To what extent do you agree with the statement that Apple wouldnt have been as successful without Steve Jobs?

CASE STUDY ITSELF: (PLEASE ADD REFERENCES)

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The mobile phone industry has seen major innovation over time. Since the first mobile phones emerged in the late 1970s there has been major uptake around the globe, with devices becoming more compact, more efficient, and packed with more features than ever before. In the mid 2000s we started to see what we know as our modern day smartphones with blackberry devices being particularly popular, before Apple revolutionised the market with the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007. Since that time smartphones have become ever more powerful, integrating more features such as improved cameras, and a substantial range of applications. The market is now very competitive and you can find information from Statista (ODea, 2020) please see the reference at the end of this case study.

This case is focused on Nokia and uses Apple as a comparator organisation. The two organisations have, on the face of it, similarities in a single product area (both being mobile phone suppliers), however, this case study is an example of an innovative organisation being unable to deliver innovation through to the customer (Nokia). So, what can we learn about Apple and Nokia to understand why Nokia has struggled with this, whilst Apple has not?

Some Commonalities:

As mentioned above, the most obvious similarity between the companies is that they have been/are involved in the mobile phone/smart phone business.

Both Nokia and Apple saw their businesses grow at similar times when technological innovation saw the emergence of numerous, competing technology devices and software that are seen as ubiquitous in some cases today and forgotten in the case of others, alongside technology convergence. An understanding of this context is important when considering commonalities and difference.

Technological innovation that had been taking place includes:

• Mobile phones (1983)

In 1983, Motorola launched the brick phone (DynaTac 8000x) a heavy (785g), expensive (1650) mobile phone that began the mobile telephony revolution

• Home computing (1981)

The emergence of home computing with IBM spawning multiple copycat computer manufacturers and software developers of their first home computer (IBM 5150) in 1981, and Apple selling their first home computer (Apple Macintosh) in 1984.

• Internet (1989)

Although earlier applications of time-sharing, shared switching and inter networking existed from the 1950s, it was in 1989 that Time Berners-Lee, a British scientist working at CERN in Switzerland created the world wide web linking documents in an information system from any node in the network, creating the first web client-server in 1990

• Texting became available (1993)

First created by Nokia between two Nokia phones to message.

• GPS operational (1995)

A global satellite system meant a GPS receiver could be used anywhere on earth.

• The internet becomes centreless (1995)

To this point, the internet had been based upon a number of academic backbones creating a network using TCP/IP and was managed by a number of Universities. Traffic on these networks had been growing which impacted performance and commercial use was not allowed. Now the internet became available to the public and commercial applications accelerated growth, performance and use.

• Google founded (1998).

Not the same!

A visit to Nokias website reveals they view themselves today as a provider of critical networks and associated technology and services, whilst the timeline (below) for their recent business years, describes a transition from a focus on large scale telecommunications systems and infrastructure in 1990, then a handset provider with the best-selling mobile phone in the world by 1998, inventor of the first camera phone in 2003, and a strategic partnership with Microsoft in 2011 resulting is a sale of the mobile device division to Microsoft in 2014. Since then, Nokia Networks acquisitions of Siemens in 2013 and Alcatel-Lucent in 2015 underpinned Nokias plan to become a communications technology leader who are today active in the 5G marketplace. However, in 2016 Nokia re-entered the mobile handset marketplace licensing agreement so are again offering phones under the Nokia brand.

Source: Nokia (2021)

From this, we can see Nokia has changed its focus between infrastructure and handsets over time and gone from dominant position to sharp decline, acquisition, sale and change. We can debate whether is this due to factors within Nokia such as leadership and management problems, lack of vision or strategy, poor investment in R&D, problematic organisational culture, a lack of understanding of customer needs, resistance to change or poor execution. Indeed, there are alternative arguments that the decline of the organisation was primarily due to external factors such as the changing nature of technology at that time, competitive forces, industry disruption, new market entrants or societal change.

So, what about Apple by contrast? The interesting timeline (below) shows a number of Mac computers were developed and sold by Apple from 1977 onwards. However, it was not until 2001 that Apple released the iPod music device and only 2007 when Apple announced their launching of three new products: a mobile computer, a phone and a music device, combined in one and called iPhone categorised as a smart phone becoming the worlds largest smartphone vendor by volume in 2011 (Agence France-Presse, 2011). This was followed later by the iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPods and recently a more push into services and entertainment.

Source: Apple Museum (2021)

Apples success has been much discussed, partly because their growth has been historic in scale, plus its organisational strategy is kept somewhat secret, so consequently your investigations may result in a number of competing viewpoints alongside academic research, and you may wish to reflect upon what viewpoints you as a group consider more viable. This case study does not require detailed understanding of Apple to be presented, and we are not expecting you to become experts overnight in the industry itself. One of the key points of your efforts should be to compare the fortunes of Nokia and Apple as you address the questions.

West and Mace (2010) argued that the success of the iPhone was based on Apple's belief that mobile Internet was just another modality of the existing wired Internet. The promise to deliver the real Internet was a core part of Apple's original strategy, so that iPhone users quickly showed a much greater interest in web browsing compared to other mobile phone in the US or Europe.

It is also commonly argued that the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in 1997 was the moment Apples fortunes started to accelerate forward. Jobs was very influential in shaping and promoting Apple vision and core values - to be able to change the world and was at the forefront of a strong marketing and branding campaign, the Think different campaign. There has been substantial commentary regarding the role of Steve Jobs at Apple in various academic and media sources and you will have no trouble at all in finding resources debating the role of Jobs leadership in the success of Apple over time. There are discussions on all sides of this debate and individuals who praise his leadership style, contrasted with those who feel he was too ruthless in his pursuit of success. Either way, we can argue that he had a significant impact on the organisation.