to all your other Apple devices.
And all your information can be automatically backed up to the cloud every day, without you needing to press a button, meaning that if you lose, break or have your device stolen, you can get a new one and have all the information back at your fingertips.
There is no doubt that Apple’s ingenuity has helped other companies sell products (such as smartphones or tablets and apps). They have created whole new eco-systems with their Apps store and made those who were teased for being geeks into millionaires.
Consumerisation of IT has really been driven by Apple creating such a simple, easy and intuitive interface with their iPhone and iPad and interactive access to information via apps, even though smartphones, tablets and apps had been around for years.
The cloud has also been around for years and even though all of us access it every day of our lives when we search the internet via Google, check our friends status on facebook or pay bills through on-line banking, very few of us use it to back up our data.
The challenge is that it is a manual process and not user friendly. That all changes with iCloud.
Apple has again made the process so easy, intuitive and simple that people won’t even think about using the cloud, they will just expect it to work.
And to get the most out of the iCloud, all your devices, whether they be a smartphone, PC, tablet, laptop (and probably in the future your TV) will need to be an Apple product.
And who will really care. Apple make quality, beautiful and reliable products, that they can and do charge a premium for, but they back it up with service and support.
Device, media, content (video, music, photo’s apps), social interaction, access to information have become an integral part of all our lives........and Apple has a strong foothold in all.
Love them or hate them, you can’t help but respect them and be in awe as the world holds open its arms and willingly and loving embraces a world domination that brings so much joy to so many.
Apple’s iCloud will do to the cloud industry what the iPhone did the smartphone and apps industry, open up people’s eyes and minds to the possibilities and benefits of cloud computing.
The other part this is starting to stand out for Apple is their focus on the enterprise customer. They did not go looking for the enterprise but rather the enterprise found them. I wrote and article about is iOS 5 ready for the enterprise which should give this comment some context.
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