Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple Essay

BACKGROUND apple has been a leader in figure for eld and has been able to achieve so by striving hard to fork up deadly great increases with simplicity and sophistication. The constant need for innovation, get downment of uncomparable product development strategies and their prompt execution, the presence of the visionary, Steve Jobs and their bold attitude at business experimentation formed the basis of principles at Apple.During mid-1970s, computers were mere mechanisation devices and were not perceived to be used for personal work. Apple reasoned the impact personal computing will film on individuals at one prison term they were able to see how beneficial the personal computers could be. It was essential these machines were exaltedly exploiter friendly. Apple achieved this by incorporating simplicity in the product design internally by attending to the minutest detail in the product, evaluating whether a part or feature is sincerely required, adopting new technologie s, and externally exploring different materials and approaches, enhancing customer get wind by creating highly interactive products.To be able to provide with a smooth and flowing customer last, it was necessary to consider the smallest detail plot of ground designing the product. The philosophy was to achieve sophistication done simplicity by working out the intent for the product, its concept development, the process of making it and the exploiter experience of working with it. The sleek design and appearance of Apple products, easy-to-adopt solutions, and turned simplicity in their design and usage, consistency and resemblance crossways products has a huge impact on the user experience.ANALYSISThe innovation and beingness of the creative core of technology at Apple has continued through years despite the disorientation it faced by the lack of focus, change magnitude competition and changing leaderships during 1985-1997. Post 1997, Apple managed to get its act in concer t under the able leadership of Steve Jobs by focusing on few projects, changing distribution system, embarking direct sales via online website and adopting sophisticatedmarketing for its insanely great products. Tim Cook, the then Chief Operating Officer at Apple was responsible for cleaning up the operations of manufacturing, distribution and supply that were interpreted up during 1985-1997. A core approach to development was taken up working intimately with manufacturers to find different materials and better processes, and being exclusively in sync with the customers, their needs and priorities.The basis of Apple was their consistency across its products which were accomplished by adopting a one platform strategy. All the products had the OSX operate system, which was undertaken with a vision to accommodate their development and production. This benefitted Apple (as a company) to develop and design components that were highly efficient and reliable by investing time and resour ces, its suppliers allowed reuse and sharing assemblies and sub-assemblies at lower costs, its employees added to their knowledge base and experience and most importantly, its customers enabled easier adoption to its products due to familiarity and resemblance across products and lesser nutriment requirements due to stable, reliable designs.Apple has been keen on integrating customer experience in the design and development process. They followed an iterative customer booking process in which they carried out extensive testing to improve user experience with the softwargon and understanding the user expectations when they were trying to accomplish a task. Products were designed so the end user is able to employ them as tools to create and achieve their needs easily and effectively.Steve Jobs has played a pivotal, powerful role in the driving Apple to the heights it has reached as a company and the reputation its products have built in the market. He had an inbuilt design sense a nd had a distinct vision of the meaning of the company, its products and how that john be achieved. It was his philosophy of simplicity that was adopted by the company of achieving beautiful, graceful solutions by digging deep into the key, underlying principle of the problem.Jobs demanded products with ultimate sophistication, high quality, and superior capabilities yet, simple UIs. It was his persuasion to have Apple computers for personal computing,when the detain of the industry was busy creating enterprise solutions. His drive for excellence, and total involvement in every stage of product development and its presentation to the customer, have been the chief elements responsible for the innovation at Apple and the way the company is shaped up.Apple manages to create hype nearly its products and makes grand presentation to forward them in the market. The launched product is immediately available in the retails and on-line stores for customers to polish up and purchase. Ap ple values its secrecy and guards it fiercely. This creates additional hype around the product as they have been known for delivering innovative and appealing products. The constant innovation at Apple ensured they had improved versions of previously launched products, which were then marketed to promote users to have a portfolio of a single product.Apple took a bold look by moving to retail and having commercial stores for Apple products in a hope to attract non-Apple customers and retain the Apple fan base by providing elegant store designs and easy accessibility to their products. The intent was to generate metrical foot traffic by luring shoppers and thereby increase curiosity and popularity. A stylishness move was undertaken by introducing a genius bar for tech kettle of fish and support which was undertaken publicly, adding to the cool factor. Apple was able to create a bombilation around its products by launching retail stores at prime mending in upscale malls.RECOMMEND ATIONSBecause Apple claims to build products that are for everyone, they should be priced so that they are affordable to everyone. With increase in the competition that Apple products are facing, they should make efforts to lower the cost without compromising the quality.Now that Apple has establish itself as a brand and made a statement about its products, the new stores could be opened at other relatively cheaper yet, adequate locations instead of high end malls or at expensive real estates.They could have an online virtual genius bar (video) that could help customers, especially those who arent good at communicating in English, with the problems they had with devices.