"Dad, all the other kids have iPods. They'll make fun of me if I show this in class!". Those were all the thanks Rick got from his 13-year old son for whom he had just purchased an MP3 Player as a birthday gift. It was 2003, and his son had wanted an iPod. Not knowing what an iPod meant, Rick had asked the guys at his local electronics store and had been told it was a portable music player. He had therefore bought the best MP3 player they had. Now he just couldn't understand what his son was talking about. Both devices play music and can fit into your pocket. What was so special about the iPod?

Two years earlier, the first iPods had hit the stores and Apple, a company which had recorded crippling financial losses and record-low stock prices for three years straight, had suddenly marked a turning point in its fortunes. The Washington Post reported, "Apple Gets It Right With Sleek, Smart iPod Music Player". Since then, the company is yet to get it wrong, and every time they got it right, they changed the market for those who hadn't got it right. In 2007, they did this again with the release of the iPhone, which together with the iPod touch has sold over 78 Million units as at Jan 2010. Today, barely a month after the company has released the iPad, they've sold more 500000 units. Not as impressive as the iPhone, but impressive enough.

So how does Apple manage to keep selling so many units? Consumer reviews reveal that not everything is perfect with their devices. Nobody likes the non-replaceable battery option which somehow shows up in all their devices. Also, there are smartphones out there which do a better job than the iPhone and recently, the iPad was revealed to be a giant iPod touch with basically the same hardware except a larger screen. Yet people still turn up in droves to buy their products. What exactly is going on here?

I did some qualitative analysis, and came up with the following four reasons in an attempt to answer this question.

1. The cool factor: Over the years, Apple has become synonymous with the cool factor. Slap the white-on-grey logo over any product, and people equate it with "awesome". This is what makes you see an apple product and want to get it at all costs, even though you don't need it. I've seen people who don't even know how to use the iPhone's functions proudly display their iPhones. I regularly hear people say "Oh you use a Mac too?" and "I just got an iPhone". I use an HP laptop and I've never for once heard someone say "Oh, an HP laptop, nice!". Also, very few people have acknowledged my HTC phone.

Note: Microsoft is starting to get into the cool factor business with Windows 7.

2. The first mover effect: I hear you say there were MP3 players before the iPod. True. There were also smartphones before the IPhone, and there was the Kindle and Sony Reader before the Ipad. However, Apple's still manages to release the "first of its kind" type of device. They create their own unique space and monopolize it, then sit back and watch as others try unsuccessfully to copy them.

3. Get everyone talking: Apple does this only too well. They are experts at creating media hype for their products before launching. For the iPad, they had a special news conference and invited the press "to come see what we've invented". The aim is to get people talking about the product before it hits the shelf, and they've succeeded pretty well. Again, Microsoft is using this strategy for the Windows Phone 7 Series. Check the backstage website here.

4. The stores: I call these the cash-cow complements. Observe the following statistics

iTunes music store - 25% of all music sales in the US

iPhone App Store - 1 billion applications sold and counting

iBooks store for iPad - 600,000 books downloaded on day 1

Now you see that even if Apple stops selling devices today, these stores will continue to generate revenue for years. Think of how printer ink and toner continue to be a major source of revenue for printer manufactures.

So why haven't other companies gotten it right? One reason is that very few companies have the brand power to fulfill reason 1. One of this companies is Google, and in all fairness, they had an opportunity with the Nexus One phone. However, due to reasons best known to them, they failed to create the type of hype that Apple creates. They only advertised and sold the NexusOne on the internet, which meant sales were limited only to internet users. Their sales figures were quite disappointing. Read digitaltrends article on Nexus One's sales.

Microsoft is another company with significant brand power. However, the brand has suffered a lot of damage due to earlier Windows versions. Now, they seem to be getting it right with the release of Windows 7 and the anticipated release of Windows 7 Phone series. My fingers are crossed.

Right now, Apple seems to be the only company that easily fulfills all four reasons, and this is why they keep getting it right. Until someone else realizes how, Apple will continue to serenade the public with their products and no one will have a clue why they keep selling so much. Until then, I wish Apple good luck and eagerly await their next great invention.