Imagination and Innovation

Imagination and Innovation

A post on the FB page of my friend took me to this link on the techcrunch story of Apple and how its net worth is today more than that of Microsoft, HP and Dell combined. It sort of sounds unbelievable that the market cap of Apple today is close to $ 300 billion compared to $ 200 billion for Microsoft, $ 72 billion for HP and $ 30 billion for Dell. See this in the backdrop of a market cap of $ 400 billion of Microsoft ten years back when Apple was at $ 8 billion!

Last 10 years have been amazing for Apple. It has led the world with its imaginative and innovative products. In 1997, when Steve Jobs returned to “rescue” Apple, it had a market cap of just about $ 3 billion. For investors it has been a windfall. The apple stock has zoomed from about $ 5 then to about $ 326 now!! It’s a mind boggling growth story. How did this happen.
Over the last few years, Apple has launched 6 innovations that have proved to be game changers. These include the iPod, the mp3 player that began the decade of disruptive technologies. This was followed by the iTunes which allowed people to buy the music they like. Next was the iPhone, which remains the leader inspite of attempts by rival companies to come up with matching products. The AppExchange has applications for almost everything. Most of us might use only the free apps, but the kind of applications available are truly amazing. The Apple Store is another innovative way of marketing products and more than $ 2 billion worth of products have been sold through these stores. The iPad revolution has been another game changer disruptive technology which might prove to the end of the road for laptops and desktops.

When we look at Apple’s innovation model, it is apparent that it is not they just make beautiful products that work. It also integrates it with a complete business model. The example is integration of iTunes and AppExchange with the iPods, iPhones and the iPads. The approach of Apple to build platforms and hosting applications on a cloud is the way to go. It allows users to plug and play. It makes technology simple to use. Today 5 year olds can use an iPod and an iPad more easily than the XO laptop, designed by OLPC for kids!

The iCloud which has been announced by Apple will do what iTunes did to music. It should become easy to store and share pictures and documents. The ease of use and the convenient interface that Apple devices provide is unmatchable. I am sure in the next 10 years, tech companies will have to innovate if they have to match up to Apple’s story. Today the difference is market cap of Apple and Microsoft is $ 100 billion which is more than the combined worth of RIM, Nokia, eBay and Netflix or that of Amazon and Adobe combined!

Lets see how the game changes in the next 12 months. These are interesting times.