Apple has an amazing self-sufficiency model, where they have only 6 desktop support analysts for 34,000 worldwide employees, 36 helpline agents for 52,000 computers, only 38% of their IT budget is for baseline operations and 62% for innovation, and their IT spend is just .6 of 1%. These are numbers that most CIOs dream of. And of course, that’s only the beginning of the Apple story…
There is no doubt about it Apple is firing on all cylinders. Apple has become a $50 billion a year company building and selling technology products that consumers are salivating for—whether it’s a MacBook, iPhone, or the new iPad—everyone wants one, and I mean one of each!
Apple’s slogan of “Think Different” is certainly true to form. It’s reflected in their incredibly designed products, innovation in everything they do, and the keen ability to view the world from their user’s perspective.
Here are some amazing stats on Apple (heard at the Apple Federal CIO Summit, 8 April 2010):
- Apple as the highest gross revenue per square foot in retail at $6250.
- Apple’s online store is the most visited PC store and is a top 10 retail website
- iTunes has over 125 million user accounts and does 20,000 downloads a minute
- The iPhone 3GS is ranked the #1 smartphone in customer satisfaction by JD Power Associates and has over 150,000 apps
- Apple processes over 1.9 million credit card transactions per day
- Apple’s MobileMe has over a million subscribers
- Apple is ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by Consumer Reports, 10 years in a row.
- Apple is ranked the most innovative company by both Fortune Magazine and Business Week.
Here are some of Apple’s self-proclaimed keys to success:
- Steve Jobs—A leader who makes it all happen
- Innovation—Rethink things; “If nothing existed, what would it make sense to do?”
- Consumerism—Focus on the entire customer experience and make it excellent
- Avoiding complexity—Simplify everything so that it completely intuitive to the users and be good at deciding what you are not going to do.
- Attention to detail—This involves creating an immersive experience for the consumer that permeates the design process.
- “The concept of 1”—Build consistency across products; standardize, simplify, and architect around commonalities.
- Learnability—Users should be able to quickly learn their technology by watching others or by exploring
- People—Smart, motivated employees and a special emphasis on their intern program
While the key factors to Apple’s success are not a recipe that can simply copied, they do offer great insight into their incredible accomplishments.
Next stop for Apple seems to be taking their success in the consumer market and making it work in the enterprise. This will go a long way to addressing users concerns about their technology at home being better than what they use at work.