It's more than KISS

We all know how well Apple applies the KISS principle. What they selectively leave out of interfaces, software and products like the Macbook Air takes up copious amount of blog space worldwide. But the products survive and thrive and in time Steve Jobs is usually proven right.

There’s another principal Apple apply as well and its the one that keeps them ahead of all players. Forget a nice acronym (ITTEB) but “It’s the total experience baby”.

Hardware companies that deliver phones with a better camera and technical specs but unusable software don’t get. I wonder if developers trying to deliver fully functioning word processors on phones, or better Jukeboxes for computers really get.

Having a whole ecosystem is a massive advantage that looks like keeping Apple well ahead of the competition for a number of years. They put it in place for the iPod, improved it with video and Apple TV and adapted and extended it for the iPhone. Because it just works for any consumer in many parts of the world it delivers a total experience that is the key difference.

Its not just the App store for the phone, its the music and the video and being able to add and subtract your own collection and syncing it all together. Its the sum of the experience that is almost impossible for other companies to define and replicate in total.

Cloning the App store without getting the rest of the experience right is not the answer and that is the real issue for everyone who tries to copy what Apple will continue to innovate.

Is there a lesson for App developers? Two lessons in fact! Keep it simple and make it part of the total experience.

Shazam is a perfect example. Tap to turn it on, listen to a piece of music and it tells you what it is - SIMPLE. But it also integrates beautifully into the the whole experience. See the video of the song on YouTube, preview and buy it from the iTunes store, share it with your friends, listen to it again on your iPod, sync it back to your computer, and on a Mac back it up automatically with Time Machine.