iPhone

iPhone / observatory / simplicity — 20 Comments
24
Apr 12

An email signature that says it all

Credit: Tweet from Jason Prell

I once knew a keyboard player who put black tape over the huge YAMAHA that faced the audience when he played his synthesizer on stage.

He even wrote Yamaha a letter saying that if they wanted him to advertise their company when he played, they’d have to pay him a fee.

Thirty years later, he’s still waiting for a response.

That’s the way I’ve always felt about the default email signatures that ship with smartphones and tablets these days.

“Sent from my iPhone” is fairly harmless. However, I don’t feel the need to give Apple a free ride on every email I send. (By now, I imagine my friend has sent Apple a letter as well.)

Whatever, these default signatures are now commonplace. And just as the socks we choose to wear say something about us, these signatures say something about the companies that put them there. Or, in some cases, the multiple companies who put them there.

See Exhibit A above.

This is the email signature that comes standard on a new Samsung phone. It’s unintentionally hilarious — the combined effort of Samsung and AT&T. This is probably more of a billboard than an email signature. But even as a billboard it fails — because rather than say something simple, it’s stuffed to the gills with everything that might impress a recipient.

This is not only a violation of the rules of simplicity, it’s unenlightened and tacky.

Even the lawyers get to join in the fun. The trademarks are all in place, just to make sure that (a) we aren’t tempted to steal the product names, and (b) the email signature looks as ugly as possible.

Advertising issues aside, there is simply a good taste issue here. Though I don’t love what Apple has done, at least it is done with taste. “Sent from my iPhone” is simple and unobtrusive. No trademarks. No promo of AT&T or Verizon. It simply identifies the device you’re using. (And gives you an out for all those device-induced typos.)

One of the lures of Android is that it is open, and that the carriers are free to customize it as they please — which AT&T has obviously done here.

The result is just another example of advertising pollution. A marketing department sees a new place to put some words, and they stuff it to the gills simply because they can. They’re incapable of distilling a message to its essence.

Thankfully, none of us have to participate in this nonsense. We’re all free to alter our default email signatures. We can rip them out altogether, or take the opportunity to show the world how amusing we can be.

“Sent by carrier pigeon” is a personal favorite. But if you have a better one, I’d be happy to steal it.

advertising / apple / apple news / creative / iPhone / observatory — 6 Comments
20
Apr 12

Some fresh air for Siri

Apple has always had a talent for creating great advertising. It’s one of the few companies on earth who can claim great ads as part of its heritage. In fact, it’s one of the few companies whose personality has largely been sculpted by its ads, going all the way back to the beginning.

That’s what happens when your CEO has a passion for marketing.

However, Apple is only human — which is a double-edged sword. Though Apple loves to keep surprising us with creativity, it is sometimes hesitant to rock the boat when things are going well. iPhone ads, for example, fell into a comfortable format for at least a couple of years. Mostly, we’d see a hand holding an iPhone taking us through a parade of apps. The ads were clear and effective — but they weren’t of the “wow, did you see that ad last night?” variety.

Thankfully, Siri helped juice up iPhone’s ad presence. With apps fading as a competitive advantage (Apple has more, but Android users don’t feel deprived), Apple suddenly had a game-changing new feature to show off. These ads have also been clear and effective — and wow-inducing at the same time.

Now it’s time for a new wave of iPhone ads. Siri is still the hot feature, so will Apple give us more of the same? Well, yes and no. We still see Siri in action, complete with screen shots, but this time Apple is doing something it hasn’t done for a while. It’s using celebrities. And it works really, really well.

Interestingly, these celebrities actually make the spots more human and relevant — which celebrities often don’t do. Whereas the previous Siri spots showed us a random collection of actors calling upon Siri in a variety of unrelated clips, the new ads focus on how one person might use Siri in his or her daily life.

Granted, we’re not looking at reality. Somehow I doubt that Samuel L. Jackson actually walks around his house conversing with Siri like this. If he does, I feel great sorrow for him. But hey, this is advertising. It’s supposed to make a point memorably, and these new spots do that — with great effectiveness. The second spot, featuring Zooey Deschanel, works in much the same way, summoning Zooey’s quirky adorableness. (See that here.)

Kudos to Apple for stepping up its iPhone game, and for not shunning celebrities just because they’re too expected or too easy. The celebrities Apple has chosen are actually quite unexpected, and tell a story remarkably well.

Note that Apple is not hiring a celebrity spokesperson to become the face of iPhone, appearing in ad after ad. It is using celebrities in a one-time fashion, with each one contributing to a larger idea. It’s a very “Apple” way to take advantage of celebrity stopping power as it tells its own unique story.

It remains to be seen whether this is the entirety of the new iPhone effort, or there will be more spots to come. It could very well be that the reaction to these spots will determine that.

For those so disposed, it creates a fun guessing game. What other celebrities out there would have the coolness or quirkiness to best deliver the iPhone message?

advertising / apple / apple news / iPhone / observatory — 2 Comments
29
Mar 12

Apple’s Siri balancing act

A couple of weeks ago, some guy in Brooklyn started a class-action suit against Apple. Basically, the suit says that Siri doesn’t live up to the claims made in Apple’s ads.

Most of these cases are easy to dismiss. Suing Apple is great sport, and I imagine Apple has teams of lawyers whose full-time job is fending off nuisance lawsuits.

However, in this case, it’s hard not to wonder if some judge or jury might actually come down on the plaintiffs’ side.

Putting aside the fact that a number of people have been grumbling about Siri’s performance of late, Apple would seem to be walking a tightrope when they put together a legal argument.

On one hand, they can say “Hey, we said from the start that Siri is a beta product. Obviously it’s not perfect yet.” On the other hand, they launched iPhone 4S with a major national ad campaign featuring Siri, and have been running the ads ever since.

There’s no difference between the way Apple has presented the beta Siri to the public and the way it has introduced any new feature in previous products. Clearly it considers Siri to be the main feature of iPhone 4S. The ads show Siri in its best possible light and never mention that it’s a beta.

Those who follow Apple news are certainly aware of Siri’s beta status. The other 90% of the world isn’t. Honestly, if I were sitting on a jury, I’d have to do some serious thinking on that.

Forgetting the legal issues, it’s an interesting and unique case for Apple. Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but I don’t recall any product or feature in Apple’s history that was released as a beta, and was simultaneously advertised so heavily.

Can a company present a feature as a product’s main attraction, and then claim “it’s just a beta” when it gets sued?

Keep in mind that Apple hasn’t officially taken that position yet. Who knows what their defense will ultimately be. The case is young, and the lawyers may still be busy devising a legal strategy.

“Siri, find me a good argument.”

advertising / apple / creative / iPad / iPhone / iPod / observatory / strategy — 22 Comments
1
Feb 12

Where have Apple’s headlines gone?

Driving around LA with colleagues recently, we were greeted by iPad billboards just about everywhere we went. All shared the same clever headline: “iPad 2.”

That got my merry band wondering: when was the last time an Apple billboard or poster actually had a headline. (At least a smart headline in the Apple tradition.)

Before the “iPad 2″ headline, the headline was “iPad.” The old iPod “silhouette” billboards had headlines that seemed like novels in comparison — they said “iPod + iTunes.”

I don’t mean this as an indictment. It’s simply an observation. In fact, if I were so disposed, I could rationalize both ways of thinking.

Say no to headlines!
Apple makes things simple. What could be simpler than a beautiful image and a product name? Brevity is its own form of cleverness, and a minimal number of words makes Apple stand out even more from its complicated competitors. Apple has transcended the need to explain things. If you really want more words, there are plenty of them at apple.com.

You’re blowing a major opportunity — repeatedly.
Steve Jobs himself once told me that every single ad is an opportunity to build the brand. Every time you fail to do that, it’s an opportunity lost. Now Apple is missing what its smart headlines used to add, and therefore not connecting at the same level. Those headlines are what originally gave Apple its public personality — they put Apple in a class by itself. Is it too much to ask for a few clever words?

So what gives? Has Apple lost the ability to craft a good headline? Or does it truly believe that an image and a product name is the ultimate act of advertising minimalism, and therefore a perfect representation of the Apple brand?

One argument against the latter is that the most recent images Apple has given us don’t exactly come from the adrenaline-pumping school of photography. The current iPad 2 billboard (above), in which we see a side view of Mr. Fingers picking up an iPad, is about as sleepy as it gets.

So what do you think?

Personally, I miss the little smile that used to come with seeing a great Apple ad. I get that the products are cool-looking, and the visual reminder is helpful. But those three or four words that made you think, “Damn, those guys are good” really did add another dimension to the ads.

Clearly Steve Jobs came to believe that the headlines were no longer necessary. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s creative work evolves now that others have full responsibility.

apple / iMac / iPad / iPhone / mac / observatory / technology — 7 Comments
6
Jan 12

Apple’s predictable unpredictability

First of all, welcome to 2012. Okay, so I’m a little behind the rest of the world, but I finally made it.

The new year actually makes a perfect topic for Week 1. As you probably noticed, this week we got a mini-flood of articles about what we can expect from Apple in 2012: iPad 3, iPhone 5, Apple TV, slim MacBook Pro. To which most of us would say:

Duh.

Of course that’s what’s coming. It’s hardly news. I’ll tell ya, secrecy just isn’t what it used to be.

Though Apple continues to be thought of as one of the most secretive companies on earth, the truth is, they’ve lost the ability to surprise us like they did in the good old days.

The products are still amazing. The announcement events are fun. We still get surprised by the details as they are unveiled. It’s just that we know in advance what the products will be.

It wasn’t always this way. When Steve returned to Apple in 1997, secrets were secrets. His onstage announcements were real surprises (for the most part). The look of iMac was a shock. You had no idea that Apple was going to enter the consumer electronics market with iPod. You weren’t sure which Apple technology would be the focus of each event.

Breaches of secrecy were a scandal. Several days before the introduction of the first multicolored iMacs, the official family photo of all five models escaped from a printing facility in Germany, where a version of the multipage insert was being printed. It took the steam out of Steve’s big announcement — which was a crime punishable by death. (Or something close to it.)

As Apple has grown, and more people are exposed to the deep, dark secrets at various stages of product development, that kind of secrecy doesn’t exist anymore.

People were talking about iPhone — and calling it by name — months before it appeared. The name iPad was a surprise, but the device wasn’t — it was also widely expected months before, and its features accurately predicted.

This isn’t a terrible thing. It’s just a different thing. The new “iTV” (or whatever it will be called) will get the same attention this year. There will be buzz for months ahead, because Apple shaking up a new category is a great story. Journalists will hang on every word at the announcement event, even if many of the details become known before.

The only difference between now and then is that we know it’s coming. At least in the broad strokes.

I do find myself wondering about one thing this year. What’s next for Mac Pro? While it has grown in power, no product in Apple history has gone this long without a major overhaul. Mac Pro can now be officially classified as a “workhorse.” We’ve come to expect internal improvements only, but no major conceptual rethinking.

Will Apple demonstrate a new commitment to the pro market? Or will Mac Pro get upgraded the way Final Cut Pro did? Does Apple still love the high-end pros, or is it really just focusing on different levels of consumer now?

While it may be easier to predict Apple’s hardware these days, predicting its intentions is a different matter.

Happy 2012.

advertising / apple / creative / iPhone / observatory — 2 Comments
19
Dec 11

Santa gets his Siri on

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. A holiday commercial from Apple. It’s a heartwarming time of year.

While the Mac vs. PC animated holiday ads always added a unique twist to that campaign, these days Apple has to dig a little deeper.

Fortunately they have Siri to play with, and it makes for a cheerful, happy holiday spot.

Love the voice they’ve given Santa (even if his little laugh doesn’t seem to be quite in sync with his cookie-chewing mouth). And the end joke is as charming as they get —  very much in the spirit of the humor Siri normally displays.

The only thing I wondered about was the timing. Running a holiday spot one week before the holiday seemed like it was cutting things a bit close. Seems like Santa could have enjoyed at least a two-week run, maybe more.

But then I noticed that in three years of Mac vs. PC holiday spots, they debuted on the 19th, 13th and 16th of December. So either the guys have been consistently late in the production department, or this is the way Apple likes to roll.

And the truth is, the short run makes these spots feel even more special, so it’s all good. And I’ll bet more than a few last-minute shoppers start seeing visions of iPad dancing in their heads.

advertising / apple / creative / iPhone / observatory / technology — 3 Comments
1
Nov 11

Invasion of the iPhone 4S ads

I love the smell of fresh ads in the morning.

Apple has now added not one, not two, but three new ads to the iPhone 4S campaign. For we who like our entertainment in 30-second spurts, this is good news indeed.

As we have come to expect, each of these new ads is a clear, straightforward demo. But that’s okay, because what’s being demoed is mostly eye-opening stuff. Here are all three new spots with a mini-review of each.

Snow Today:

Of the three, this is the one that’s most similar to the 4S ad that debuted last week, right down to a cute kid interacting with Siri. But the range of Siri’s abilities is so wide, we see a whole new batch of interesting uses. One big difference between this ad and the first is that we actually hear a lot from Siri. So much for my theory that they’re downplaying the robotic voice. But it’s interesting how the synthetic voicing of Siri becomes almost charming thanks to the human responses programmed into her.

iCloud:

With this ad, Apple makes a very sneaky (in a good way) move to simplify its story. Technically, iCloud isn’t an iPhone thing. It’s an everything thing. It’s equally cool on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Change or add something to any one of these devices or computers, and it shows up on the others. But to make it even easier to appreciate, everything we see here ties back to iPhone. It all adds up to “iCloud — on the most amazing iPhone yet.” (Never mind that you can enjoy all this iCloud goodness on your old iPhone 4 as well.)

Camera:

This one strays a little from Apple’s standard, in that it actually starts by touting technical specs — “with 8 megapixels and advanced optics.” No doubt that’s because iPhone’s camera has been lagging behind its competitors. Since the camera is the least remarkable aspect of the 4S, a spot devoted to this feature can’t possibly be as compelling as a spot devoted to Siri. Still, people take tons of photos on their phones, and it needs to be part of the mix.

I’m sure that someone, somewhere, is still arguing that iPhone 4S offers only minor improvements over iPhone 4. Likewise, some analysts are no doubt sticking to their story that Apple’s most recent earnings report was a let-down. (Even though record sales of the 4S prove that many were simply waiting for the new model.)

These new spots should do a good job of erasing the doubts — while they stir up some good, old-fashioned iPhone lust.

advertising / apple / apple news / iPhone / observatory / strategy — 1 Comment
25
Oct 11

Siri makes her TV debut

Welcome to Steve Jobs Authorized Biography Week. Shame on me for not writing about the Isaacson book today — but hey, that thing is long. Meet me back here in a few days.

For now, let’s talk Siri, which is shaping up to be a giant leap for such a “disappointing” iPhone 4S.

What better way to celebrate a giant leap than with a TV commercial. And the verdict is…

Excellent.

Like Siri, this spot feels new. The music track has a sense of magic. What we see is simply a sequence of different people interacting with Siri in different ways. It may be an obvious way of demoing Siri, but when you have an extraordinary feature, obvious is your best friend.

Siri comes off like the practical application of the technology we’ve seen forever in movies like 2001 and Star Trek. (With slightly better results than 2001.) It feels like the cast is talking to a person rather than a computer, which of course is the whole point of Siri — and what makes it such an “on-brand” technology for Apple.

There are nice touches in the writing that add to the humanity. Like “How do I tie a bow tie again?” Siri doesn’t particularly care about the “again” part, but that’s how people talk. In the last clip, we get more of a lament than a question or command: “I’m locked out of the house.” Siri seems almost empathetic.

If Siri is a world-changing feature, Apple could have run a grand manifesto ad to boldly proclaim the beginning of a new age. Instead, they went the quieter route, demonstrating how Siri fits into our lives. We hear Siri speak only once — which is another part of the crafting, as too much of Siri’s voice would only draw attention to one of her weaker areas.

So congrats to Apple and Chiat for a job well done.

Anything to quibble over? One small thing. In a spot where “human and natural” is the theme, the shots of Mr. Hand holding an iPhone (first and last scenes) feel unnatural — because they are lifeless still images of a hand rather than film. I’m sure this makes it easier to add the screens in post production, but surely the technology exists to do the same with real film. I think I know what Siri would say:

“I’ve found three digital effects studios fairly close to you.”

Conan O’Brien has already done his version of this commercial. See that here.

apple / iPhone / observatory — 6 Comments
18
Oct 11

iPhone’s Magic 8-Ball

Human beings have this built-in need to be fascinated.

In the past, Apple’s iDevices have done a pretty good job of seducing us simply by their elegance and simplicity.

With iPhone 4S, however, Siri is doing the job all by itself. Or, should I say, herself. Simultaneously, Siri manages to appeal to both our adult lust for coolness and our inner 12-year-old.

I might look scornfully upon those spending valuable time asking Siri silly questions if I weren’t so busy doing it myself. People actually search the Internet to find new Siri jokes, just so they can ask the same question and see the answer again on their own phone.

Siri is the Magic 8-Ball, redesigned for the 21st century. She’s mysterious, intelligent, witty and displays a charming robotic arrogance. Oh, and she also has some seriously productive uses.

Siri mysteriously stopped working for me after a few hours, then sprang back to life hours later. I wasn’t aware that Siri required a connection to Apple’s servers, and those servers are being overworked by the hordes seeking Siri’s wisdom. The initial frenzy will die down soon enough.

I’m sure Apple will keep the numbers secret, but during this “getting to know you” phase, it’s not hard to imagine that the comedic uses of Siri at least equal the serious ones. Not only do people amuse themselves, they then feel compelled to entertain friends, family and colleagues.

Part of the fascination of the old Magic 8-Ball was watching it work. Out of that murky black fluid inside, amazing answers would come into focus. Like Reply hazy, try again. Or Signs point to yes. Or Don’t count on it. It knew everything.

The fascination of Siri is that she has more answers than a three-dimensional triangle. She can be outright verbose too. Plus, she has a robotic awareness of human weakness and doesn’t hold back. Unless, of course, she doesn’t have the answer in her database.

While the Magic 8-Ball quickly landed on our bookshelves gathering dust, Siri is looking like she’ll become part of the family. Once you become more acquainted, you get why she’s still a Beta. However, you can also see her amazing potential. Obviously she’ll sprout new voices (the real HAL will be a must-have) and she’ll learn to interact with more apps.

Will Siri change the way we interact with all of our devices, including our computers?

It is decidedly so.

 

 

iPhone / observatory — 6 Comments
13
Oct 11

The Apple critics’ endless loop

When it comes to assessing new products from Apple, there are two kinds of people in the world: critics and customers.

Seemingly, only a small number of critics have the skill to think like customers. Because collectively, the majority seems to make the mistake with each new Apple product launch.

When Apple unveiled iPhone 4S last week, it was widely greeted as a “modest” upgrade. These reactions gave birth to negative mainstream press, such as an MSNBC story that referred to the “tepid response” to iPhone 4S. Bear in mind, the hands-on reviews were yet to come and customers had yet to offer any response, tepid or otherwise.

Then, surprise surprise. iPhone 4S pre-orders begin, and the hands-on reviews get published. These reviews have been unanimously positive, some even using the “magic” word. AT&T reported the biggest first-day sales of any phone in its history. All told, Apple sold over a million of them.

That’s because there is nothing modest about iPhone 4S. As I mentioned the other day, functionally it contains three major improvements (dual-core processor, Siri, better camera), compared to the iPhone 4, which contained four (processor, better camera, Retina Display, FaceTime).

It may well be, as some have theorized, that Apple will now settle into a pattern of form-factor change every two years, since two-year contracts make it tough to upgrade annually. But this hardly means that the innards will suffer from neglect.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at the 4S reviews. iPad, the great game changer, received not one but two batches of “underwhelmed” responses — one for the first iPad, the other for iPad 2. Judging by the enormity of the iPad revolution, it becomes even sillier to think about those initial responses. “Just a big iPod touch.” “No breakthrough technology.” Only a minority could see the revolution within. iPad 2 got the same “modest upgrade” treatment from the critics, followed by the same “I need one right now” response from the customers.

So history repeats with iPhone 4S. What many technology writers fail to consider is that real people aren’t technology writers. They just want a reliable phone that will dazzle them with the latest features — and iPhone 4S does a pretty good job of delivering.

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