Highlights. Hulu is introducing many Oscarwinning movies this month, including As Good as It Gets, Arthur, Ghost, High Noon, Reds, and Saving Private Ryan. Ever wish there were a Netflixstyle subscription service for brand new movies that just released in theaters Well, there is. Its called MoviePass, and now for. Apples segmentation strategy, and the folly of conventional wisdom. There is a myth, more of a meme actually, about the inevitability of commoditization. It is a view of the world that sees things linearly, in terms of singularities, and the so called one right path. In this realm, where commoditization is God, horizontal orientation versus vertical integration rules the roost. How else to define consumers, not in flesh and blood terms, not as spirits that aspire to specific outcomes, but rather, as a composite set of loosely coupled attributes. This mindset is compelling because it is simple and familiar, but it also leads to blind obsequiousness. Historical edifices are held as indelible fact. Its Microsoft v. Apple all over again. There has to be one absolute, dominant leader. Open will always prevail and should prevail over proprietary systems. Market share matters above all else. Even profits. There is one small fly in the ointment to this ethos, however, and its name is Apple. For a historical perspective on tech industry architectural orientation, check out Waves of Power by David Moschella. Apples gaudy performance relative to its industry peers. The following inconvenient facts must be an affront to the horizontal, commoditized, open, market share zealots. Apple has launched three major new product lines since 2. Pod October, 2. 00. Phone July, 2. 00. Pad April, 2. 01. Hi-Def Quality The Happy Elf there. Apples segmentation strategy, and the folly of conventional wisdom Ten years after an iPod powered rebirth, Apples run continues unabated. The companys stock is up 3,0. Pod, 1. 25 percent since the launch of i. Phone, and 2. 0 percent since the launch of i. Pad. In that same time period, the major devotees of the loosely coupled model Microsoft, Google, Intel and Dell have been, at best, outpaced by Apple 6. X in the case of Google dating back to the launch of i. Pod and at worst, either been wiped out in the case of Dell or treaded water in the cases of Microsoft and Intel in every comparison period. If you are a teacher searching for educational material, please visit PBS LearningMedia for a wide range of free digital resources spanning preschool through 12th grade. Let me go a step further and make the forceful assertion that in the red hot mobile computing segment inclusive of smart phones, media players and tablet devices, anything that Nokia, RIMBlackberry and even Google Android are doing is simply orthogonal to Apples i. OS based device play i. Phone, i. Pod touch, i. Pad. Checkers to chess. That is why its laughable that the latest meme du jour, The Apps Lifestyle and believe me, it is a lifestyle is ridiculously framed as a trend of the multi vendor cell phones segment. Why The clear cut truth is that Apples i. OS device platform is the staging ground of the Apps Lifestyle, something that 9. OS device owners get to the point of it being intrinsic, assumed and embedded. By contrast, maybe 1. OS device owners embrace The Apps Lifestyle, or even know what it means, and thats probably being generous. Yet, this composite translates to 2. Pew Research Center. How can you not confuse the tail with the dog, with that kind of framing The folly of conventional wisdom. Therein, lies the problem with conventional wisdom. Namely, that its conventional. It doesnt think outside the box in terms of strategic imperatives, like building differentiation, growing margins or defensibility. That explains why the top three mobile handset unit sales leaders Nokia, Samsung, LG are outselling Apple in raw units an astounding 2. Apples profit level. Is it surprising, then, that the reward for achieving such distinguished leadership was for the CEOs at two of those companies i. Nokia and LG to get fired Let me net it out for you Customers buy outcomes, they dont buy attributes, and they certainly dont pay a premium for it. Whether you love or hate Apple, recognize that they are an exemplar of this truth. Analyzing Apple market segmentation strategy. Movies For Apple Ipod Consuming Spirits ' title='Movies For Apple Ipod Consuming Spirits ' />In the real world of building products and attacking market opportunities, market segmentation is the process of defining and sub dividing the aggregate, homogeneous market into addressable, targeted needs and aspirations buckets. Buckets that are in turn, thresholded by demographic, psychographic andor budgetary constraints. Market segmentation strategy enables a company to drive complete, unified product solutions that are harmonious with messaging, customer outreach, and channel strategies for selling and supporting customers. In this regard, Apples product strategy is a study in market segmentation. Versus merely trying to stuff a product, burrito style, with as many different features as possible, they target specific user experiences, and build the product around that accordingly. Consider the recent i. Pod event in September, where Apple completely rebooted the i. Pod nano, rolled back the i. Pod shuffle to an earlier interaction model, and majorly forked the i. Pod Touch in a way that also speaks to i. Phone positioning. Mind you, each of these efforts represent major strategic iterations of successful products, not reboots of failed ones, so it speaks volumes about how the company thinks about its users, their workflows and corresponding segments. Moreover, it underscores the integral ness of continuously re calibrating on the definition of the situation not merely doing more for the sake of an added bullet point or to support a desired price point. Does Apple have a perfect crystal ball on these things The history of the nano and the degree of iteration of this generations shuffle, suggests that no, in fact, they dont always have a perfect read. But make no mistake While they may not always be right, they are never confused or haphazard in their approach, and that is the hallmark of sound market segmentation strategy. Apple segmentation from i. Pod shuffle to Mac. Book. As such, the chart below is an attempt to logically organize Apples product line so as to better understand the companys approach to market segmentation So what does it all mean If in football terms we are now entering the second quarter of the age of mobile computing, it helps to see the continuum of connected devices from the perspective of their means of mobility namely, whether they are wear able, pocket able, bag able or portable. Similarly, the diverse set of device input methods that Apple embraces from physical buttons, keyboards and mice to multi touch and tilt provides a window into the types of use cases and workflows that they are optimizing around. Further, when you see how Apple has used its vertical integration of the i. Pod media player and the i. Tunes marketplace across all of its devices to create a billing relationship with 1. In the harmonious bucket is the way that i. OS based Apps and their corresponding ecosystem surround directly overlay on top of i. Tunes and the i. Pod media player. This approach is no doubt a business school study of how companies can marry strategy and tactics across product lines and product lifecycles. Ironically, it is the holistic approach that has given Apple the ability to be judicious in its implementation of differentiating hardware components at the display, phone, camera and video capture level. Want the best build quality device that Apple makes Get the i. Phone 4. How do we know this While the i. Pod Touch has recently received i. Phone 4 pixie dust, in the form of a camera, HD video recording and a retina screen, the build quality is a step below the i. Phone 4, which feels like a jewel box forged by a craftsman. To be sure, the i. Pod Touch is beautiful and solid, but its screen is slightly diminished in effect, and the camera is intentionally hobbled. In other words, while Steve Jobs himself may refer to the i. Pod Touch as the i. Phone without the phone, in truth, the functional segmentation keeps it a step below the i. Phone. Now, this is completely logical when you consider how much more expensive the i. Phone is. Pricing and margins that are hidden from the customer via carrier subsidies. That is also why recent analyst data that suggests that the i. Pad is cannibalizing low end Mac.