Skip to main content

The Digital Platform - resurrection of the Hub Strategy

There's a lot of talk these days in the tech sector about "digital _________" or a "______ Platform" - have you noticed it also?  I find this astonishing, as the world turned digital back in the 1980s along with disco.  And as for platform - well adding the word to shoes was a bad idea back then also.

So what causes this echo from the past?

I don't know - shall we investigate this over the next few months - the dog days of summer 2017?

Summer is a season.  Season are cyclical - they come around again and again.  So this brings us to ponder... When do the days get longer and why?  Most people answer Summer.  And what's the longest day of the year (Northern Hemisphere)?  Right June 20th, the summer solstice.  And so the next few days the daylight is getting less and less - all summer long the days get shorter and shorter.  Almost completely backwards from what we thought we knew.


Do you remember way back in 2001... when Steve Jobs laid out Apples Digital Platform - called the Hub Strategy?
"The Mac," Jobs said, "can become the 'digital hub' of our emerging digital lifestyle, adding tremendous value to our other digital devices."
"Jobs laid out a path of PC evolution that defined the early 80s as an initial 'golden age' of computing based on productivity software, which began to wane in the early 90s. A 'second golden age' began in the mid-1990s with the rise of Internet; but it too began to lose its momentum by 2000. Jobs said he believed a third age would focus on a digital lifestyle, driven by an 'explosion of digital devices.'"

-- by Phil Simon The Age of the Platform


Steve Jobs introduces the "Digital Hub... by HiltonRobb


Simon writes "Apple forced this third golden age by developing its platform -- and making it so compelling to use." To see the ecosystem of the computer as a hub of your digital life. They have executed on that vision with the iPod, then the iTunes store, the iPhone and the App store, now the iPad and the iBookStore. Are we following a pattern, is there a cookbook? The leader has a vision, shares the vision with the followers, the followers buy into the vision and together make it a reality. 

The new product adoptions phases are progressing quite nicely. Apple is a master at this process, described by David Pogue in: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/the-apple-ipad-first-impressions/.


Wildly Successful New Product Launch Phases:
  • Phase 1 feverish speculation and hype (preannouncment)
  • Phase 2 disappointment and bashing (prerelease)
  • Phase 3 attainment anticipation and adoration (post release)


How the iPhone was Born:  Inside Stories of Missteps and Triumphs

At the end of summer is the much anticipated Apple Announcement Event.  This year, 2017, was special.  Ten years of iPhone and the new Apple Campus is opening - the first event in the new Steve Jobs Theater.

iPhone X announcement - how does it do on the Wildly Successful New Product Launch Phases?
"Our vision has always been to create an iPhone that is entirely screen. One so immersive the device itself disappears into the experience. And so intelligent it can respond to a tap, your voice, and even a glance. With iPhone X, that vision is now a reality. Say hello to the future."
Has the iPhone replaced the Mac as the Hub in the Apple Digital Platform ecosystem?
AirPower - Qi charging 2018

See Also:

Demystifying the Steve Jobs Magic by Olivia Fox a look at the stage presence that Steve learned over the years (1984 - 2011) - he grows his Charisma and Olivia can teach you how.

The 25 Smartest Things Steve Jobs Ever Said

Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple by Steve Blank
"What happens to a company when a visionary CEO is gone? Most often innovation dies and the company coasts for years on momentum and its brand. Rarely does it regain its former glory."

The constantly changing landscape of microcomputers over the decades.


Comments