Since its introduction in 2007, the iPhone has already gone through 10 generations. That’s a new generation every year for a product that sets you back hundreds of dollars or long-term carrier contracts each time. So how is Apple able to convince us to upgrade so willingly and frequently?
The answer lies in understanding the dynamics of customer experience. Each well-received offering meets with a rush of positive emotion on the part of customers, who are temporarily blinded by its shortcomings. This is the ‘Infatuation Interval’. After a while, the infatuation begins to wear off, and customers start to identify the offering’s deficiencies. What Apple has been doing extremely well is to anticipate and even create such intervals by introducing new generations that solve both expressed and latent customer wishes. The resulting short cycles enable Apple to keep customers infatuated, and to sell new devices with high frequency.
