“The effervescent demo of Apple Music by the charismatic Bozoma Saint John — a black woman who looked and acted nothing like the typical Apple Men onstage before her and who in her opening remarks mentioned being a mother — felt like a breath of fresh air signaling that perhaps the winds are changing,” Katie Notopoulos writes for BuzzFeed News. “There were other signals too. In the video segment cheering on developers using Apple’s Swift programming language, the video ended with a black woman joyfully expounding how awesome coding was — certainly not the stereotype of a coder, and not totally reflective of the crowd there watching the video. At another Apple event in March, another black female Apple executive, Lisa Jackson, took the stage to talk about Apple’s environmental efforts.”
Breaking the Apple Man stereotype in the people who appear on stage as the Apple’s evangelists is symbolic,” Notopoulos writes. “Having a black woman present on stage might just mean the company is more aware of the optics of its events.”
Notopoulos writes, “But there is evidence that it’s not just a hollow gesture — the actual features and hardware being announced on stage at Apple events are changing along with those presenters.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has been designing for women for decades and Bozoma Saint John makes “Hair Force One” look like Larry David.
It’s not the hair on your head that matters. It’s the kind of hair you have inside. — Garry Shandling
Bozoma was fantastic… Loved her attitude and style.. Trully brought a breath of fresh air to the presentation.
Thumbs up Apple.
She was amazing, the brightest person in the show for me.
I also liked the black female developer from the last video in the program.
There is something colourful and exciting about black women (I can say it objectively since as I am not black myself), there so much character in them.
And Bozoma’s hair was epic!
Why would someone down vote your comment is baffling to me!
“Apple finally designing for women too”
What a steaming pile of BS.
Steve Jobs long ago attributed the form factor of the all-in-one iMacs as directly inspired by the fact that most women *hated* boring beige boxes with wires dangling everywhere. They designed the candy colored iMacs to be something women would be proud to display, not hide in another room. He also admitted it’s a dirty little secret that’s always been understated so as not to upset the insecure macho techie types who wouldn’t use something they perceive to have a “feminine” design ethic, but remains the gold standard to which they aspire with all their devices.
Like it or not, Apple’s no different from car makers and the same applies to most cars sold today. Women want utility and family features, not power or masculinity, meaning the SUV is everywhere. Ask any car salesman and they know women make the final buying choice. if *she* wants it, it’s sold.
Personally, I didn’t like that part at all. Maybe it was the music chosen and the lack of appreciation from the crowd for hat music, or maybe it was that it reminded of Microsoft trying act hip… And I certainly don’t like seeing that from Apple.
If you would look at early iPod advertisements where you have seen youth dancing with white headphone wires, you would see that this lady was perfect for Apple.
And I have/had no problems with the iPhone/iPod commercials. Those are aimed at the mass market, including children, teens, and young adults. This was the developers conference, however, and was an entirely different audience. It didn’t make sense to me and I don’t think it worked on them.
Yes, I agree with you completely.
The whole segment with her felt forced, fake, and phony. She was unable to read the audience and respond in kind.
Hat music?
lol… I see I missed a t.
This article feels click baitey and the title doesnt seem to match the article at all. I kinda liked the part with Bozoma but at the same time I’m wondering if it was a bit forced and a little stereotypical. I do want to see more of here in the future.