Apple does do market research. It always has
The mistaken belief that Apple doesn’t do market research can at last be put to bed, thanks to the Wall Street Journal.
Reporters for the paper have been trawling through the mound of evidence filed as part of Apple’s and Samsung’s continuing patent dispute, and among the pages of documents is one titled “iPhone Owner Study, Apple Market Research & Analysis, May 2011”.
There’s more detail on that here.
The ‘Apple doesn’t do MR’ idea seems to stem from an interview with Steve Jobs in which he was asked what sort of research went in to the development of the iPad.
“None,” he said. “It isn’t the consumer’s job to know what they want.”
Admittedly, the iPad is unlikely to have come out of research. Tablets have been tried before, and have failed, so the success of the iPad is probably a testament to Jobs’ vision for the product rather than it simply ticking all the boxes on a list of features consumers say they need.
But the idea that a company as successful as Apple doesn’t do any research to support its products has always been ridiculous.
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3 Comments
Keri Vermaak
13 years ago
They claim to not 'do it' (and yet have amazing market success)... glad you pulled out the title of one consumer study done in May 2011. It figures that all the work done to support the Samsung case would yield some thing like this. Read my reaction to hearing that Apple didn't do MR: http://web.infotools.com/blog/bid/216008/No-customer-surveys-for-Apple-Really
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Anon
10 years ago
Funny how anxious this topic makes a certain type of person. All this show is that Apple did some research after its products were on the market long enough to be knocked off, not that it used it to develop its initial product. It's really amazing what lengths people will go to bash the idea that some people actually care about something enough to do it right themselves, without all the marketing B.S. that makes most products clones of their competitors, rather than innovative.
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Mayra Mejia
10 years ago
Considering that "Eight out of ten new consumer products fail, even when they are test marketed” prove that Steve Jobs was right!
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