I came across this article on thehttp://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ site recently: The Upgraded Digital Divide: Are We Developing New Technologies Faster than Consumers Can Use Them? I thought the article made some very good points. It made me think about the newest technological product to make its way into my life. My brother gave me a cute little magenta iPod Shuffle for my birthday. I waited a few weeks to even open the package, not because I didn’t want to test it out, but because I was delaying the learning I would need to do to make it function. I’m not even new to MP3 players, but this is my first iPod and I wasn’t sure what to expect. My old MP3 player has had the same mix of music on it since I trained for my first marathon in 2001. For a variety of reasons it was difficult to use, so I just kept the same music on it. Yes, I realize that defeats a main purpose of an MP3 player. In contrast, the iPod shuffle is incredibly easy to use. I’d been somewhat reluctant to download iTunes, but after I did I quickly became a convert. Going back to that old MP3 player seems impossible to me now.
The Shuffle is very easy to use both in adding music and in operation. There are few choices necessary while operating it. I find that to be refreshing. I might have an engineering degree but that doesn’t mean I like flipping through a host of menus just so I can listen to music while I run. Of course the Shuffle is a “low-cost” iPod, but honestly I don’t need the extra features of any of the other models. I am content with the “low end” product, because for me it is anything but “low end.” I value the simplicity, and the teeny tiny size.
I am by no means saying that my love for the Shuffle means that the other iPods don’t have their own market niches. Obviously Apple has done a good job of developing different product variants to meet the needs of a variety of market segments. My brother, who gave me the Shuffle, is a video iPod guy. My husband keeps looking at my iPod and telling me that his Rio MP3 player with the added functionality of a radio and the ease of upgrading memory of simply buying a new SD card is still superior. We are all in different customer segments. This fact is not lost on Apple. I have not worked with Apple, but a quick scan of the available iPods tells me that each iPod has a different target audience.
It is easy to say that customers value simplicity, as the article suggests, but the truth is that not all customers value simplicity over technological features. There will always be a segment of early adopters that strive to have the latest and greatest, and want to be the envy of all of their techie friends. There will always be people in the middle who value features, but don’t want anything overly complicated. Of course there will also be the simpletons, like myself. Suddenly providing simplicity to your customers seems very complicated doesn’t it? Not only do you need to provide a product version that has the latest and greatest gadgets, but you need to provide a model that is easy to use as well. It doesn’t have to be complicated though. If you have a good handle on your target customer segments, you can develop a comprehensive product architecture that is able to manage and deliver the most technologically advanced product variant as well as the simplest one. There are certainly many tools available to help you accomplish this goal; you just need to keep in mind that it all starts with your customers. It is not simply a case of: If you build it they will come, successful companies dig much deeper than that.
