Is Apple Still In It For The Super-User?
On Wednesday, electronic giants Apple launched the iPad at their MacWorld conference in San Francisco. Geeks from all corners of the globe huddled around monitors to view shakey streams broadcast from inside by those lucky enough to be part of the action. The conference is another awe-inspiring display of Apple’s dedication to the development of information technology and an abundant celebration of all things innovative in consumer electronics.
There… that’s it. That’s what we’re a little confussed about. “Apple is the market leader in consumer electronics.” Read that a couple of times and think about it.
In the first 10 years of the 21st Century Apple managed to design, develop, launch and market at least 5 of the top consumer electronic products available today. The numerous iPod variations, the iPhone, the super-slim MacBooks, Apple TV… every year there’s something new, and we race to the Apple store to pick it up as soon as possible.
But it didn’t used to be that way. Apple were traditionally the domain of the high-end, super-user. DJs would stare in awe as guys playing the main slot would confidently stride into the booth and hook up their shiny new MacBooks with a few well placed lead insertions. Serious recording studios ONLY had Macs. You wouldn’t be seen dead with a PC, unless that was the one hooked up just for internet or solitaire use! Even on the visual side of things - all editing and production studios use Macs. The units themselves were traditionally more expensive than their PC equivilents, BUT THAT WAS THE KEY! Apple products weren’t general consumer items… they were for the serous pros, who could justify the additional expense. Anyone selling lots of records produced on a Mac - the software was more stable, and shit… they could afford it! Editors needed memory and RAM to run all of the visual software necessary for a cut, so the additional cost was OK. And all the while, we… the general consumer lusted over those little white laptops or the big, chunky G5.
You used to need a reason to own an Apple product, and 9 out of 10 times that reason was simply, “because I’m f*cking cooler than you. My job’s more important, i’m richer, i’m more hip… I’m just an Apple guy.” In the last decade however Apple has turned that notion on its head. Everyone is now an ‘Apple guy’ - we all own an iPhone or an iPod or some kind of Apple product. Such a 180 degree turn has occurred, that if you have black headphones dangling from your ears then you’re a bit of a mystery!
So, where’s the problem? It’s worked. Apple are bigger than ever. Their shareholders are (now…) very happy! It’s one of the most profitable organisations in the world. The problem comes with that core group of super-nerds currently in San Francisco, in that little hall, hanging on every word that Steve Jobs and his team of prophets say.
What happened to the super-user? What happened to the Apple 10% of the 90’s? Those 1-in-10 that owned Apple, that stood by them, that had to justify WHY they’d spent 2 or 3 or 4 times more than the rest of us, just becuase they were the Apple market. Is there any justification for the super-user to remain a faithful Apple consumer? Are the products still better? Do Apple even think about the super-user anymore, or is it all a case of getting ‘mass-market products out to a MASS market’? If so, do the core even feel a connection anymore?
After watching another keynote speech about another product aimed at the broadest audience possible, I tend to think the ‘NHS, black-rim bespectacled gang’ have been well and truly forgotten about in favour of the Shoreditch hipster, the adolescent teen and the Jay-Z listening Granny.
But do they even care? Oh no, they’re still proud Apple guys, but that really doesn’t have the same mystique it used to.
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This product will be a success, but an undeserved one. I’m waiting for a open-book tablet style thing; that’d be sweetness.