My birthday is coming up this week, and my loving and caring wife actually decided to purchase me a real want, an Apple Touch! This little device wasn’t cheap in my opinion, and was definitely classified as a want - NOT a need… Now, many of you have been exposed to either the iPhone or Touch (and certainly have your opinions), but it really got me thinking about gauging success in terms of whether you meet the needs requirement document - or whether you step past that and also meet the wants that often get dropped off the list.

 I have loved my various iPods over the years, and credit Apple (much like all pundits) with a truly creative and unique offering to the market - a game changing, paradigm shift in the market. When they released the iPhone, not only did they do a superior marketing job (as Apple almost always does), but launched a truly revolutionary OS platform that finally does bring an intuitive interface with most of the things I want and need in an electronic device.

Many of you probably suffer from the same blurring of home and work life that I do (according to many surveys), and a device that allows me to keep “my life” together (both personal and professional) is truly wonderful. I mean I’ve been using smart devices for years, both Palm and Windows Mobile - and recently RIM BlackBerry. All seem to lack something, but I can now see that the only thing Apple is really lacking for a blockbuster smartdevice is simply more integrations - a trend that has been ramping up for some time with EDI, etc. - but it has really taken off with the advent of what most people commonly refer to as Web 2.0…

 According to a February 2008 article on TechCrunch, the iPhone is second only to RIM in the US smartphone market.

Figures released from research firm Canalys show that Apple’s iPhone in now second only to RIM (Blackberry) in the US smartphone market.

In the 4th quarter of 2007, the iPhone surged to a 28% share of the US converged device market behind RIM’s 41%, but ahead of 3rd third placed Palm on 9%. The iPhone was ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined with a market share of 21%.

Despite its still limited official availability, Apple moved into 3rd place globally, behind Nokia (52.9%) and RIM (11.4%). Apple’s 6.5% global smart phone market share put it 19,000 units ahead of the struggling Motorola.

So, it’s an interesting case study in  the simple fact that when you really meet the needs AND wants of your customers (end-users for all you IT pogues out there), it becomes a game changer… it’s ultimately the greatest metric for true success, as indicated by these staggering numbers. Now, all Apple has to do is stave off the on-slaught of me-to companies that is bound to come (according to their Q1-08 10T). That just goes to show you success won’t allow you to stand still, you always have to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

 Well, I’m off to enjoy my new Touch… It really was the one of the best gifts I have received in a long time…

Tags: adoption, apple, Change, iphone, ipod, metric, touch