NOT UNLIKE THE iPad today, it was deliberately presented more like an appliance
than a computer. You weren’t supposed to tinker with it, or think very much
about it at all; you were supposed to take it as it was and let it assist in
your work as transparently as possible. Pondering which model to choose or
installing a new graphics card wouldn’t get your work done; why would you want
to waste your time on the computer itself?
New
iPad, 2012
After Steve Jobs was ousted in 1985, having
released just five computers in a decade, the product range expanded to
accommodate dozens of Macs and a variety of peripherals. When Jobs returned, he
cut out all but the core. Printers, scanners, hard drives, the Newton -
everything that wasn’t a Mac was dumped, and the number of Macs was severely
pruned.
Even today, with iPods and iOS devices
expanding the Apple line-up, the dedication to simplicity is clear. There are
only two OS versions (plus Server), for example, compared to Windows, which has
at least three desktop versions depending on how you’re counting, a mobile
phone version, and now two similar but different tablet versions.
At the HP UK store for laptops, you can
choose from 21 machines of various screen sizes and specs, and that’s before
you even pick your processor, memory, graphics and hard disk options. Apple has
two clearly delineated notebook ranges, each available in two sizes, plus the
Retina MacBook Pro. Last month, it updated every model at the same time, an
approach that avoids confusion and leaves buyers’ choices feeling familiar and
consistent for as long as possible.
Not tweaking every model at every
opportunity for the sake of a ‘New!’ sticker does mean some products can fall
behind the latest specs. The current iMac is a year old, for example, and the
Mac mini soon will be. PCs from the likes of Dell are updated much more
frequently. Yet the likes of Dell are struggling to get them off the shelves,
while Mac sales are rising. Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer
recently reported that Mac channel inventory stood at three to four weeks,
indicating stock is turning over quickly despite the lack of updates and there
are no stockpiles old machines that nobody wants. Specs really aren’t
everything.
Public
service announcement Apple advertises experiences, not specifications
THE CYNICAL VIEW of Apple’s success in hardware is that its machines are nothing
special, but are cleverly marketed. For all the talk of innovation, critics
suggest, Cupertino is still peddling a WIMP interface on an x86-based PC;
what’s really changed in the last 20 years except the colour?
The first problem with this argument is
that it’s pretty difficult to point to any manufacturer that’s innovated more
than Apple. Sony, Dell and HP have tried new things here and there, but none
has stuck. All-in-one computers existed before the iMac, but 1998’s translucent
blob changed the way people looked at PCs, ditching cumbersome legacy
components for good measure; and neither the white polycarbonate G5 nor the
aluminium unibody Intel iMac have been surpassed. The likes of IBM and Sony had
thin and light notebook PCs before the MacBook Air, of course, but the Air
still drew gasps with its knife-edge taper, and the current generation of
Ultrabook PCs is, at its best, a direct and shameless rip-off.
When other manufacturers shout about
innovation, what they tend to mean is gimmicks. Dell’s Inspiron Duo laptop,
with its swivelling screen, was barely out of the factory gate before it was
dumped. The HP TouchPad carried hopes of a serious rival to the iPad, but
disappeared in an unceremonious fire sale. Acer’s Iconia dual-touchscreen
tablet PC is just ridiculous - but available now at attractive discounts, if
you’re interested.
Apple certainly does have a unique and
effective approach to marketing. It’s analysed by Simon Sinek, an author and
teacher of strategic communications at Columbia University, in a TED Conference
talk. ‘If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might
sound like this: “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple
to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?” “Meh.” And that’s how most of us
communicate. That’s how most marketing is done, that’s how most sales is
done...
‘Here’s how Apple actually communicates.
“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in
thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our
products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen
to make great computers. Want to buy one?” Totally different, right? You’re
ready to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the
information. What it proves to us is that people don’t buy what you do; people
buy why you do it.’
Sinek has a point here, but also misses
one. Apple marketing is at its best when it doesn’t present much information at
all, in any order. The ‘1984’ TV ad for the first Macintosh, for example -
aired only once, in that year, during the Super bowl - expressed the iconoclasm
Sinek refers to by showing an action heroine throwing a sledgehammer into a
giant screen representing Big Brother. It didn’t move on to a list of the Mac’s
benefits. It said nothing about the computer at all.
