Innovation refers to the development of new ways to do things thus creating new requirements and standards. It defers from invention because invention refers to the creation of a new idea. Innovation does not involve coming up with a new idea, but it involves developing a new way to perform a task. The new way to do the task should be better than the old way. Innovation differs from improvement in that improvement is performing the task in the same way better, but innovation requires accomplishing the same task in a better more efficient new way.
This report is going to focus on the Ipad introduced by Apple Corporation. Though it was not a new invention, the Ipad was considered at its introduction to be a very innovative product. The apple Ipad was a cross between a smart phone and a personal computer. However, there existed other tablet computers before it; the Ipad was the most successful tablet of all. The Ipad combined the features of a smartphone into a slightly bigger packaging and the features of a personal computer into a slightly smaller packaging. Smart marketing by the apple marketing team played a major role in the success of the Ipad. This product was considered as a disruptive innovation by Harvard business school’s Clayton Christensen. The product offers an almost entirely new way of doing things, which is more user friendly to the user. However, performance on the areas important to many customers of the old product is compromised.
The major innovation of the Ipad was the merging the functionality of a phone with the capabilities of a personal computer. There previously existed no device with the capabilities of the Ipad. According to the chain-linked theory of innovation, uncertainty is a key concept in innovation. A potential market for the Ipad was identified. Research was done to establish what the potential market of such a product was done. Majority of the people who could use an Ipad had smart phones and separate personal computers. It was realized that the smart phones had many capabilities but their small size limited the work that could be done. Personal computers on the other hand offered the most functionality but were bulky to carry around. It was then decided to create a product that would be slightly bigger and more powerful than smart phones yet smaller, therefore, more portable than and as powerful as traditional personal computers.
The engineers at apple then came up with a product that met these expected functions. They had to do many innovations along the way. For example, the Ipad had a bigger processor and a larger display than a traditional phone. This meant that it had higher power consumption. The battery it used could not be made much bigger as the product had to remain light and portable. This led to the engineers at apple, having to come up with many new things. They had to develop a new way of developing batteries that could last longer without increasing their size. This in itself led to many innovations. Research was done on the available battery technologies and the existing technology was used to come up with a new way of making the batteries to be used in the Ipads. The other component of the Ipad that consumed a lot of power was the display. The screen for the Ipad was bigger than that of normal smartphones and therefore drew a lot of power.
The quality of the display could not be compromised; it had to be an improvement on the existing phone displays. Research was carried out and this led to the development of the retina display found on Ipads. This display offered high-resolution display and consumed less power than a conventional personal computer display. Other innovations were done to maximize the battery life. Features such as automatic adjustment of brightness to match the users surrounding were added (Loveridge & Pitt 1990). This ensured that the user would always have the best display for their background and at the same time making the best power saving. The processor on the Ipad had to be extremely fast to support all the functionality embedded in the Ipad. Precious tablets were known to respond slowly to commands due to the processor being unable to handle processes fast enough. The Ipad was supposed to overcome this bottleneck. Traditional processors found on smart phones would not work because they would cause these delayed responses. Personal computer processors would be able to function well but the problem would be their power consumption.
Apple designers again went back to the drawing board. Their task was clear, come up with a very fast processor that was energy efficient. These two were very difficult to achieve since traditionally, the greater the capacity of a processor, the higher the power consumption. However, the portability of the Ipad could not be compromised the engineers came up with a new processor, that was very fast and that was energy efficient. With that solved, the software designers at apple had to come up with the operating system for the Ipad. The IOS used on the company’s IPhone could be used on the larger Ipad. However, it had to be optimized to make sure that it worked well on the bigger Ipad. The engineers also had to come up with a way that the processor was to handle the operating system to enhance energy efficiency. The software was designed in a way that the processor was able to multi task therefore supporting enhanced multi-tasking without increasing power consumption. After this stage of design, the specifications were released to the market. A product that was bigger than a phone that offered the functionality of a personal computer.
The reception by the market was used to gauge the product. Then the engineers went back to the design of the final product that would have all these capabilities. All the functionality available on the phone would be available, these features included the ability of the Ipad to be used to perform traditional phone functions; make calls and receive text messages. Functionality of a computer was also to be included. The Ipad would offer fast internet access as well as functions like word processing. The final product was redesigned and used then distributed to the market. Apple used a new way of marketing. The products would be sold through Apple outlets to sell the product. A lot of media hype was made prior to the release of the product in the market. The company made it believable to the masses that the Ipad was the gadget that everyone needed.
All the stages on this innovation model are interlinked to ensure that the final product does not deviate from the original intention (Kline and Rosenberg, 1986).
Chain-linked Innovation Model
The design of the Ipad was also a major invention. The way it was to be used was a major departure from the way traditional computers were used. The interface was to be via touch screen. This did away with the traditional interface of personal computers. The traditional keyboard and mouse interaction of users with the personal computer was replaced by touch screen interaction. This made it more connected to the user (Henry & Walker 1991). The size of the final Ipad was the size of a normal notebook making the product very portable. It was also very light emphasizing its portability. The Ipad’s battery was also long lasting, up to 9 hours of use. This was very more than a personal computer or laptop could manage. This made it the product of choice for people on the go. Among other features of the Ipad were cameras, a rear-facing camera to allow the user to use the device as a digital camera with the capability of capturing high definition video.
The device also had a front facing camera to allow the user to use the device to make video calls or take their own photos. The interface of the Ipad also allowed voice commands. The Ipad could be given commands via voice recognition. This would enable easy performing of tasks like typing. Instead of typing, the user could opt to dictate to the Ipad and their words would be recorded as speech. The Ipad also offered 3G connectivity to the internet allowing up to 75Mbps speeds. The Ipad also had various versions optimized for the different type of users. The most expensive had large inbuilt storage capacity. There were also versions where connection via cellular networks was not available. All the versions offered connectivity via Wi-Fi. The Ipad also offered Bluetooth connectivity to enable easy connections with other devices.
The Ipad also offered a lot of creativity in its design. The major selling point of the Ipad was its screen. It promised to give the best picture quality of any device, even greater than that of a high definition television. Traditional displays had pixels and the signals that light the individual pixels on the same plane. Each pixel gets a signal to tell it when to light up to create an image. When the pixel and the signal are on the same level, many signals would cross and cause the image quality to suffer. The designers at apple came up with a way of doing it differently. The pixels and the signals were put on different planes. This ensured that there was no crossing of signals, ensuring that a high-resolution image was maintained. In order to capture high definition images, a lot of research was done on the camera. There were many innovations made to ensure that the camera was able to capture such high quality images. The image signal processor was redesigned and the software that processes photos was improved. The software contained an infrared filter that separated infrared rays from the image signals. This enabled the final image captured to have clear and precise uniform colors therefore a very high quality image. Despite all these features of the Ipad, the product was sleek thanks to the aluminum body. The Ipad was thin and had a cool finish that endeared it to its users.
The Ipad was designed in a unibody, in that everything was contained inside the aluminum body unlike traditional phones and personal computers where the back cover could be removed. The Ipad did not have a removable cover and many parts were joined together to reduce the complexities of the device. Ports for connection to other devices and for charging were located on the body removing the need for having a removable back cover. Slots for expandable memory and for sim cards were also located on the body and could be accessed without removing the cover. The Ipad also has a friendly environmental footprint. Despite the innovative new technologies made, the Ipad is also environmentally friendly. All Ipads are free from BFRs (brominated flame-retardants) and PVCs (polyvinyl chlorides). These are well known pollutants, both in their manufacture and in their disposal. The Ipad is made up of components like aluminum, which are entirely recyclable. The innovations make the Ipad very useful and environmentally friendly. This has had the effect of attracting more would be buyers of the product. These innovations made on the Ipad have also led to setting of new industry standards. Other manufactures that have come up with similar products have had to match or improve on the standards set by apple and the Ipad.
Four main factors determine the spread of an innovation (Rogers 1962). The major factor is the innovation itself. The Ipad in this case was the innovation. It was somewhat a crossbreed between a mobile phone and a personal computer. This product was not available in the market before even though the technologies to make it were available. All the functionality of the Ipad could also be achieved by various other devices. However, they had never been combined into one device before. The second factor is the communication channels. The third factor is the time. Time in this case refers to the time that the innovation will be released and the prevailing conditions during that period that will affect the adoption of the innovation. The final factor is the social system. The social system refers to the people who need the innovation to solve their problems and are therefore the people who will purchase the product (Trott, P 2005).
The Ipad was marketed to target as large as a social system as possible. In order for the Ipad to be self-sustaining, it had to be widely adopted. In apples terms, they had to sell as many products as possible. The people who adopted the technology had to be as many as possible. The categories of these people are five. Innovators, these people come up with the idea. In apples case, the mind behind the Ipad was the then CEO, Steve Jobs. He was also the first user of the new device even before its release for sale. Early adopters are the people who take up the product as soon as it has been released for sale. They are usually people who are interested in the technology more than the ability to meet their requirements. Early majority are the people who take up the product after it has been in the market for a while. They are able to review the product and identify how it will help them before they purchase it. Late majority are the people who buy the product after it has been on the market and are likely to buy the product due to its popularity in the market. Their reasoning is like “if the product is popular, then it must be good.” Finally, laggards are the people who are slow to taking up the innovation, preferring to stick to the familiar products (Rogers 1962).
In order to be successful the Ipad had to sell as many units across all these groups as quickly as possible. This was helped by the core of Apple’s marketing; empathy (Chris Nosal). Apple has the ability to identify with the needs of the users, and offer them with a product that meets these needs. The Ipad appealed across many users. It appealed to the technologically perceptive who wanted to be seen with the latest product. It also attracted to the people who needed an entertainment gadget. It offered many entertainment capabilities. The Ipad also appealed to business people. The portability of the device despite its high capabilities attracted especially to those who needed to carry their work with them. The product did not sell on price rather than through the value, it added to the user. This was an entirely new way of marketing, which made the Ipad to sell very quickly, despite its high cost.
In fact, the Ipad is Apples best-selling product. The rate of adoption also had to be kept very high especially after initial release. This was important since the success of an innovation is mainly judged by the rate of adoption of the innovation. This can be shown in the figure below. In the year 2010, when the first Ipad was introduced, personal computer sales outnumbered sales of tablet computers by a ratio of twenty to one. After one year, sales of personal computers outnumbered the sale of tablet computers by a ratio of only six to one. According to Horace Dediu, an analyst with Asymco, tablet sales will surpass personal computer sales as early as 2013. This rate of adoption is very high. In only three years, sales of tablet computers will be larger than that of personal computers, only three years after they were introduced. This very fast rate of adoption has been driven largely by the sales of Ipads, which is the market leader in tablet computers.
Another innovation of the Ipad that has made it very successful is the use of applications developed by third party software developers that run on the Apple IOS. This has reduced the cost of the company developing the applications that will run on the device. The company just makes the hardware and the operating system, and a few applications. The functionality of the Ipad is in the number of different thing it can do. This functionality is made possible by the applications that run on the device. The Apple store has hundreds of thousands of different applications available. This means that it is possible to customize the Ipad depending on the functions you need. This has led to the increase in the uptake since a user can customize their device in a unique way that suits them in their behavior and use of the device. The way this model works, developers are given details of how the operating system works. They then create products that perform a specific function and can run on the operating system. These are commonly referred to as apps. The apps are then submitted to Apple store staff that checks the apps. If they are found to be suitable, they are uploaded on the Apple online store. Users who now want to use the application can now download them from the Apple store. The apps can be free or at a cost. Usually, the cost of an app depends on the complexity of the task it performs.
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