The success of Apple has become a miracle. What is the secret of this magical Innovation performance? What has Apple invented, which no one else can do? In fact, Apple has not invented any core technology. Steve Jobs has developed an institutional capacity, most importantly culture, at Apple for fine-tuning and fusing transferred technologies for out-forming the competition–in perfection. Indeed, it has been a technology transfer success of Apple. The institutional culture of pursuing a relentless journey of perfection has been the secret recipe. Hence, it offers us the hope for many others to show similar magics. However, it needs the focus on the culture of pursuing a relentless journey of perfection.
Apple is now the most expensive company in the world. Pundits are wondering about the secret sauce fueling this gigantic unsinkable ship of treasure. Steve Jobs’ magical innovation power is fuel. But what was the secret of Steve’s magical power of innovation? The technology transfer success of Apple appears to be the fuel of Steve’s magical genie. Why cannot many other firms follow such path to replicate Apple’s success story? Where is the missing element?
However, there have been many technology transfer failure stories in developing sustainable industrial capability, let alone showing innovation magic. In fact, history is riddled with numerous failure stories starting from India’s mega national level protection-based technology transfer to Malaysia’s very early exposure to semiconductor technology through foreign direct investment. Such failure stories have been holding back developing countries to create sustained economic growth paths out of technology innovation.
Technology transfer successes of apple have been fueling the magical innovation genie
From mouse, graphical user interface, to multitouch, more or less all core technologies Apple did not invent. Instead, Apple transferred those technologies from the outside to keep enriching its innovation firepower. However, Apple just did not keep copying and using them. Instead, Steve developed the culture and corporate capacity of keep refining them and improving the implementation capacity. Such technology transfer success of Apple offers us valuable lessons to interpret, and most importantly, replicate Steve’s magical power of innovation. In fact, Apple’s inherited Steve’s strategy of showing magic has been in transferring half-backed component technologies from the outside, fine-tuning them, and fusing them to show system-level high performance.
Mouse and Graphical User Interface of Macintosh—a technology transfer success story of Apple
The magical innovation power of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak emerged, in 1976, into a crappy wooden box—Apple I. It was one of the many kits for computer hobbyists. Subsequently, Apple released II and III. However, the magic appeared in Macintosh, in 1984. The way of interacting with computers using a mouse and graphical user interface, through point and click, created the Aha! Impression. Although the scientists and techies were used to memorizing a long list of commands and using them meticulously to instruct computers, it was too cumbersome for many others. They found this new way of interacting with computers highly fascinating.
Nevertheless, to the expert users of mini or mainframe computers, GUI appeared to be pointless. However, it created a buzz among a new generation of computer users. Students, parents, and individuals, having no background in computers, found it quite intuitive to use a computer.
With the increasing popularity of Macintosh’s GUI, both Steve Jobs and Apple started to surface as innovation magicians. However, neither they invented any of the underlying technologies, nor did they innovate a GUI-based user interface for personal computers.
At the core of GUI is the mouse technology. The predecessor of the mouse is the trackball. In 1946, Ralph Benjamin, as part of a post-World War II-era fire-control radar plotting system, invented this pointing device. Subsequently, by 1963, Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute invented a mouse—an x-y pointing device for the augmented human-computer interface. The use of the mouse in the computer started with the Xerox Alto in 1973.
In showing his magic, Steve Jobs adopted GUI from Xerox
The Xerox Alto had a bitmapped screen and was the first computer to demonstrate the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI). It used windows, icons, and menus (including the first fixed drop-down menu) to support commands such as opening files, deleting files, moving files, etc. In 1975, Xerox engineers demonstrated a Graphical User Interface, “including icons and the first use of pop-up menus”. Even though Xerox did not pursue personal computer’s commercial prospects using GUI, several thousand units were built. They were heavily used at PARC, as well as other XEROX offices, and at several universities for many years. Steve Jobs copied all of these for showing his magic. However, Steve also directed his team to refine them to create the Macintosh success story.
iTunes and iPod—the 2nd round of magic also came from the outside
Due to a lack of commercial interest, Xerox made GUI technology free for anybody to copy. As Apple did neither invent GUI nor did it acquire patents from Xerox, Microsoft copied and adapted GUI-based user interface for the PC. Subsequently, it upgraded command-based DOS to Windows. Due to the increasing popularity of IBM PC and its clones running Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Macintosh started losing its luster. Apple’s additional ventures, like PDA, Newton, did not click either. On the other hand, Steve Jobs left Apple. Subsequently, Apple was drifting towards bankruptcy.
In his mission of rescuing Apple, Steve Jobs spotted on iTunes. It is a music distribution software application. However, neither Apple invented the idea, nor did it develop the initial version of the software. It has based on SoundJam MP. Bill Kincaid developed the application, and Casady & Greene released it in 1999. Apple purchased the program from Casady & Greene in 2000. However, Steve figured out that existing music players were limiting the revenue from music distribution through iTunes. Hence, he embarked on the journey of innovating the iPod—an aesthetically pleasant music player, which could hold a far larger number of songs.
Two of the dominant features that made the iPod a success are a small disk drive for holding many songs and an easy means of finding the desired songs from that large collection. The dime-sized hard disk came from Toshiba. And the scroll wheel idea Apple adapted from pocket radio design. Many believe that aesthetically pleasant design and easy-to-use iPod features came from Braun’s T3 pocket radio. The first white iPod looks similar to the pocket radio, especially with its scrolling wheel and cigarette-pack-size form factor. Nevertheless, this mighty iPod saves Apple from filing bankruptcy.
FingerWorks’s Multitouch—ultimate magic is the technology transfer success of Apple
iPhone emerged with its signature feature. The multi-touch-based user interface sets iPhone apparat from the crowd. However, like in the past, Apple did not invent multitouch technology. In the 1970s, multitouch genesis began at CERN, MIT, University of Toronto, Carnegie Mellon University, and Bell Labs. For finding practical applications, between 1999 and 2005, the company Fingerworks developed various multitouch technologies. Notable ones were touchscreen keyboards and the iGesture Pad. Prof. Alan Hedge of Cornell University also published several studies about this technology within the context of human factors and ergonomics. For iPhone, Steve Jobs spotted this technology and acquired FingerWorks and multitouch in 2005. Apple refined this technology further and incorporated it into iPhone.
In addition to major technologies covered here, Apple transferred many other technologies from the outside. The examples include P.A Semi’s System-on-a-chip for giving birth to A series core chip, SIRI, and many more. Hence, it’s not unfair to reason that Apple has reached the pinnacle of success by adapting, fine-tuning, and fusing diverse technologies, transferred from the outside. In fact, there has been no hidden magical power. Steve Jobs’ strength has been to locate the suitable technologies, acquire them, fine-tune them, and fuse them as a system solution.
It seems that Steve’s Passion for Perfection also played a vital role in reaching the stage of fine-tuning, creating the aha moment. In many technology transfer examples, such an aspect is missing. Subsequently, they fail to innovate out of technologies acquired from the outside, let alone creating magical outcomes similar to Steve Jobs led to producing at Apple. Once we succeed in integrating the latter aspect and overcoming legal and financial barriers of technology transfer, many firms and developing countries can succeed in creating Innovation Economy by sourcing technologies from the outside.
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