Where does the process REALLY start?

I recently saw some stories about how Apple are planning to provide American schools with iPads so that the old, expensive, outdated, dog-eared, back breaking text books could be condenced to iBook format to make learining easier and more interactive and not to mention more cost effective.  

There was a lot of talk about this being a charitable dedication towards a nations education. This may hold some truth, however I disagree that this is the main reason for doing this. I personally think it may be one of the biggest game changing plays of the decade.

In Ouside-In companies, like Apple, we ask ourselves a number of questions to reframe how we think and drive innovative ideas. One of these is: ‘Where does the process REALLY start?’ I think that this is a brilliant stratagy to sell more Apple Macs and MacBooks and well and truly sink Windows.

So lets ask ourselves, when we buy a computer – where does the process REALLY start?

When we walk into the shop? When we browse online for reviews? When we first discover the need for a computer?  Or even further back – When we first start to use computers on a regular basis…in school.

So you may be thinking, ‘WOW, great insight James! How does this help me sell more Macs?’

Lets think this through, most school computers are on Windows so most kids get used to Windows operating systems from an early age and so when buying a computer later in life for themselves (or when their parents do) they will stay with what they know - Windows. So… if Apple can get a whole generation and generations to come hooked on Apple’s operating systems from the start, then when they make the decision to buy for themselves they will go with what they know – Apple!

On top of this there has been talk of giving every kid in America a free iPhone 3, another ploy to get the future generations hooked on Apple (they don’t make their money from phones anyway, they make it from the app store) This proves grim news for Nokia too but ill talk about this another day.

So in summary, on one hand a charitable dedication to the advancement of learning on the other hand possibly one of the biggest game changing business moves we are likley to see this decade.

What do you think?

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