Internet Access Device
Apple made taking the Internet with you feel worth paying more for.
We call it a phone, but look at what we actually do with it. We find our way through a new city, send a photo to a friend, and get work done while we’re out. We’re carrying the Internet around in our pocket.
My view is simple: a big part of why Apple won is that it made taking the Internet with you, and interacting with it, a premium experience.
Think about that for a second. The value is in how it feels to use the whole thing, every day. The device in your hand. What happens when you touch the screen. How easily you can do what you came to do.
The parts aren’t the experience.
The parts matter. How they work together is what you live with.
Premium has to mean something beyond a higher price. If I have to fight the product to get a simple thing done, what exactly am I paying extra for?
Apple understands the value of making those small moments feel good. Over time, those moments become your relationship with the product.
Too many product companies look at that and go straight to the parts list. Better camera. Faster chip. More features. Then they wonder why their product doesn’t inspire the same feeling.
A spec sheet cannot tell you how annoying a product is to live with.
You can have a great camera and still make sharing a photo a chore. You can have a fast chip and still waste someone’s time. The person using it gets the whole experience, including the parts your team decided were somebody else’s problem.
That’s what product companies need to understand. Every step you leave unfinished becomes work for your customer.
Don’t leave the last step to the customer.
Every step you leave unfinished becomes work for your customer.
So use the thing. Start where the customer starts and keep going until their job is done. Where did you get stuck? What made you stop and think? Fix that.
Adding another feature can wait.
Apple made carrying the Internet feel worth paying for. If you’re building a product, spend more time understanding that.
—Sean