“It’s no surprise that Apple crushed its fourth-quarter earnings estimate. The company delivered earnings of $1.67 billion, up 47% from last year on an earnings-per-share basis,” Nate McMahon writes for The Motley Fool.
McMahon writes, “Apple’s core competency is innovative design and technology. That’s the spirit behind its famous ‘Think Different’ ad campaign.”
McMahon continues, “Apple introduces products that truly wow the market. Think back to the Macintosh in 1984 — the first affordable computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). Today, the iPhone challenges the definition of a phone, by combining a portable digital media player, Internet client, GPS navigator, camera, and … um … oh yeah, a phone. Not only does Apple wow consumers, but it changes the way we think about consumer electronics.”
“The real innovation of Apple’s business model exposed itself when the company focused its core competencies on lower-priced products. Introductory Apple products like the iPod series have had great mass-market appeal, which directly addressed the perception that Apple only catered to high-end markets,” McMahon writes. “Instead of cannibalizing its high-end products with lower-cost product offerings, Apple is capitalizing on an inverse effect.”
McMahon writes, “Apple sold 3.05 million Macs this quarter, an increase of 17% year over year. This increase can be attributed in part to the halo effect, and partly to customer switching costs associated with Apple’s iPod and iPhone customer base. Brand loyalty will keep growing as Apple continues to suck in the mass market through its introductory products.”
Full article – recommended – here.
“Apple continues to suck in the mass market” Thats funny Microsoft continues to suck too.
Blimey, that ad still does it to me, fantastic.
Finally, some Apple News. Kind of got tired of reading about Microsoft and Windows 7. Please MDN, we do not want to read about Microsoft or Windows.
Makes you feel proud to be a Mac user.
Apple sucks nectar from flowers, Microsoft sucks brown stuff from a cesspit!
Apple spits out honey, Microsoft spits out manure!!
@Occam
Me too, love that ad.
@ Davecc
“Please MDN, we do not want to read about Microsoft or Windows.”
Believe me, if MDN wasn’t getting hits on those stories they wouldn’t post them.
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Apple’s the one company where innovation is more than just a catchphrase.
I couldn’t agree more with the headline.
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On another (semi-related note) I had a chance to try out Apple’s new mouse at an Apple store.
All I can say is wow! I would have bought one on the spot if they were for sale. I was told that, for now, they are only bundled with a new Mac – till next week.
This is one of the greatest commercials of all time…I wish Apple
would elaborate on this, edit out Ted Turner, and insert MJ and WG
for a second or two, and then change the logo at the end to current.
It’s been awhile. Still has an impact.
This ad in the marketing world is what we truly call a ‘Call to Action’. I would love Apple to re-release this in a modern format.
It would speak volumes to a new generation.
It would rule.
There is no question. This is an absolutely brilliant piece of advertising.
Compare this to the “I’m a PC” ads you’ve seen lately. It’s truly beyond belief that otherwise intelligent people, charged with creating compelling advertising don’t get it. They don’t understand that it’s not how much you pay. It’s how you feel.
I still have all the posters that were part of that ad series rolled up in a tube. It was a great ad campaign and as Weatherguy said, it still has an impact.
That’s cool they got The Joker to narrate that commercial.
“…because they change things…”
The Joker?
That was Richard Dryfuss.
Windows 7 has returned Apple to the role of perceived under-dog. I prefer they creep up in market share in this way, like FireFox.
Sorry, but Apple will definitely go out of business if they don’t offer a netbook this quarter. All the analysts tell me so!
@Amazin1,
You need to get those posters out and framed! Not in a freakin’ tube!
Yeah, Amazin1, or give them to a deserving fellow Apple fan who will give them the love they so richly deserve!
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As to the commercial, back at that time it was a warning to the industry and beyond that Apple was coming back, and look what has transpired in the decade or so since.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
“Today, the iPhone challenges the definition of a phone”
As I tell everyone who asks about my iPhone – it’s not a phone; it’s a hand-held computer that can also make phone calls.
What is Richard Branson and Ted Turner doing in that ad? I know it’s unpopular, but I don’t think Ali belongs either.
Great Ad!!
Why would they not be there. Ted Turner created an industry, Cable News, when he started CNN. While he controlled CNN it was a station/network that could be counted on for real reportage from its real journalists. Not like today. Richard Branson is a man not afraid to do new things and start new things, be it a new airline, a new retail line or just trying to break speed records on the land sea and in the air. Muhammad Ali was a brash and in some ways an arrogant up and coming young fighter who could not only talk tough he could deliver it in the ring. He shook up the boxing world with his fist and his mouth. These were and are people who change the world as we know it.
Are people just upset over Ted Turner for purely political and ideological reasons? Apple is only allowed to admire people if they are liberals or democrats or socialists or communists?
Can’t people who have changed the world be admired for their contribution to humanity without the political blinders being welded to everyones skull?
I love, and completely admire Helen Keller. I don’t 100% agree with her politics but I respect her no less because of them.