New phone.

The release of the new iPhone this week will see a global media frenzy targeting the Apple zealots lining up to be first, the Apple disbelievers who will pull apart the phone to show there is no magic inside and business analysts citing the aberration between Apple's low 13% marketshare and high 60% profit of the entire smart phone sector. There will be debates over usability, the latest operating system and how well the phone fits into a handbag. For me the most interesting numbers centre on the small marketshare of the iPhone and the large influence it has globally. Most companies that have such a small marketshare in their sector are generally relegated to third or fourth place in the pecking order, with no voice and certainly no influence, especially when it comes to innovation and design.

So why will every media channel carry the launch? Why will every analyst and pundit put forward their opinions? Why will your neighbour want to beat you to the post, showing off his latest acquisition, the iPhone 6? Some tribes become powerful because there a lot of them, some because they are the smartest and some because they are led by the smartest and most powerful. Such is the Apple tribe and they don't care what anyone says about them, they don't care the majority of the world carries Samsung, they don't care there could be alternatives that match or better their product, for they are safe within their tribal zones with a chief constantly validating their choice of technology.

The closed ecosystem that Apple has created is the most powerful of business relationships because everyone believes and works towards the same determination within a support system geared towards the end user. Apple worked out early, if they made it about you, there was less opportunity to point the finger back upstairs amid accusations of profiteering and mismanagement. Apple worked out early that brand allegiance was the most powerful mindset for profit and longevity, allowing the company flexibility to innovate and fail, innovate and fail, innovate and launch, products designed purely for the Apple tribe user and not to pander to marketplace trends.

With over 5 billion mobile phones on the planet, over 1 billion being smart phones, Apple figured out early, mass domination was a futile pursuit, think Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola. What they concentrated on doing well, was designing a phone that appealed to a small but influential tribe, happy to pay a premium for a product that exceeded their expectations, gave them a sense of exclusivity via a small tribe and gave them something to look forward to every time there was a launch of a new iPhone.

From a personal and business viewpoint, the Apple model works if you know it's about them and not about you, know it's about delivering on what you say you are going to do, know it's about having the authenticity to be able to fail and still hold true to your beliefs. Go on, start your tribe.