Jan 15, 2008

Obligatory Apple Air Post


You've got to hand it to Apple: they've done it again.

Come out with the product that everyone's going to want.

The product no one knew they wanted yesterday, but somehow everyone wants today.

And they've done it in their inimitable Total Branding Experience style. It's imbued into everything from the idea behind the actual computer to its design to the video (featured above) they created (and thoughtfully placed on YouTube) to give you a "tour."

Featuring a Steve Jobs-esque Apple Store employee named John, perfectly cast and wardrobed (he's in his late 40s, wears his salt'n'pepper hair in a youthful "Ross" hairstyle and sports a plain long-sleeved black t-shirt, the better to show off the Air.) I mean the whole thing just says "Isn't this cool. Isn't this worth paying a few dollars more for?" The whole launch is perfectly in keeping with their aesthetic, every bit of it. (Except maybe the line "thinnovation." Punny, but somehow forgivable.)

Now of course not everyone is going to want a machine like this or be entranced by their marketing. But enough people will that I'd call it another genius move on their part. (And reserve the right to change that opinion if The Real Digital Revolution™ kicks in and all the reviews on all the tech sites say it's a piece of crap!)
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11 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2008 at 12:42 AM

    and a bargain at $3100 for 64 gigs of flash drive space! maybe in a year when jobs & co. figure out how to gang flash cards together and allow the user open up the back and swap out for newer, larger capacity cards as they become available.

    if a non-geek like me can think it, imagine what an apple imagineer®™ can do if they thunk it?

    same comment i have for the itouch: why no concernt for consumer upgradese without having to buy a whole new device?

    oh, yeah, that genius marketing i've been hearing about from apple. it's so effective that their share droppedn while jobs was talking.

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  2. Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertisingJanuary 16, 2008 at 7:32 AM

    LD has good points, but still, I'm salivating.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2008 at 4:00 PM

    yeah i dunno. no ports? so thin you could break it? maybe but id take a new macbook bro any day over that thing. cute maybe but they could do better. also did anyone see the gag "apple unveils thinnest laptop bag ever" deal where they were selling you a $300 manila envelope?

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  4. Lunar BBDOJanuary 17, 2008 at 5:02 AM

    Doesn't do it for me. I didn't know I wanted it, and I still don't. A separate DVD drive that you have to pay extra for? And who needs to blow up the text on web pages?

    The lightness is good, but I'll keep my Macbook Pro, ta.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2008 at 5:41 AM

    You have to be a pretty loyal Apple Consumer in order to enjoy this piece of hardware.

    It's overpriced, underfeatured and I wonder if it will go towards the same destiny as The Cube and be "put on ice".

    Remote Disc is also a pretty weird feature so I hope they hack it.

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2008 at 7:16 AM

    it's great tool for making an impression at the next client meeting with the all the mahatma's in the room... lots of "oooh's" and "aaah's" and various coo-ing going on, but as a real value tool, not much...

    yes to ad broad, apple is really good at pushing that envelope forward and making saliva worthy artifacts...

    i'd be willing to bet that same folk that waited on line for days for the iphones are there right now, queing up to the register and ordering away and they're the same ones that'll bitch like mad again when either the price drops shortly after purchase or a new model is revealed and there's no update path...

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  7. Alan WolkJanuary 17, 2008 at 5:26 PM

    Thanks for the input.

    I suspect this is meant--despite the $1700 price tag- to be an ancillary computer, the one you take on the road or the train with you while leaving your iMac at home - everything magically synched via iDisk.

    I suspect that LD is right- this is a forerunner to cheaper and more efficient models.

    But later for that--- my new passion is the new iPod Touch with email.

    http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2008 at 12:38 AM

    @ toad:

    check the pricing structure out. that's 1700$ for the plain jane model, 3100$ for the iTouch version with 64 gig flash (add 100$ if you want to watch dvd's or read cd's).

    the HUGE difference in price point will make them come out with a beefier, cheaper model within 3 - 4 months. also given that flash memory is expanding rapidly, it boggles the brain as to why no user upgrade solution? or at the very least a quick trip to Tek Serve and away!

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  9. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2008 at 6:27 PM

    but it fits in an envelope! don't you get it!

    :-)

    i'm guessing a lot of apple fans (myself included) have been seduced by the ipod, itunes and the iphone (!) aren't really technical and could care less about technology. we just like stuff that's intuitive to use and cool.

    at this point apple could sell me a block of wood and i'd buy it. they've earned that much trust. how rare is that. steve jobs for president!

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  10. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2008 at 9:53 AM

    great idea! the iPresident!

    he could sell us on the iWar, another overpriced beta-item, and then announce Katrina 3.0, with all the bug fixes, and end his reign with announcing a merger with France to create Scare Bleu Tooth governmental policies...

    LOL : )

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  11. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2008 at 12:02 AM

    ...and he could get us the f**k out of iRAQ by simply pressing a button.

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