Is trust a product for Apple?

It can certainly be proven that the iPhone is the product that made Apple a $2 trillion company, and this is a reality because Apple already sells a lot of iPhones (more than $65 billion as mentioned in the fourth quarter of the financial report, and these are sales only a quarter of a year). But the moment iPhones are not the best smartphones, they don’t have the best cameras, screens or batteries, and there are devices that may be better than the iPhone, but people love iPhones, why?
People also love iPads, Macs, and everything Apple produces, yet none of these products are considered Apple’s most valuable. For this issue it’s not the most important thing Apple sells. The most precious thing Apple sells is trust.

Before we explain why it is worth asking the question: Is trust really a product?

To answer this it’s important to understand what people actually buy when they buy a product from Apple. Take the iPhone for example, sure they buy a device with glass, aluminum, an A14 processor and cameras, when people buy something from Apple they buy an experience, they expect the company to offer something that can

They expect when Apple says that the experience of this device is great, that its performance is special, and that these features work efficiently, Apple will be honest and give a user experience that exceeds even expectations. They trust Apple will deliver real promise and real features, and don’t have to understand things like Universal Binaries and Rosetta 2 to see if their apps run efficiently.

They expect it’s “just going to work,” that’s why when nothing works as expected it’s so disappointing, that’s why a lot of people talk about the way the company runs the App Store, and the many limitations Apple places around its devices

They expect that what they buy will respect their privacy and will not attempt to monetize their personal information. Some might argue that the thing that separates Apple from its competitors — its core brand value — is actually privacy, but we don’t think that’s necessarily true. We believe Apple’s push to make apps respect your privacy is another aspect of how they continue to build a tremendous amount of trust with their users.

If a product is something the company sells, the thing Apple sells — and the experience its customers buy — depends entirely on trust. This turned out to be more valuable than any product the company might sell.

Trust is always your most precious asset. It’s the only reason anyone freely gives you money for the thing you make – because they trust they’ll do what you say. They trust that you will keep your promise.

If you don’t, or if you keep your promise, you lose confidence – and it’s very hard to win again. That’s why people don’t like Facebook. That doesn’t mean the app is particularly bad, it doesn’t mean people don’t like to connect with their friends and see photos of their families, they don’t trust the people who make Facebook and have their interests most important in mind.

Apple is not perfect. There are a lot of things we hope Apple will do differently. However, the best thing in the end Apple always does is build trust with the user