The iTunes store is a big reason why we are developing for the iPhone and not Windows Mobile or the Blackberry. In the last post I covered the technical development reasons why Apple has developed a great platform. In this post it is all about marketing.
I get to put my Enterprise Application in front of the largest and fastest growing audience. Sort of like getting your product placed in the checkout line at Walmart. Just check out this growth. 8th September 2005 in the Register:
Around 10m people have opened iTunes Music Store accounts, Apple revealed yesterday.
That, CEO Steve Jobs claimed, makes ITMS “one of the largest Internet stores around” – indeed, he added, “iTunes may be the second largest Internet store behind Amazon.com”.
Now the latest official number i can find from Apple: dated Feb 26, 2008
Apple® today announced that iTunes® (www.itunes.com) is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. Apple also announced that there are now over 50 million iTunes Store customers.
It is now November 28th 2008 and I have heard rumors it is over 60 million users. Of course not all of these customers have an iPhone, and the vast majority are consumers with no intention of ever buying an Enterprise Application from Cosential, but there are a large number of senior executives every day who are buying an iPhone. Their workers are buying them and have the ability to tell our story to their bosses. What does this mean? Well by being in the iTunes store we are reducing marketing risk. If I was building a Blackberry or a Windows Mobile app, how many people would their app stores get me in front of? Certainly not 60 million potential customers. Even people without iPhone browsing the iTunes store can find out about our app and then decide to buy an iPhone. So without the iTunes store I would have to take on ALL of the marketing risk. That is expensive. Selling enterprise applications is hard work. There are long sales cycles, expensive sales people and high marketing costs.
Techcrunch reports there are over 10,000 apps. The growth is crazy.
Ok I can hear people argue that there are only 12 million iPhones and the are MANY more other smart phones out there and Blackberry has a lock on the corporate market. This is precisely why developing for the iPhone makes so much sense. How can I compete into a mature market with entrenched players? I can take advantage of a marketing innovation and get to market first. What Steve Jobs and his team have done is to innovate the key to market dominance. And I just figured out how he did it (I think)
27 Years ago in 1981 IBM introduced the personal computer. I was at the show where that happened in Miami. I designed part of that show (part of my previous life and another story altogether). Apple had out innovated Microsoft and dominated the personal computer market. The marketing deal Steve Ballmer hammered out with IBM was the key to their success. IBM marketed their computer to the corporate market. Then Microsoft forced all computer makers who licensed Windows to buy a license for all computer they made regardless if the computer shipped with Windows. Over time Windows crushed Apple. They did this with Marketing and NOT technology. Remember Steve Ballmer worked at Procter and Gamble, the company which perfected marketing. Enough history.
Steve Jobs watched and learned. He learned that Innovating in technology and design is not enough. Innovation in marketing is as important. iTunes, iPods, iPhones, Apple TV all reinforce each product’s marketing efforts. Every time a new innovation in Apple technology is introduced, publicity is generated for the entire ecosystem. If our Cosential Enterprise Information Manager sells well, it reinforces the entire ecosystem.
So, much like in 1981 IBM changed the computer industry through an marketing agreement and it was game over for Apple, I say it is game over for RIM and Microsoft, they have just not realized it yet.
Apple has innovated a new way to market software to the the world. Thank you Steve Jobs for hanging in!
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