1 ноября 2026 г.: transcript

uh, to uh, session number 15 of the Disruptive Technologies for Innovation and Change. Um, in this class, we will be discussing mostly, uh, the Apple case study. Okay. Uh, trying to consolidate as well some of the, um, content that we've been talking about in the past few weeks. Um, I also want to tell you guys that, um, I'm sharing some extra content. I'm not recording, uh, this content, but I'm I'm going to share it with you um, in this class. So, feel uh, make sure to to download the, um, uh, the documents for this class.

They are related with the entrepreneurial, um, uh, path. Uh, some tips and tricks a little bit. Uh, also some tools that, uh, will help you guys also, um, to have a full picture or a full vision of the things that we've talked about in, um, I think it was two sessions ago. Um, uh, in the class number 13. Okay. Um, moving on then, uh, let's start presenting a little bit the company that all of you, for sure, all of you know. Uh, maybe most of you are are clients. Uh, but let's talk a little bit about, um, Apple.

So, Apple is a great example of the things that we've been discussing lately. Um, because it's a company that's started, um, a little bit out of the box. Okay? Uh, it started with a the main idea of a man, Steve Jobs. All of you know. Uh, unfortunately, he passed away uh, more than, uh, more than 10 years ago, with with cancer. Um, but basically, um, Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak, uh, they were two high school dropouts. They they both lived in California, in Silicon Valley. And of course, they had these crazy ideas. The both of them had these, uh, innovative minds, always thinking about new ways of exploring technology. Back then, we were living, as if you guys remember what I told you, um, with with technolo- technological evolutions and so on, we were living through the first through the third um industrial revolution, so the kick starting of small electronics um being able to be purchased by anyone and

people started wanting to buy computers and digital um appliances to their homes. Um And yeah, uh basically they teamed up while working for Hewlett-Packard, um HP, the classic uh computer company. Um but then um in the meantime they continued developing their uh their own ideas and their own crazy uh solutions while working in in Steve's garage, okay? In the basement.

Um Then also Ron Wayne, uh the chief technologist and electrical engineer, also joined and they founded basically the three of them founded what would become Apple Incorporated in 1976. However, then uh Wayne left the company and Steve Wozniak was the one that first designed the first uh Apple's first computer, the Apple I, to HP, okay? It was initially a project for for HP. Uh they were not impressed, okay? And they decided to close the venture, close the the department where Steve and uh both Steves, sorry, were working. Um But this didn't stop them and they started working together uh um in their own free time on what would become Apple II, okay? The the main the main product that Apple launched in the in the late uh in the late '70s and in the beginning of the '80s. Um and yeah, this was the

the flagship product that Apple uh pushed in the beginning and that started kick started um Apple's campaign in the penetration of the of the computer of of um of the personal computer market, sorry. Um then um there was some some problems, technology continued to evolve. Um Apple II was the main product of Apple, but Steve had different ideas. And unfortunately, as the company grew, um Steve Jobs didn't see eye to eye to the the the leadership that was running the company back then, and unfortunately, he left. Uh but then only to return um in in in in 1997 as an advisor. Um this way he became CEO of Apple and introduced the iMac, which sold almost 1 million units by 1998. From that point, the company did very well.

Basically, the the main differentiation point was in 2001 with the introduction, of course, of the iPod. And that basically changed the way that not only products would be marketed in public to the general, um but we could also see the evolution of the high technology >> market. This is a theory that

we'll see if we have time a little bit to discuss this in the future. But I also challenge you guys to to take a look and to read a little bit about this theory, the techno the high technological market theory and the way that you basically divide the different segments of a mark of the technological market and you apply different strategies in order to penetrate different segments of of the market. Okay. Moving on.

I mean the this is the the main vision and mission. Basically they're committed in bringing the best personal computer experience to students, educators, and any creative professionals through innovative hardware and software. They design Macs, they design the operating system Mac OS to the Macs and nowadays they're even designing the hardware for them. Okay, guys? The latest chips, the latest processings are based on the Apple's own technology.

Okay, together with ARM semiconductor designing company, Apple is doing this partnership with them in order to not be dependent on third parties. We talked a little bit about this when we discussed Porter's forces if you guys remember. And the force of the suppliers. Unfortunately, Mac was beca- sorry, Apple was beco- coming to rely on Intel and they decided to uh you if you want to make our products properly, we need to start designing our own um uh processors. Okay, so not only the the design of the computer of the case itself, but as well as their internal uh components. Okay, so this is super important as well to uh define the growth of of Apple and try to understand a little bit where this company wants to go. Uh of course, this job is for you guys. If you see in this week's assignment, I want you guys to analyze Apple um and to uh also see what you can find about them.

Uh what about their plans for the future? We'll talk a little bit about their latest product. Um and I want you guys to do an analysis on on on the growth of the company. Not to repeat the information that I'm sharing here with you, but I want I want you guys to basically to use the the frameworks that we talked about in the past in order to a little bit predict the future uh with this company. Uh and also apply of course the the methodologies that we've been that we've been talking. Um I'm sharing as well to you guys here the values. I mean, they believe that we are in face of the earth to make great products. This was these are Steve's values, okay? From to the 2012. I brought them um even though of course, Apple now is run by Tim Cook. Um and a lot of changes um happened after Steve's death. Basically, with the the um introduction of a major investors like uh Warren Buffett for example, that changed a little bit about the course of the company. Started moneta- started

strategies of monetizing a little bit further the the existing products and the existing portfolio that they have. Mm um uh but yeah, but I I leave it I leave that up to you guys and I leave that analysis that deep analysis for you and to see what you guys can come up with and um what new information can you bring as well in the future of the company. Um they believe in the simple, not the complex. They believe that they need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products they make. They participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. So, see guys, this is I want to I want to I like these two points here about their main values. You see already that in 12 in 2012, they were already thinking of owning and controlling the primary technologies behind the products that they make.

Okay? So, in this age, so fast forward 10 12 years later, 2020, uh where over the 20 220s, and AI now is a thing, generative AI that maybe can be run on your own iPhone on your local computer. So, these things are the drivers, okay? The innovation drivers that Apple always pushed forward in order to bring the best solutions in the market or innovative solutions, right? So, um this is a little bit how uh the story of of Apple unfolds, okay? And we've seen it unfolding in the past uh in the past years.

Um guys, by the way, an interesting fact that I I could have pointed out in the beginning, but I didn't. If you bought Apple stock in 2001, when basically after the introduction of of the iPod, now what you I think if you put 1,000 euros or 1,000 dollars back then, now you you'd be a multimillionaire, okay? I think the investment would would have gone 600 60,000 times, okay? Further. So, um this is just to show you we we study innovation not only uh because it's fun or to understand a little bit about global economics, how companies differentiate themselves and push value-added products, but also who knows, to benefit a little bit from them. To analyze these companies that through time, they bring sh added value not only to the public in general, but also to the shareholders, okay? And being a owner of Apple stock for the past 20 years

without selling, would would have become you would have become really rich, okay? Um Uh and we of course and I want to go back. We participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. So, this is something that I want you guys as well to keep in mind, okay? When we talk a little bit further about Apple. We believe in saying that no thousand to a thousand projects so they can really focus on the few that are really important and meaningful to us. So, here we have the filter that they always apply so they focus on just a couple of products. They don't want a lengthy portfolio of products. They only want to push for what's best. We believe in the collaboration and cross-pollination of groups which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. So, this means that a designer of both the iPhone can also work in the Mac project or in the iPad project without any problems, okay? So, this cross-pollination as they call it or

these paralyzation we can call it as well allows Apple to have the best human one of the best human resources in the world. We don't settle We don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company and we have self-honesty to meet when we are wrong and courage to change. Okay? Um here is a little bit about their overall strategy. I'm going to move on because this is what I want you guys to also tell me, not about their past strategy but a little bit about in the future. Just guys mostly I want you to think that Apple focus on three main things. One of them is intellectual property. This means R&D, research and development, creating the best possible technology and protecting it. Second of it is marketing. This is the technological company that probably has the best marketing in the world. Nowadays, Tesla is also pushing a little some interesting things but Apple

historically has been the company that changed the the behaviors and the perception of their different consumers to to their products, okay? And it allowed to put their products in a standard, which is way above um the the classic standard of of a regular uh electronics. Uh and of course, people are willing to pay a premium for it. Okay? To be part of that standard, to be a part of that group that has an iPhone, not only because of the technical capabilities of the iPhone, which are really good, of course, but to pay that extra premium that you um cannot find let's say a logical justification for it. But uh a personal one or a marketing one uh that can that can justify it. And the third and final pillar that I want you guys to to uh to uh I want to highlight to you guys is uh monetization. We will see as well a little bit about the strategy that um how they monetize this, what is their

bundling strategy, and how they benefit from this small but powerful ecosystem of products. Okay? Um all of you know that uh yeah, they have a bunch of also uh different products, iPhone, iPad, uh with with we discussed them, Apple Music nowadays. So, these are all the things that the Apple currently has in their portfolio and uh is able to use them and to connect them in a in a really interesting way. Um yeah, in general during 20 11, uh the company opened the Mac App Store to allow customers to easily discover, download, and install applications for their Macs. They also support different communities for the developing of third-party software.

Um Their strategy also includes expanding their uh distribution network to reach more customers and provide them, of course, with the best post-sale support. Yeah, they're unique. For example, here we can we can talk about Apple Genius Bar. If you guys are Apple customers, you probably know this. If you go to an Apple Store, you have a specific Genius Bar, they call it Genius Bar, which is a specific part of the store where there's always one or more experts of Apple products that can help you not only in terms of warranty and technical stuff, but also in helping you guys giving you like live action tutorials or to better or to or to increase the the experience that you have with your with your Apple products.

And they also of course play on retention. They want their customers linked by a bundling approach that makes of course switching costs to other competition to other competitors relatively high. Okay, so this is the main point that Apple also has is that once you buy a an Apple product, it's really hard to go back to to the competition because of the ecosystem, because of the social sorry, the operating system. Um and yeah. And so this is what I was talking about the full ecosystem of of Apple. It includes iPods, it includes smartwatches, it includes the iPad, monitors, towers, the Apple TV now, also software like Apple Music. All of this is interconnected and able to use in your own unique Apple account. So basically you have an Apple account with your own email. And it centralizes all the information, all your photos, all your favorite favorite playlists,

movies, etc. etc. Okay? And now one important part that I want you guys also to think about in the future and provide me with your analysis um how is artificial intelligence and the collection of all of these data can help Apple in the future. Because this has been a concern and this has been a a major point in terms of analyst reviews and so on. And that people are a little bit um I'm trying to find a word. Um um not discontent, but a little bit wondering, we can say, about what will Apple do in this generative AI age that we're living in.

Uh Microsoft is moving fast. Google is moving really fast as well with their Pixel portfolio and their computers. Now, um but Apple uh it looks like they are staying a little bit behind also with Siri and not an exact path for um the the connection and the and the usage of the of the enormous amounts of data that they have uh to make use of these new capabilities of these new AI capabilities. So, I want you guys as well to do in your analysis to try to a little bit to predict, understand what is this the current situation right now, and to predict where they might be heading. Okay?

Um you can do this really easily as well uh with the an example of a uh positioning map. So, feel free also to create quadrants, create a matrix uh with the uh uh X and Y graphs with the characteristics that you'll be focusing on. Okay? Uh this is an example and all the example that I found uh for um the uh when they introduced the iPhone, okay? So, really old one. We can see here the main competitors back then. Nokia was still a thing, still making um uh cell phones. Of course, the landscape changed a little bit. So, uh my challenge here for you guys is to pick a product, if you want, and do a deeper analysis on that specific uh product segment or product area. Okay?

Uh feel free also to provide different KPIs. And you don't have to go with the price and quality. You can go with other characteristics that you see fit and that you want to to analyze. Uh but this is a little bit uh what what I want you guys to do. Of course, I'm expecting you guys in your research to talk about this. This is the latest product of Apple, okay? Uh presented in I think late 2023 and launched in 2024, I believe.

Um this is the latest product in their portfolio. Not the biggest uh sell or uh not the uh the one that was more adopted, but is this is the precise analysis that I want you guys to do. Okay? I want you guys to um focus on Apple Vision Pro. And do uh an analysis of what is the purpose of Apple by uh launching this product. This is a product completely different from the others. We were uh the public in general was expecting uh an expensive product, right? But not at this price range. Okay? $3,500 um is a super super high price for a technological product, guys. Okay?

Um and um yeah, this is basically the topic of uh this week's assignment. I want you guys to focus study a little bit Apple's strategy throughout the past and apply uh our methodologies and the things that we've been discussing to the Apple Vision Pro. Feel free as well to do some extra work if you want to focus on uh different vertical, other new Mac, on the new um iPhone Air that they're launching and everything. But um this is the main point that I want you guys to to analyze, okay? I can't wait to see your ideas.

I wonder if you can uh arrive the same conclusions as me. Okay? Uh about this product, namely why did they launch the Pro version first for the first time in their history? So, they always have different hearing of products, guys. You know this, right? They have the iPhone and the they have the iPhone Pro, iPhone Pro Max, and so on. Also on the Macs, they have this. But uh in this case uh in this particular product, they started off with the introduction of the Vision Pro.

Right? So, not Apple Vision, Apple Vision Pro at this price range. And uh I'm I'm curious about what you guys uh conclude with this. What do you think that Apple is trying to do with this product? Uh if you go to any Apple Store, you'll see that they have live demos, free demos for anyone to try. And they're collecting a lot of feedback on this product. And um And yeah, this is the the main point of of this short session, okay, guys? Hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you on the next class. Thank you very much. And have a good one. Ciao, ciao.

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