Strategic Innovation Analysis: Apple Watch Technological Advancement

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Apple Watch as a significant technological innovation. It begins with an introduction to the device, tracing its evolution from the initial release to the latest series, detailing its technical background, including key features like the cellular connectivity, health tracking capabilities, and the always-on display of the latest models. The report then delves into the commercialization strategies employed by Apple, emphasizing the importance of early market entry and brand loyalty. It identifies the early adopters of the Apple Watch, mainly young adults and corporate professionals, and their motivations for adopting the technology. Furthermore, the report applies the S-curve model to illustrate the Apple Watch's growth trajectory, describing its initial slow acceptance, subsequent explosive growth, and eventual plateau, highlighting the strategic importance of managing technological innovation. The report utilizes the provided materials to support its findings, offering a detailed examination of the Apple Watch's impact on the market and its strategic implications.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION
MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The main purpose of this paper will be to discuss about a technological innovation
that came out within five years from today. The selected product is the Apple smart watch,
which was first introduced Tim Cook in the year of 2014. Thorough details will be laid about
the product, along with the technical background of the product. The commercialization
details of the Apple smart watch will also be analyzed in this paper, along with the
identification of the early adopters of the product. The S-Curve of the chosen product will
also be evaluated in this essay.
About the Technological Innovation
Technological innovation provides competitive success, globalization of markets and
advances in information technology. In this context, the discussion will be on smartwatch is a
new generation electronic device (Chapter 1, Page 18). It comes in the form of any other
wristwatches but is a kind of wearable computer. The earlier models were capable of
performing primary tasks such as playing games, calculations, translations etc. In the latest
models, the smartwatch comes in a touch-screen technology and can be connected to a
smartphone application for a desired purpose. Smartwatches are just like a smartphone that
can offer apps, have Wi-Fi connectivity, can calculate heart beat rate and more things. For
decades, the digital watches were used by people with some basic functions like calculations
and converters (Carpenter & Frontera, 2016). Only a few years back the major technological
companies started the production of smartwatches, and possess a huge impact on society.
Nowadays, the smartwatches are also designed to perform functions of a media player, digital
cameras, GPS devices, thermometers, digital maps, personalized organizers, sensors, etc.
Advancement is being done with these devices day by day to enhance their battery capacity,

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features, designs and wireless technologies. The modern smartwatch has been popularized by
various top-rated brands among which the Apple watch holds the highest ranking in the
market. Most of the smartwatches are designed for daily purpose such as the Apple Watch
(Chuah et al., 2016).
Technical Background
The Apple Watch Series 3
These smartwatches come with an innovative feature of three-rings that has one goal.
Each of the rings stands for Stand, Move and Exercise and they are visualized in the way a
person moves. It helps an individual to count the number of calories that have been burnt or
the duration of exercise he has done. It has a special tracking feature that monitors the heart
beat rate and also sends signals when any unusual rate is diagonized. In case of emergency
purposes, SOS can be initiated to ask for an urgent help. Regular stress management can be
done with the special Breathe App. For setting particular goals or routines, an individual can
choose from several other apps related to health. There is no need of always carrying the
smartphone anymore. This smartwatch has an innovative technique called Built-in-cellular
that gives an individual the freedom of moving around without a phone. This feature allows
the owner to take calls, send messages, play different songs, and also send emergency SOS
for summoning help. The third generation of Apple Watch or the Series 3 possesses a rapid
processor, advanced Bluetooth connection, an in-built altimeter that counts the number of
stairs climbed by the user, enhanced RAM size and also has a variety of cellular connection
devices. Due to an increase in the processing speed in this smartwatch, Siri has the ability to
speak and follow instructions (Choi & Kim, 2016).

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Apple Watch Series 5
This smartwatch is the latest and perhaps the best devices innovated by Apple. Firstly,
the watch can be customized according to the choice of the customer. The straps of the watch
can be changed and the total look changes. The display of this watch never sleeps as it has the
special Always-On Retina Display feature. The time and other screen features can be seen all
the time. Similar to the previous Series 3, this one also is developed with brilliant health-
based applications among which the ECG app is very useful for getting a quick reading of the
heart beat rate. Next there is the latest Noise app which gives an alert whenever the sound
decibels cross the bearable limit. It sends messages so that hearing does not get affected. The
watch comes with a Cycle Tracking app that helps women to keep a track of their
menstruation cycle and provide necessary information. The watch also comes with an
advanced specialized workout metrics, water resistance ability and GPS so that the user can
keep a track of all types of exercises. The activity rings too track the progress of the user and
provide inspirations for sitting for less time, moving more and perform exercises on a daily
basis. There is a scope of competing with the friends too by using this app. This watch also
has a huge collection of songs stored in the Apple Music Library including the audio books
and podcasts. The watch is made for the ups and downs of the user’s life with its built-in
facility of a great ground elevation system and compass. All the latest applications can be
downloaded easily and without any hassle in very less time with the help of Apple watches.
Just like the series 3, this watch also gives the user the freedom to perform all basic activities
like receiving a call, sending texts or even streaming music from the watch itself and there is
no need of carrying the cell phone everywhere. Another unique feature of this smartwatch is
that the user is able to look for any topic online, begin a workout process, lower the shades or
even identify a song. Last but not the least, this watch can be personalized in multiple ways
having more than a hundred watch faces. The fifth generation of Apple smartwatches or

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Series 5 possesses a touch-screen with an all time-on display and also has a LED screen with
an energy saving mode. In addition to this, there are features which are used to make
emergency calls throughout the globe. The watch comes with an upgraded S5 processor and a
huge storage device of 32 GB. A magnetometer is also present that enables the functioning of
a compass. The material used is titanium which is available in two colors- white and black.
The software which is used for running the Apple Watch is called watchOS. It has
rounded app icons based on the home screen. The operating system can be navigated with the
help of the crown at the side of the device or even on the touch screen. The Apple Watch app
can be linked with an iPhone and thus necessary apps can be highlighted from the app store.
These smartwatches are capable enough of multi-tasking. Some default apps present in the
watch are meant for interaction with their iOS complements for instance phone, messages,
music, maps, reminders, wallet, remote for controlling Apple TV and iTunes, calendar and
many more (Hsiao & Chen, 2018).
Commercialization of the Product
Early entry plays an integral part for technological companies like Apple. In this
context, it can be stated that commercialization means to market a particular product or a
service in order to gain in terms of finance.It helps to build brand identity as well as brand
loyalty along with technological leadership. The capability to access resources also becomes
easy (Chapter 11, Page 249). It can be stated in this context that advancement in the form of
technology has also made the overall process of commercialization more attractive as well as
competitive. It has been globally known by all the market places that Apple is an organization
which always takes the technology into a new level, and the same thing has been done by the
management of the organization in selling of their smart watches as well. They launched the
product in different market places, one at a time, so that they could assess the pulse or the

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review of the smart watches in those market places from the customers after purchasing of
the product. After the launch of the smart watches in all the market places, the management
of Apple started to measure the growth rate of the newly launched product in all the market
places. Commercialization in the form of selling the Apple smart watch is one of the main
motives of the organization of Apple in order to maintain their leading position in the global
technological market (Reeder & David, 2016).
Early Adopters
Creativity is the thing for which the organization of Apple is globally known for.They
have successfully translated the creativity inti innovation, and as a result, they have invented
smartwatch.Collaborative networks are introduced by the organization with its early
customers. In this context, it can be said that the early adopters of the Apple smart watch are
manly the young adults, who opted for this watch mainly for fashion purposes along with
enjoying the modern form of innovation in the form of technology. Early adopters are one of
the categories of people, and are well integrated and respected members of the society
(Chapter 13, Page 303). The early adopters are mainly those people who are the loyal
customers of the Apple brand, and have already a single product of the organization at a
particular time of their life, whether it is a Smartphone, a laptop, an iPod, an iPad or any other
product that represents the brand of Apple. Middle-aged people are also a good segment of
customers who represented as early adopters. Another most important segment of early
adopters are the office goers, or the people from the corporate world, who want to look trendy
in their busy schedule of daily work done by them. But one thing was very clear from the
launch of the smart watch into the global market place, which stated that whoever might be
the early adopter, the person had to pay a high premium price in order to purchase and
possess that Apple smart watch.

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Application of S-Curve
Strategic management of technological innovation is very important in the global
context. This will be described through S-Curve, which can be termed as a mathematical
graph which helps to mapthe performance of a technology along with its diffusion rate, for
example, the man-hours of a project or the overall cost of a project that is plotted against
time, and is used as a prescriptive tool (Chapter 3, Page 51).The name is derived from the S-
shape of the graph. Whenever a new product is launched into the market place, the
management of that organization needs to pass through the S-Curve, which includes the
stages of slow acceptance, explosive growth and a plateau. In other words, it can be said that
it is that type of curve that helps to show the rise or growth in terms of another variable,
which is generally expressed as units of time. An S-Curve for an organization who is passing
the growth stage or phase will show a rapid increase in the sales volume of the products of
that organization. This will be followed by leveling off, which happens when the size of the
fresh or new customers present in the market places diminishes. The growth is very slow or
negligible at this stage, and the organization is sustained by the existing customers of that
business house, who still continues to buy that particular product of that company. Multiple
dimensions of value are generated through this curve (Chapter 3, Page 56).

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Fig. 1: S-Curve Graph
Source: Created by the Author
Apple has successfully implemented the concept of S-Curve in their system. In the very
beginning of their launch of this innovative product into the global market place, it was slow.
The growth was very negligible in this early stage, as it took time for the people to
understand the features and effectiveness of the fresh and innovative product into the market
place. Research was still on for the organization of Apple, as it took time to understand the
pulse of the people towards the freshly launched innovative smart watch. Later, the sales of
the product gradually increased, and reached the maximum point, which is known as the
point of inflexion. The employees of the organization of Apple worked heavily in order to
accomplish their targets of achieving the business objectives of the organization. After the

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point of inflexion, the sales growth began to reach to plateau, which is known as the mature
phase of the curve. Here, the sales growth started to fall down and the management of Apple
needs to think something different to maintain the sustainability in the market place of this
global competitive world, where most of the technological organizations are trying to gain the
competitive edge over others and to earn more profit for the betterment of the organization.

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Appendix
Fig. 1: S-Curve Graph