Design Like Apple: Seven Principles For Creating Insanely Great Products, Services, and Experiences

Design Is Systems Thinking

Product and context are one.

In 1969, Sony introduced the Digimatic clock radio, an analog clock in a neat rectangular wooden box with a digital-like display featuring flipping numbers. It looked great on a night table. A decade later, Sony scored again with the Walkman, the portable cassette player that prompted a music revolution, of sorts. It wasn't necessarily a technological leap, because portable tape recorders were already available, and Sony simplified the portable tape recorder by taking out the option to record anything. But Sony smartly marketed the Walkman to ordinary folks as a device that let you take your music anywhere. Sound familiar? It's a concept that Steve Jobs and Apple would later exploit with the iPod.

We know what happened to Apple. But where did Sony's innovative streak take the company? For a number of reasons, Sony gradually lost its way after the Walkman because it lost touch with what customers wanted. Sony made no effort to integrate hardware and software, or move toward convergence of content and services, the defining trend of the Internet era. By early 2012, Sony had become a marginalized player. And after four straight loss-making years and its stock at a two-decades' low, the Wall Street Journal noted that “Sony is struggling to match the speed and production might of Samsung Electronics or deliver the category-defining ...