Say Hi To Brand 'Jobs'!!

'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.’

—Steve Jobs

It all started way back in 1984 when an emotional Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh. He always did it in style didn’t he? A young dashing man walked across the stage to unveil the machine that redefined computing. His journey with Apple was nothing less than a roller-coaster ride. But, this article isn’t about his journey with Apple. You would find many highlighting that on the internet. The question I want to discuss at Teched is, is brand ‘Jobs’ larger than brand ‘Apple’?

If you have seen the video of the launch of Macintosh (incase you haven’t, I insist that you should), you must have noticed how Jobs unveiled the portable PC from that bag, removed a floppy from his pocket and witnessed the crowd go bizarre. But there was more to it than Macintosh. That evening in 1984, saw the launch of brand ‘Jobs’. Everything changed for Apple after the voice from Macintosh thanked its ‘father’, Steve Jobs as the audience witnessed the man showcase breakthrough innovations year-after-year.

When we think of Steve Jobs, we get an image of a man wearing a full sleeved black t-shirt, blue denims and oval shaped glasses. One would also associate Jobs to innovation and charisma. Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field", a term coined by his colleagues to describe his ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of superficial charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence. RDF is said to distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and makes them believe that the task at hand is possible.

Year-after-year, Jobs represented Apple and showcased their innovations. He became the face of the company. People started associating Apple to Steve Jobs instead of associating it to its products. This was evident when Jobs went on a medical leave for 6 months in 2009. This very announcement resulted in a major drop in Apple Inc.’s stocks. In 2010, at the WWDC, Apple was to launch the iPhone 4. But the crowd didn't seem to be interested in checking out the new offering. They, instead were all there to get a glimpse of their hero. This was evident from the fact that the tickets for WWDC which generally take about a month to sell out, were actually sold out in just 8 days. The standing ovation that the audience gave when he appeared on the stage just reiterates his popularity.

With increasing competition in the market, the audience for ‘smart devices’ is now divided. There are people who would swear by an Apple product while the other set of people are the ones who have migrated to competitors like Samsung and HTC. I personally belong to the second set of people as I believe that Apple products no longer define industry standards in-terms of innovation. However, I also believe that Apple has something that no one else in the market has; Steve Jobs. His existence in itself is a major crowd puller.

I believe that the popularity of brand ‘Jobs’, is largely because of the success of brand Apple. Jobs would not have been looked upon with trust had Apple not produced the kind of products they actually did. Looking at it from the flipside, Apple wouldn’t have been the company it is today without the charismatic Jobs spearheading it. So is Jobs a larger brand than Apple? I don’t really know and honestly, it doesn’t really matter as long as the genius called Jobs continues to innovate and take Apple Inc. to new heights.

People believe that Apple might find it difficult to sustain itself in the absence of Steve Jobs. But for now, with Jobs around, all I would like to say is, “Say Hi to Brand ‘Jobs’!”

Osborne Takes Over Nokia!

As most of us would have known, Adam Osborne was the first to make a portable computer called ‘Osborne 1’ in April 1981. It weighed around 12kg and was sold for US$1795. It sold 10,000 units in the very first month which then, was a phenomenally large number. One would expect him to be known for this outstanding feat but this was not the case. In 1983, Adam Osborne bragged about two advanced new computers his company was developing. In anticipation of something better, people opted to wait for the launch. The number of orders declined drastically and before Adam could release the new versions, he ran out of cash and had to file for a bankruptcy. This phenomenon was referred to as ‘The Osborne Effect’.

In 2011, exactly 30yrs from the launch of ‘Osborne 1’, we see a similar occurrence. This time with Nokia, a company which once ruthlessly dominated the handset industry. Nokia, the Finnish giant, founded by Fredrik Idestam and Leo Mechelin, has over 132,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue of over €42 billion and operating profit of €2 billion as of 2010. To name one of it’s several achievements, the Nokia brand, valued at $29.5 billion, was listed as the eighth most valuable global brand in the Interbrand/BusinessWeek Best Global Brands list of 2010. However, owing to the growing competition, in July 2010, Nokia announced that their profits had dropped 40%. In Feb 2011, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft, the last viable option they could see to bring back the lost pride.

One would expect this move to bring a glee on the faces of its investors. The Nokia-Microsoft deal appeared as one of the most ‘perfect deals’ by analysts. However, something that nobody had thought of happened and one witnessed Adam Osborne take-over Nokia. This is when the Osborne effect started giving nightmares to Stephen Elop (Nokia CEO).

In the excitement of Nokia signing the dotted line with Microsoft, they seemed to over-look the fear Nokia lovers would have. The fear that Nokia would probably abandon Symbian, their OS which took them to new heights. Initially, this fear resulted in a drastic decline in Nokia sales which was when Nokia made a formal announcement that Nokia will continue to support Symbian atleast for the next 3 years. They also promised to launch 20 Symbian-based handsets in 2011. This somehow was not convincing enough for the smartphone users and Nokia sales further declined. In this period, Nokia lovers decided to wait for the Windows based Nokia phone instead of buying the existing Symbian based handsets. To add to the problems, Nokia realized that their first phone with Windows would come to light only by the end of 2011.

Till now, Nokia dominated the emerging markets like India and China, but, the local players in both these countries started eating-up Nokia’s market share. Meanwhile, with the reducing number of Nokia users, the trend-setting OVI store seemed unviable to them and so was terminated in many parts of the world.

Recently, Nokia  announced that their forecasted sales for the next quarter would not be met owing to the changing market trends. This announcement took Nokia shares to a 13yr low with investors willing to exit the company. There are now rumors in the market about Nokia facing a major cash crunch and that Microsoft might take-over the handset manufacturing company.

The company seems to be in great trouble with sustainability issues seem looming over it. A technology enthusiast like me can only hope that Nokia would somehow survive till the launch of their ‘W’ series phones and come back with a bang in the race to become the leading handset manufacturer.