Apple iPhones and marketing tactics- Can smartphones really get any smarter?
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Over 50% of the global population now own a smartphone, with the industry projected to be worth $467 billion this year. In this highly lucrative and competitive market, it’s essential for companies to innovate, be first to market with new features and technology, and employ complex marketing tactics to influence consumers’ decision-making. We’ll be taking a deep dive into one of the technology market leaders – Apple – and their powerful marketing tactics to find out if smartphones really can get any smarter.
The Evolution of Smartphones and Apple’s Role
Smartphones have come a long way since their inception, and Apple has played a pivotal role in shaping their evolution. Before the first iPhone, mobile phones had limited features beyond their primary purpose – calling and texting. This quickly changed with the release of the iPhone bringing with it a touchscreen interface, iPod capabilities and internet connectivity all wrapped up in a sleek design. The later release of Apple’s App Store further transformed the industry, removing all friction from software distribution and making apps easily available to mainstream users.
Innovation in the industry didn’t stop there; over the years we have seen the release of further ground-breaking features including; Face ID, fingerprint recognition, wireless charging and high-performance processors.
In recent years, however, there has been a shift in the innovation landscape with newer smartphones boasting incremental upgrades to hardware rather than ground-breaking new technologies. These innovations usually include camera upgrades, battery improvements as well as increased storage capacity.
Apple’s Marketing Genius
Apple are masters at marketing their products positioning them as status symbols and building a loyal customer base. They use a variety of innovative marketing strategies and tactics, ensuring that no matter how incremental the updates are in the latest product, it will fly off the shelves.
Product Launches
First started in 1984 for the Macintosh, these iconic events have consistently set the standard for creating anticipation, excitement and consumer engagement. Through user-centric focus, they change the narrative from describing new features to emphasising how their latest product will enhance users lives. Demonstrating real-world applications and benefits to build hype.
Luxury and Exclusivity
Apple positions themselves as the premium offering in the smartphone industry, with a brand image of a luxury brand rather than a technology company. Their pricing model targets affluent customers with higher-end models such as the “pro” and “pro max” carrying hefty price increases for incremental hardware improvements. Instead of deterring customers, this pricing strategy serves to further elevate their brand, playing into their luxury image and turning their product from a smartphone into a status symbol. Even in cost-conscious markets, Apple doesn’t discount their products and take away from this prestige. Instead, they release slightly less expensive models with reduced hardware capabilities such as the “SE”. This allows them to ensure that consumers with less disposable income aren’t priced out whilst maintaining the allure and exclusivity of their flagship models.
Storytelling
Apple has always focused on building compelling narratives rather than selling the technical specs of their products. Rather than emphasising their latest processor speeds, they place user experience at the forefront of their marketing with campaigns such as “There’s an app for that”. This allowed them to establish the iPhone as more than just a phone, it’s whatever the user needs and will save them time and improve their day-to-day life. Similarly with the “shot on iPhone” campaign, instead of focussing on the number of megapixels of their latest camera, they showcased user-generated content. This resonated with consumers, by bringing real experiences. Not every customer is a professional photographer but with the new iPhone users can capture unforgettable moments and produce high-quality visual content.
Ecosystem Lock-in
One of Apple’s most powerful strategies is its ecosystem which seamlessly integrates all products and services. When consumers are buying an iPhone they are also buying access to this ecosystem from iMessage across devices to cloud storage of photos and data.
The longer a customer uses this, the more embedded they become and the harder it is for them to leave. With their data held on Apple’s servers and their watch, laptop and headphones all part of the ecosystem; inevitably when it’s time to upgrade customers return to Apple.
Are Smartphones Really Getting Any Smarter?
Whether smartphones can really get any smarter depends on how we define the term “smarter”. Most commonly it’s associated with a mixture of improved user experience, hardware advancements and entirely new capabilities.
In recent years the rate of true innovation has slowed down in the mobile phone industry, impacting key players including Apple. As discussed earlier, with ground-breaking new features few and far between the latest models, new releases rely on incremental hardware improvements.
To differentiate themselves and ensure there’s always a long list of improvements to highlight on the latest model, Apple has switched their focus to developing new niche features. This includes SOS satellite, AI-powered photography editing and crash/fall detection.
Across the broader industry, there’s been a shift towards software advances rather than technological ones with Huawei recently releasing their new self-developed operating system to rival Apple’s IOS.
The Future of Smartphones
As the market matures, the future of smartphones will likely shift towards emerging trends driven by technological advancements like Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and foldable displays.
Unlike foldable displays which Apple has not yet adopted, they have focussed on technologies with longer-term potential incorporating AI features through text-to-speech, voice assistant and face ID to improve user experience.
Further AI advancements are redefining what it means for a smartphone to be smart with real-time translation, health monitoring and contextual awareness turning devices into advanced personal assistants.
Looking ahead
The question “Can smartphones really get any smarter?” doesn’t have a clear-cut answer. Some believe we have hit a plateau with companies now refining existing features compared to the ground-breaking innovations seen in earlier products. However, research and development now focuses on software, AI integration and product ecosystems. As a result, smartphones are becoming smarter in a different way, integrating further into our lives.
Regardless of the maturing industry and lack of revolutionary innovations, Apple continues to stay relevant and drive sales through their marketing strategy. By doing so, they have elevated the brand, crafting its perception as a status symbol rather than a device. This ensures that no matter how incremental the innovations are on the newest release, consumers will always be excited and demand will remain high.
