Let’s go back in time a bit – over a decade ago. Macworld, 2007. Steve Jobs stood before a crowd of True Believers and revealed not just one, but THREE revolutionary new products. A new, Innovative widescreen iPod. A next-generation mobile phone. And a breakthrough Internet device. Watch:
Of course, he was talking about one product: the iPhone. I was working for Cingular Wireless at the time, and before this product was released we were selling Razr phones like hotcakes. Less than a year later we couldn’t give them away. I think anyone reading this could easily understand why. The iPhone set a new standard to the way mobile phones worked. It did more, it was simple to learn and elegant to touch. It was designed with the user and usability in mind, and that, combined with an amazing industrial design, made the iPhone markedly better than any other device on the market. It was no contest.
It is amazing. Eleven years later, to watch and hear people in the audience gasping at some moments – visual voicemail, satellite images on maps, etc.
Which is why Apple is in trouble. They aren’t making people gasp anymore.
Apple recently announced it was reducing sales projections, in part due to reduced demand in China. But the sales in the US and other parts of the world has been soft as well. Why? Many pundits have pointed to the higher price points of the latest models as well as economic factors. I think the answer is simpler than that.
The UX has been commoditized.
What was once an exceptional user experience on the iPhone has become – well, just like what you get on any Android. The new features that have been introduced the past few years were either copied by Google for their Android OS or copied FROM the Google-based phones. Manufacturers such as Samsung have produced very slick well designed handsets that are equal in build quality to iPhones. And while they are usually cheaper than the iPhone, the reason why people buy them is not price – remember the first iPhone was VERY expensive compared to other smart phones.
No, the reason why the iPhone sold so well and the reason why it’s not doing so now is there is barely any difference between smart phones in 2019. Why pay a premium price for an experience that is not only just like other cheaper phones, but also an experience that is not any better than your two-year old phone?
And it’s not just smart phones. When you look at web apps and desktop operating systems, we have reached a point of parity and maturity. There is not much uniqueness left. (I’ve written about this before).
So, what is Apple to do? What should all the UX designers focus on? As always I go back to the core element of an effective user experience: The users. Understand what they need, how they use these devices, and spend time investing in a robust ideation cycle for your product to identify what new features will really excite them. Break out of the commodity game and bring you’re a game.
Samsung will be trying to do that by rolling out smart phones with a hinged screen the next two years – no doubt Apple is also thinking about something similar. If it was me, I’d do the unexpected: put out an “iPhone classic”. Use the same form factor as the first device that Steve Jobs brought the world, and take advantage of all the great advances since (and the larger interior space the device has) to bring users 24 hour battery life, the great camera and speed that is in newer devices, and also one more thing – a “breakthrough” app that makes people gasp again.
And then sell it for $499. They’d make billions.