As you may have heard, Apple’s new iPhone 4 went on sale last Thursday (6/24/10) all over the world. And, as usual whenever Jobs & Company introduces a new product, their manic fans went nuts. According to CNNMoney, more than 600 people lined up outside the flagship Apple store in New York City to buy what many were calling the “Jesus Phone.” It was chaos inside our Orlando, Florida malls. The story made headline news on all the major networks. Apple reported selling 1.7 million of the new phones in the first three days.

Priscilla Lee and her brother, Alex, flew all the way from Dubai to London in order to be first in line to buy this latest gadget. Priscilla told a CNN reporter they simply had to have the new phone the instant it was available. They couldn’t wait a week until it was on shelves everywhere. “I’ve got an iPhone and then my iPod Touch. And then iPod Nanno. iPod Classic … the list goes on,” she said. “Apple. What else to say?”

What else to say, indeed. Don’t you wish all your students would rave about your institution like that?

So what is it that makes companies like Apple unique? They make cool stuff. They know their niche market. And they would like you to believe that they are about more than just making money. They would like you to think that they are all about innovation.

iPods aren’t for everybody. I don’t own any Apple products except for my little iPod Shuffle. But they know their market, and its growing. It is estimated that someone buys and iPad in this country every three seconds. Three seconds!

I attended a conference for one of my clients recently at which the CEO was questioned by front-line managers about why the company didn’t lower the cost for its services. The leader, in my opinion, gave a forceful argument about why it’s important to stress value and talk about the unique differences between their services and those of their competitors when it comes to quality, expertise, and (my word) innovation.

I think that’s the right answer. There are, in my opinion, two kinds of organizations in the world: those that stress their innovation (minority) and those that talk price (majority). I shop at Sam’s Club to save money; I do not go there for the shopping experience. The same can be said for the gas I put in my car and the airplanes upon which I fly. Once you start haggling over price, there is no going back; you’re on that slippery slope forever. You can only hope to build on your lower profit margins by increasing sales volume.

Most higher education institutions, rightly so, focus on the quality of their institutions. What I find amazing is that they focus on how hard it is to get in to their hallowed halls instead of the value of their degrees once they get out. Community colleges are getting better at addressing this dilemma. And so are the for-profits. How long before the rest of higher education catches on?

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