The Art of the App Store: The Business of Apple Development

9

Adopting Apple's Approach

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Learning what makes Apple's apps different
• Thinking about user experience as Apple does
• Discovering how Apple adapts its apps to the iPad
• Recognizing Apple's influence in top apps, and utilizing these techniques to improve your own

On May 9, 2011, according to Millward Brown, Apple passed Google to become the “world's most valuable brand,” increasing its brand value by 859 percent from 2006 to an estimated $153 billion. Google, according to the report, was a distant second at only $111 billion.

And, at the close of market trading on August 10, 2011, Apple passed Exxon Mobile as the world's most valuable company in terms of market capitalization, at roughly $337 billion. Later that month, Steve Jobs retired as CEO, with no business dragons left to slay.

To design something really well you have to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes a passionate commitment to thoroughly understand something — chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the time to do that… The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.

— STEVE JOBS

Apple's resurgence into the mainstream began in the late 1990s with the buzz-worthy iMac, available in several trendy colors as an all-in-one media system for the masses. Though it didn't catch on as much as Apple had hoped, it was profitable enough to keep it around in its many iterations. Even back then, Apple's approach to ...