Did Apple lose their edge?

So, no new iPhone announcement this week.  The long awaited annual launch of a new iPhone is not going to happen this year.  While not entirely surprising, as the news (or lack thereof) has been rumored online for months now, it’s still disappointing.  So, what now?  Some has also pointed out that the iPhone 3Gs users who bought the phone when it first came out would be on the market for an upgrade soon (as their two year contracts expire).  Would these users go shopping around?  Without an iPhone 5, would Android and such get the edge? 

Well, Apple set and expectation in the annual launch.  Missing that consumer expectation does create some risk to Apple.  However, it’s not a one-to-one ratio in the risk of switching.  While there are phones out there that are newer than the iPhone 4 and it could be tempting to switch, many wouldn’t.  They may simply wait it out for the iPhone 5 or bite the bullet and buy the iPhone 4.  Why?  That’s what first-mover advantage is all about.

iPhone had the first-mover advantage on today’s definition of smartphones, by the ways of apps.  If you had invested hundreds in apps, would you just abandon your app library and buy and Android?  Even if you only had free apps, the time it took to build that library is an investment in itself.  This is why you want to be first.  You create a barrier to switch because you got people used to what you have to offer.  Everything else just isn’t quite the same…

Photo credit:  Dave

Confidence

I’ve been reading on attitude and how it affects ones career lately.  There are loads of materials on this subject, particularly on the subject of how women’s attitude often differs from men’s.  That difference in attitude can make a world of difference in career success.  You’ll be seeing more posts on that in the near future.

But quickly, I’d like to share with you an article a colleague sent me a few days ago.  It’s titled “She’s Gotta Have ‘It’”.  It’s an old article from Business Week.  The article largely deals with executive presence.  It’s not that particularly interesting nor did it offer too many solid go-to tips.  However, there was one line that I thought was very enlightening that I really wanted to share with you all:

The best news about confidence is that it’s easier to develop than competence – the part of the job senior women usually have licked.

So, how to develop confidence?  As I finish my reading, I’m sure I’ll have more on this topic.  However, really simply, one need to start with giving it your best.  At the end of the day, it’s a matter of attitude.  You can walk around questioning if your best is good enough, or be confidence in knowing that you’ve given it all.  After all, if your best isn’t good enough, that’s really a competence issue.  There needs to be further development, or sometimes it’s just not the right job.  Regardless, your attitude affects how others perceives your effort.  If you wonder if your effort is good enough, surely others will too.  So, why start that line of question?  So, until you’re told differently, you have to assume that you have that job, and continue to have that job, because you are good enough for that job.  So, be confident knowing that. 

Time makes all the difference

I have long said that everything you do matter when it comes to branding.  To this end, consistency had always been the key.  If you always wear a red dress, you’ll be known for your red dresses.  And time makes all the difference.  Without time, it may be a brand experience, but it won’t be part of your branding. 

You’ve been wearing red to everything for the last month.  It took great efforts on your part.  However, the truth is, it didn’t matter.  Not yet.  Because over the last month, you’ve been out and about, and meeting a variety of people.  So, realistically, each person may have only seen you in red only once or twice.  So, what to you seemed like a long time has not been that long for your audience.  They haven’t form that brand expectation with you yet.  In the world of marketing, it takes years to before an effort for consistency starts to make a difference in the consumers’ minds.  So, unless you’re willing to invest years behind an element, that element contributes to the brand experience, but it is not part of the brand.  Red was vibrant.  Red was sexy.  It was part of the experience, but you brand is not yet red. 

Too often I see efforts to keep consistency with an element that was never going to have the benefits of time.  You knew you were never going to only wear red for forever.  Quite frankly, you’d get bored.  So, that effort to do so for a month is a choice, not a brand building exercise. 

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