Apple’s Secret Sauce: In Search of Cool

By Shlomo Maital

             

    The patent infringement suit by Apple against Samsung has provided some unexpected insights into Apple’s ‘secret sauce’.  Writing in the New York Times, blogger Nick Bilton quotes one of Apple’s leading designers: 

    “On the first day of the trial, Christopher Stringer, a longtime industrial designer at Apple with a flair for the theatrical — he wore an ice-cream-white suit — explained the process the company goes through to create these prototypes.  

   *  For example, 15 or 16 designers worked together around a kitchen table. When it came time to plan the devices, the company tried almost everything. There are iPads of various exaggerated shapes and sizes. They are white, black or metallic. One iPad has a strange stand that protrudes from the back. 

  *  Some of the early prototypes of the iPhone are bizarre. One, a long black rectangle, looks as if it is twice the size it should be. Others have beautifully curved glass screens. Another resembles an old silver iPod that just happens to be a phone, too. And there’s the strangest of all: an iPhone that looks like a stretched hexagon made of cheap black plastic.     

   *  While in court on Friday, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, pulled the curtain further back when he divulged the company’s advertising budgets — often more than $100 million a year for the iPhone alone.”

  So the recipe for Apple’s secret sauce is actually pretty simple.1. Hire scads of top industrial designers (most companies have only one or two).  2. Encourage them to create really wild ideas.  3. Actually build those wild ideas.  4. Then, take them and bring them down to earth, to make them feasible.  5. All the while, keep in mind who will make the final decision – Mr. Jobs, who wants products that are beautiful, simple, friendly, and above all else,  K O O O O O O O L.  “What will Jobs say?” is always in the room.   6. Finally, use an unlimited advertising budget, just to get people talking about the new product, just to establish “Koolness”. 

   Contrast this with Nokia, which studied 200,000 customers, sliced and diced them, shaped a dozen cell phones each to a specific well-defined market segment… but cool?  None in sight. 

   The secret sauce is not so secret now, and not so mysterious.  But the one ingredient that no longer exists is also the most crucial one: Steve Jobs’ innate sense for what is appealing and exciting.   Ever try baking bran muffins without bran? 

 * Disruptions: At Its Trial, Apple Spills Some Secrets, By NICK BILTON.  NYT Aug. 5.