I have to admit that I’m quite technical person, I know how to hardware and software works together, I can find solutions for different technical problems. But I don’t really enjoy doing so for devices that should just work.

In my view huge success of Apple in mobile world based on following pillars: design, hardware, software and Store. Let’s see each of them in details.

Design

As you probably aware, most products are designed by engineers. They are quite practical people. They don’t need bells and whistles. I should work and do its job. Design will be absent or extremely basic. At the same time in many areas design is quite important. Nobody would like to drive car that looks like office storage. And this is especially important for cars in premium category. Everybody likes nice, streamlined and elegant design even it just sheets of metal bended in certain way. Yes, for cheap cars design is less important and price is #1 priority.

Because Apple would like to target top segment then spent a lot of time designing devices, so they will look expensive, esthetic and practical at the same time. And I would say that for most devices they did their job quite well. These devices are nice looking and elegant. Even after 8 years in many countries having iPhone is status thing and meaning that iPhone owner is rich. In China people use Chinese phones only to moment they have enough money to buy iPhone. After that they immediately buy it even if it means eat less in next several months. And cases with window for Apple’s logo were firstly created in China, so people can see that owner has Apple device.

Hardware

I would not say that Apple did amazing job here, but I think job is decent. I have many owners of Apple mobile devices and I never heard about any problems that were hardware related. Year ago, I was flying to Shanghai and iPad 2 that I bought in 2011 still able to play video from plane Wi-fi for more than 11 hours. I still using to stream YouTube when I’m doing exercises. Right now, I’m using iPhone 6s Plus that is 3.5 years old and it works as good as new. According to Settings app, battery wear is 7% so I believe that I can use it couple of more years without much problems. And new devices have no moving parts like Home button, so they can work much longer because. For example, most my iDevices failed due to Home button.

Software

Software is the best part of Apple eco system. All Apple mobile devices are using iOS as operating system. It is brand new operating system specifically developed for mobile devices with limited power. It is simple, highly optimized. It is easy to use by average Joe and most people can do what they want with minimal learning. It just works, and it is what most people want. They don’t want 20 different ways to send email. They will not remember most of them anyway unless it is what they do for living. They need one simple way to do this and they will be happy. And this is “core” of iOS. Instead of trying to create sophisticated and very customizable operating system that can satisfy every need Apple created operating system that is simple to use by most. If they cannot do something simple, Apple will not do it at all.

Store

App Store

It was great invention. Anyone can develop App and publish it in App Store. But users can download it only after Apple will verify it. Yes, Apple rejects some applications that are trying to duplicate functionality of iOS and some applications that have huge potential but buggy. But at the end end-user have quality content. Moreover, Apple always on customer side and if some app tricked user to spend some money then customer can contact Apple and most of the time, they will return money back. As result user always trusts and without any doubt download applications from AppStore. As result users trust App Store and it is big win for Apple.

iTunes

Again, huge win for Apple when they able to negotiate good prices for music and videos. Few touches and you can listen to music or watch your favorite show. Competitors are catching up but only because Apple did it first and create ability to do this in first place.

Other things

Apple pushed industry for smaller SIM card. Now pretty much any phones use the same small sizes. Apple.

Apple lightning connector is one of the best one. It is small and reliable, and you can use it in absolute dark. Cables itself are not as good, but 3^rd party cable are.

Apple over the air updates are not depending on your operator. Apple released new version of iOS and you will get it directly from Apple. For Androids operator have to approve it first, so top of the line Androids usually gets updates but cheaper one usually not getting updates because operator does not have time to check and approve thousands of these models. As result you have to update Android different and trickier way.

Apple service is not that great in terms of problem solution, they just give you new phone or iPad. Yes, it could be frustrating, because you prefer to solve problem and do not want to restore your device from backup. But on other side service is fast and you get better looking device. Yours could have some scratches or other minor stuff on old device and you got new looking device. And with almost 100% chance your problem will be solved.

Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to mention that in general Apple did quite good job thinking not about speed of CPU or memory size or anything else. They though about whole experience from unpacking to backing up. And whole experience is great. And this is why people are buying Apple mobile products. And when it is time to upgrade then buy Apple again.