On my last trip to San Francisco, I had the chance to visit an Apple store. Down the hill I could already see the metallic-colored building with a huge apple. Inside, hundreds of people experiencing tens of products on display. I notice the huge line for to the cashier. At that time, the first iPhone was not yet on sale but Apple was still selling like crazy.
In a meeting last week in Madrid, I noticed that 4 of my 10 colleagues had the new iPhone. What explains this phenomenon? I call it the "Wow" effect. My Nokia phone supports 3G, Wi-Fi, email, etc. It's perfect! It is my mobile office and I cannot live without it. But it's not an iPhone. It lacks the "Wow" effect. The "Wow" effect happens, for example, when we see this demo video of the iPhone. Just compare this video to the one of the closest competitor on the Nokia website, which is only the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. Another example is what tells us John Dodds, in his excellent blog Make Marketing History. Two photos of the main entrance of the Apple and Nokia stores in London. Can you find out what is the photo of the Nokia store and which one is Apple? If you do, say Wooow!
