Dominance in Diffusion: The Rise of the iPhone
In this day and age, “iPhone” is a household name across America, perhaps even the world. However, only around 15 years ago, this was not the case. How can a technology rise to prominence so fast that, within 2 decades it goes from a little-known device to the top-selling phone in the world this year? Referencing John Laugesen and Yufei Yuan’s academic paper: What Factors Contributed to the Success of Apple Apple’s iPhone?, concepts discussed in class, as well as Chapter 19 of the textbook, I will answer this very question.
Diffusion of innovations, a concept we talked about in class, is the study of how new ideas or innovations diffuse through networks. There are few key factors that the success of an innovation depends on. According to the textbook, these factors include: “its complexity for people to understand and implement; its observability, so that people can become aware that others are using it; its trialability, so that people can mitigate its risks by adopting it gradually and incrementally; and, perhaps most crucially, its overall compatibility with the social system that it is entering.” By analyzing these factors, we can understand more deeply how the iPhone so successfully diffused through local and global networks.
In terms of complexity, the iPhone took a different approach by assuming an initial target of personal usage, rather than business usage. The iPhone focused on entertainment applications and services rather than business applications. This lowered the complexity needed to use an iPhone, which in turn widened the pool of potential customers. In terms of observability, the iPhone created feelings of personal achievement through its many entertainment-related games, as well as feelings of security because all downloaded apps had first been approved by Apple. Thus, the iPhone became a symbol of status among proud users, turning the heads of others. In terms of trialability, Apple focused on fulfilling consumer needs above the iPhone’s hardware. This approach ensured that over time, consumers developed trustworthiness and began to hold iPhones in high regard, speeding up the iPhone’s adoption among consumers. Lastly, and most crucially, is compatibility. Here might be where the iPhone set itself apart from competitors most distinctly. Apple targeted the right group of adopters for their phone: younger, tech savvy individuals. The iPhone was the first smartphone to really prove there is a strong market in personal use, expanding the compatibility of the phone beyond business men and women to a substantially larger group of people.
By tying class concepts of how innovations successfully spread throughout networks to specific information in Laugesen and Yuan’s academic paper, the “how” of why the iPhone rose to prominence becomes clear. In short: Apple’s combined multiple strategies in all different areas (like social, technology, marketing) in a way that made the iPhone’s diffusion through networks extremely rapid, leading to its widespread popularity today.
Source:
https://source.sheridancollege.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=pilon_publ