iPad and Apple’s Email strategy
iPad Review
I was speaking to someone very familiar with Apple today and he asked me what I thought of the new iPad. I said that I liked it – it’s not meant to replace a laptop nor be a device you put in your pocket. It creates or fits a new category between those two products.
What makes the iPad stand out is that it does things a little bit better in one device than everyone else does in multiple products. Books? It looks better than the Kindle and has Apple’s interface and OS. It’s has a better implementation of a book store. Not by much, but I think it’s a step up from Amazon’s offering.
Movies? It has a nice screen that it big enough to take on a flight, but not so big it gets in the way. The iTunes store is the complementary product that makes this feature stand out from the rest. Same with music.
As a personal organizer, the current set of Apple apps and 3rd party ones give it a huge edge and frees Apple from having to develop tons of proprietary software.
The App store and the ability to use all of the apps already developed for the iPhone and iPod (backwards compatibility) is hugely appealing. And think of all the apps that will be developed specifically for this new device. I really do think this format will work, even though there have been some big crashes and burns in the past within this product category.
Apple’s Email Strategy
We then got in the topic of corporate communications. Every single email vendor I’ve spoken to over the last five years is head over heels for selling personalization and segmentation in that channel. There’s so much of a drive to get away from mass email campaigns and yet, Apple still has little to no personalization in their email strategy. I’m a huge Apple product fan and have been since I was 6, yet I’ve never gotten any recognition of this or special offer or anything from them that acknowledges my continued support of their brand.
How could they do this? They collect a lot of personal information about you from the registration and warranty. On the computer side, I’ve never gotten an email saying that my warranty period is about to expire (spam folder’s fault?). The computer could have a birthday too!
It’s the iTunes store and iPod customers where they could really do a lot of segmentation, since they know so much about the music you buy. The App store has the same value. Surely there are some products out there that are complementary to some of these “soft” items.
Forget that I’ve forced certain people in my life to go to the Apple store and buy stuff because I knew they wanted it before they knew it. It kind of ticks me off the more I think about it. It’s not going to be too long before the company is going to need to get into this personalized experience through email. Unfortunately, most companies begin to look at this option once they’ve screwed up pretty badly and need to reclaim all their former customers.
