“Playing for time while it puts the finishing touches to an all-new edition of iOS and a new iPhone model to go with it, Apple has attempted to change the chatter concerning its devices by publishing 12 reasons to choose an iPhone,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“Perhaps the biggest advantage in the eyes of many might be Apple’s commitment to personal customer support. You can speak to “real people” on the phone or at an Apple retail store,” Evans writes. “This isn’t how it works for users of other devices, who must run between pillar to post as they attempt to get some help.”
Evans writes, “So what’s going on? It’s pretty clear: Samsung has been trash-talking Apple within its marketing for months. With the new ad campaign and last week’s statements from Phil Schiller it seems clear to me that Apple is preparing to go on the offensive in its marketing activity. I’d be completely unsurprised to see the Samsung Galaxy S4 put through a series of real-life user experience and reliability tests up against an iPhone.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée: Apple needs to be more like Microsoft – March 18, 2013
Apple.com’s new ‘Why iPhone’ page touts iPhone superiority – March 17, 2013
Bring back Justin Long & John Hodgman and put John in a ridiculously techy plasticky looking fat suit and have him say “I’m an Android” and Justin saying “I’m an iPhone”. Leg the comparison games begin. Think people would notice? – hell yeah!
funny but wong centuly!
No, one of the nerds from “Big Bang Theory” should play Android to Long’s sleek and slimmed-down iOS device, Save John Hodgeman for Windows Phone (in case the character is ever needed again), so that he could wear flowered shorts with a white shirt and tie, black socks, wing tips and sunglasses.
Bring back the ads, but new actors for iPhone and Android. Could be legendary !
Apple excels when it’s the underdog. And that’s all,it’s doing. By putting itself as the better alternative to mainstream, Apple will maintain its own drive as well as that of its fans.
Get ready for iPhone 6 with curved liquidmetal back like the iMac has and revamped iOS. Revenge is sweeet!
Another Liquidmetal wet dreamer.
Apple has always (yes, always, with the sole exception of the original XServer) lost when trying to go spec for spec against the rest whether it was the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone or anything else. There is always going to be some set of pundits saying that some specific spec that Apple has left out is truly critical and makes the Apple product worthless. Besides Apple figured out well over a decade ago that the vast majority of customers don’t buy based upon specs.
The beauty of the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads was that they didn’t get into specs. In one a model walked up and the Mac talked about how easy it was to create something looking like her. The PC tried to counter and a (if I recall correctly) a man in drag walked up and the PC stumbled at how to create even that. This spoke TONS to ease of use. The Mac’s forte at the time. In another that talked about digital photography a young lady waked up looking Asian and speaking an Asian language. The Mac then responded in kind and declared that it could immediately inter-operate with a wide range of current digital cameras — right out of the box — built into the OS. The PC stumbled again. Once again it simply showed the ease of doing things you wanted to do compared to the “PC”.
In a very, very early Mac commercial it showed the Mac and then next to it dropped into view a few small/thin manuals. The voice over said that’s all you needed to learn to use a Mac. Next it showed a blank screen into which dropped *several* thick binders of materials and the voice over stated that was what you needed to learn to operate an IBM compatible PC. The attempted impression was that the Mac was much, much easier to use. If instead, they had done it with people (say a person *using* a Mac having finished quickly glancing through the manuals versus another person wading extremely laboriously through the manuals for the PC and not yet getting a single bit of work done) the ad would have had 100x the impact.
Apple needs to find those things about the iPhone and iPad. They then need to show — in very human terms — how those things make the user’s life better and easier and allows them to get more done in their lives (both home and work).
Direct comparisons are OK, but Apple needs to make sure it shows clear, broad advantages, and display/show them at a gut level.
Apple IIs had high resolution (for the time) color graphics built in before other computers.
I think Apple knows that customer service is a key differentiator but the quickly axed ad ‘genius’ ad campaign was a total flop. The insanely secretive Media Arts Lab is probably the one place where they ought to be thinking ‘what would Steve do?’