The Power of iPhone
Though Apple released data last week indicating iPhone sales may, at last, be slowing, one CEO recently explained why he thinks the smartphone has overturned our expectations of basically everything.
Harry West is the CEO of the global design and strategy firm Frog, which works with its clients “to anticipate （预料） the future”. In a conversation with The Huffington Post at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, West credited Apple with transforming the way companies approach consumers and their own employees.
“Way back in the day,” West said, companies marketed their products as “military spec” and “industrial” to take advantage of the impression that these seemingly specialized products were of higher quality than consumer versions. In the 70s, 80s and 90s, this slowly gave way to the rise of “professional” products adapted to business and business people.
“That all changed after the coming of the iPhone in 2007,” he said. “Consumers began to use this amazing digital interface （界面）, and they liked it. They used it in their personal life and at home, and when they went back to work, they encountered this terrible “professional” or “industrial”, or “enterprise” product, and they realized how old-fashioned and inconvenient it was. They demanded change.”
That massive shift foreshadowed the downfall of BlackBerry and the weakening of the power of IT departments-and it also forced companies to update the work experience of their employees, according to West.
“Companies need to hire millennials （千禧世代，一般指在1980年至2000年之间出生的人）, and millennials refuse to work in these outdated, backward systems,” he said. “Not only is it uncomfortable, but it also indicates something wrong about the company. If your work experience is that old-fashioned, then what else is wrong in the company?”