What is inspiring about this short video by Apple is the message it conveys about one company’s focus on user experience. Such a message from what started out as a “technology” company is refreshingly different from a nuts and bolts focus on silicon and plastic. It’s also a positive message. Neither competitors nor the customers of competitor products are disparaged.
Listen closely to the sound design. The subtleties are impressive.
Larry Page of Google might like this presentation, based on what he said at the recent Google I/O developer conference. He probably wouldn’t buy the business processes that support it, though, given the discipline and secrecy that Apple maintains.
Perhaps one of the reasons Google is so secretive about its own plans is that its strategic planning and product development processes are not as highly developed and integrated, nor are they all as directly related to revenue, as Apple’s are. I wondered recently, for example, whether Google has “lost control” of Glass.
Perhaps this is impacting Google’s ability to project a consistent image as is the case with the Apple video. The two companies have very different models and philosophies, but neither is really open and transparent despite what they might want the public to believe.
At any rate, I like this type of advertising. It’s positive and reflects personal aspirations and feelings about how we (try to) use our technologies.
At a time when so many feel they have so much to fear from technology this is a refreshing approach to take.
Copyright (c) 2013 by Dennis D. McDonald. Dennis is a Washington DC area consultant specializing in project management, digital strategy, and technology adoption. He has been involved with data collection, management, and analysis projects involving survey and statistical data, demographics, text and image retrieval, database conversion and consolidation, customer support, controlled vocabularies and full text, financial data systems, industrial & manufacturing systems, and social media metrics. His clients have included General Electric, Ford, American International Group, Whirlpool, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the US Environmental Protection Agency, Jive Software, the National Library of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, Social Media Today and Oracle, and the World Bank Group. Contact Dennis via email at ddmcd@yahoo.com or by phone at 703-402-7382. His website is here: /.
