Fresh Apple: TheAppleBlog (6 сообщений)

rss2email.ru

Только лучшие партнерские программы

Спец и промо акции в Таиланде

Новости поисковой оптимизации.

Скидки, обзоры и тенденции авторынка.

TheAppleBlog

http://theappleblog.com
рекомендовать друзьям >>

Apple Crowned Marketer of the Decade: Here's Why
AdAge bestowed a major honor on Apple on Monday, naming it the first marketer of the decade for this millennium. There’s no denying that Apple’s brand is stronger than ever right now, but how did it get there, and can it stay that way?

Apple won Marketer of the Year only once in the past ten years, but it was also a contender for the top honor nearly every year this decade, according to AdAge. The marketing publication cites many reasons for its victory, among them the launch of iAd, and the continued success of its brick-and-mortar stores.

Maybe the most significant piece of marketing savvy shown by Apple during the past year was its management of the “Antennagate“ scandal that threatened to tarnish its highly polished quality control reputation. Jobs and Co. avoided disastrous and long-lasting effects by offering free cases to affected customers, while at the same time, not actually admitting that there was anything really wrong with the device through clever double-speak.

The Advertising Legacy

If you want to talk about the last decade as a whole, though, you have to look back to its earlier marketing moves that have become so iconic. Remember the iPod silhouette ads? They debuted in Oct. 2003, and became iconic enough to inspire countless spoofs. The ads also featured songs, often by relatively unknown artists. Being picked as the track for an iPod commercial could make your career. Apple’s marketing could incidentally make a musician successful.

And if it’s entertaining ad campaigns you’re after, it’s hard to do better than Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads, known by the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” tagline used in each. Though Apple dropped this campaign last year, it began in 2006, and more than 70 ads appeared in the series. Justin Long and John Hodgman, who played Mac and PC respectively, became more widely recognized for these roles than for their parts in film and television shows. Timed as they were to take advantage of the disaster that was Windows Vista, they probably did more for the Mac’s growth than anything had before.

Last, but not least, is Apple’s ”There’s an app for that,” the company’s recently certified trademark, which became synonymous with Apple’s App Store, and by extension, with the iPhone. It’s also possibly the most parodied and reused tagline in history, at least measured in terms of blog and newspaper article headlines, and derivative marketing campaigns.

The Brand

Say what you will about Apple; it’s done amazing things to secure its brand identity. The phenomenon of the fanboy is a well-documented one, and has even prompted attention from filmmakers. The loyalty Apple users feel for their preferred electronics vendor is unmatched by any other group.

Why does Apple attract such adamant defenders? I’d argue that it’s their continued commitment to quality. Apple won’t release a product that it thinks feels or seems cheap, no matter what the revenue benefits would be. The company’s never even tried something like starting an offshoot budget brand, as HP has with its Compaq acquisition. And say what you will about the iPhone 4′s antenna problems, but it’s still far and away the best phone I’ve ever owned.

That commitment to quality is closely tied to Apple’s customer service. Both on the phone and in person at the Apple Store, the resources the company has dedicated to making all of its representative-customer interactions as pleasant as possible has really paid off. Of course, there are exceptions, and people will no doubt cite many examples of poor service from Apple reps. But on the whole, AppleCare provides far less reason to complain than do many similar services offered by its competitors.

Jobs Himself

As we saw yesterday, a large part of Apple’s marketing success can be attributed to its charismatic leader, Steve Jobs. He seems to be unable to censor himself in direct interactions, something reflected in the famous Steve Jobs personal email replies that may or may not actually come from Apple’s PR department. Whether or not they do is besides the point.

Steve Jobs is part celebrity and part CEO. Even while maintaining an air of mystery and insisting on absolute secrecy regarding future product releases, he seems also to be available to customers and without a filter on his personal feelings. It’s an odd combination that’s obviously a winner with consumers, and it garners Apple a lot of press (see the thousands of articles about yesterday’s quarterly conference call circulating the web if you needed any more proof).

Can it Carry On?

So that’s how Apple achieved its place of prominence as Marketer of the Decade. But can it continue to reign? That’ll depend on its ability to maintain a high level of success with its advertising, brand and yes, even its CEO.

The advertising has already taken a turn for the worse, in my opinion. Apple seems unwilling to go out on a ledge and poke at rivals (plus it’s becoming the big fish anyway, and it looks bad to knock the competition from on high) or even to celebrate what makes it different by using indie acts for background music. The sentimentality of the FaceTime ads seems to be missing the edge that got Apple to where it is now. Maybe Apple’s customer base, as it ages, will appreciate the new direction, but I’m afraid it could lead to even more vanilla offerings.

Where Apple is safest is its brand image. Products continue to come out that provide a very high level of user experience, with relatively few frustrations. The iPad is a great recent example, as is the iPhone 4 if you leave aside for a second any antenna issues.

As for continuing to have an enigmatic and charismatic corporate leader who also provides a great public face for the company, that’s completely up in the air. Steve Jobs is obviously one of a kind, but it’s possible the corporate culture he’s fostered at Apple will produce a worthy successor from within the ranks.

What do you think is the main reason for Apple’s marketing success? Any or all of the above, or something not listed here?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать
Majek's Goldilocks: A Sign of Things to Come
At a time when the world is wondering if Apple will do to the video industry what it did to the music industry, and if the iPad will save print news from online obsolescence, independent startups like Majek Pictures are challenging the status quo for casual media.

Casual media is that comfy space we all need to retreat to on occasion just to remain sane. It’s the simpler stuff we’ve used to fill the gaps between major media events in our lives, like going to a first release movie, a stage show, music concert or a sporting even. Traditionally, it’s often taken the form of TV shows. But with the advent of apps, that’s changing.

Shortly following the release of the iPhone 4 and the iOS version of iMovie, Majek showed off exactly what could be accomplished with the pair in the short film “Apple of My Eye“. Behind the scenes footage showed a level of care normally reserved for more traditional platforms, as special rigging and professional lighting were used throughout the production. The end result was stunning.

So it can be done, but where to go from here? Perhaps looking at recent trends where people are spending more time with their smart devices than their television sets, and realizing audiences have shorter attention spans for content on their smartphones, Majek opted instead to produce a weekly series titled Goldilocks, featuring three-minute episodes.

The big difference between it and the usual YouTube fare is production quality. Not only was the entire series filmed solely on HD-capable iOS devices, but it appears that Majek is experimenting with app-based distribution as well (iTunes Link). While we’ve seen individual books as stand alone apps, and more recently, magazines and newspapers delivered the same way, we’ve yet to see TV-type content bundled and sold this way.

Aside from episodes of the show itself, the app also provides behind-the-scenes footage and photos taken from the production. Everything we’ve become accustomed to seeing in a DVD is packaged as an app. It’s an alternate model to plain old online video that’s likely to become a lightning rod for discussion at industry events like the upcoming NewTeeVee Live, and one that could help creators add a price tag to content.

The possibilities of how an app like this could benefit from iOS features are many. To take advantage of Apple’s plans surrounding streaming video in its ground breaking iAd technology, this mini-episode format could adopt something like the Super Bowl’s one second commercials. Or perhaps adopt its own in-app purchasing of future episodes or seasons. Majek’s episodes also remain in the cloud, a design that would lend itself very well to an Apple TV that supports apps.

Creative minds are finding new ways to utilize Apple technology in order to feed the appetites of Apple’s sophisticated customers for interesting content. While media executives try desperately to hold onto the past, could Majek’s model for Goldilocks be the real future of casual media?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать
iLife and iWork '11: My Hopes and Dreams
An upgrade to iWork and iLife is almost guaranteed for Wednesday, so I thought I’d share my hopes for the software bundles. These aren’t necessarily predictions. Instead, they’re the things that kinda drive me nuts about the two suites and which I hope to see fixed.

iLife

iPhoto

iPhoto is my picture storage solution, especially now that I use Snow Leopard’s Services to allow any app to pull images from iPhoto. This is very handy in PowerPoint; I have an event called Presentation Images: images I think are great to be used in presentations. PowerPoint can’t access iPhoto on its own, but using Services, it can.

Ever since iPhoto went to the event-based storage system, though, it’s been driving me nuts on imports. It’s pretty rare I’ve gone to an actual event. Instead I end up taking a few pictures of something interesting on my iPhone. Instead of just automatically creating Events, I’d like to see some greater intelligence here. At the import screen I should be able to specify which photos actually are part of an event, and which should go into a slush pile I can sort out later.

I’d also like to see better integration with Flickr and Facebook. I want iPhoto to go both ways, and also download any photos I’ve added to that set via Flickr or Facebook from other sources.

iMovie

Like many people, I mourned when iMovie took away the timeline. iMovie ’09 is a little better, but I’d still like to see it bridge the gap to Final Cut Express with better timeline integration.

I’d also like to see it become a better screencasting tool. Now that Snow Leopard can record my screen, I’d like to see them borrow some of the features of ScreenFlow and integrate them.

iWork

Pages

It’s unlikely my biggest annoyance with Pages — the inability to quickly open a Word document, make a change, and save without needing to export — is likely to ever get changed due to how Pages handles importing and exporting. I can dream, though, and in my dream the process works much more smoothly.

One area I think Pages is seriously lacking in is academic uses. While Pages ’09 introduced easier citation and equation management, those features require third-party add ons. Word 2011, due out Oct. 26, handles both of those in-app. Apple really shouldn’t be slacking on features that could help it penetrate the education market even further.

Numbers

Numbers often gets a bad rap because it’s not Excel, but I’ve personally never hit many walls in Numbers. That said, I’m pretty much the app’s target audience: someone who does light billing and spreadsheet work, or maybe needs to gussy up a chart for a presentation. That said, the biggest complaint I tend to run across from others who are more demanding with their spreadsheet software is “no pivot tables.” So, um, go pivot tables?

Keynote

I don’t really have a big wish-list for Keynote, although PowerPoint 2011′s layering feature would be very handy. The biggest problem I have with Apple’s presentation tool isn’t really with the desktop application; it’s with handing off presentations to the iPad. I tend to use a lot of non-standard fonts in my presentations, which get completely mangled when I show them on the iPad. So, what I’d love in Keynote is the ability to save a version for the iPad that will properly display my fonts, let me drive the presentation, and make any last-minute changes.

Inter-app-operability

Office for PC has one feature I’ve been longing for in iWork: the OLE framework, which makes it very easy to embed editable elements. So, I can drop an Excel table or chart into Word and be able to make changes to that. iWork would really benefit from better cross-app integration.

I don’t think my demands are too extreme, but I also have little faith that we’ll see many of these changes implemented, which is a shame, because in my opinion, these are the major problems holding the iSuites back from a user experience perspective, something Apple should be all about. If rumors are right, we’ll see how far off the mark Apple is when iWork ships on Oct. 20.

What are you hoping for or expecting from updated iWork and iLife suites?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать
The Odds: Pro Bookmakers Weigh In On Tomorrow's Event
Tomorrow, Oct. 20, Apple will host its much-anticipated "Back to the Mac" media event. Many industry observers expect Apple CEO Steve Jobs to announce a new MacBook Air ultraportable computer, among other things. But what do those who make a living calculating odds think?

Bookmaker expert Mickey Richardson, CEO of Bookmaker.com, one of the largest sports odds-making sites in the world, and his team of experts have calculated the likelihood of what we might see at the event.

So what do the pros think will and won’t happen Wednesday?

An 11-inch version of Macbook Air
YES -750 88.5%
NO +150 40%

Updated iWork & iLife
YES -500 15%
NO +100 50%

FaceTime for iChat in new version of OS X
YES -750 88.5%
NO +150 40%

Next version of OS X will be called Lion
YES +150 40%
NO -750 88.5%

Note: For those unfamiliar with sports betting, the +/- Indicates the Return on the wager. The percentage is the likelihood that response will occur. For example: Betting on the candidate least likely to win would earn the most amount of money, should that happen.

Tune in tomorrow for TheAppleBlog’s full coverage.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать
Keeping the Powder Dry: What Will Apple Buy?
Steve Jobs said during yesterday’s conference call that Apple plans to "keep [its] powder dry" for "one or two" strategic acquisitions in the future. He was referring to the $50 billion in cash assets Apple is currently sitting on. But what fight is he gearing up for?

By not paying out dividends or using the money to buy back company stock, Apple is making sure it’s uniquely positioned to make acquisitions to defend or augment its place in the market. That cash can instead go back into R&D, but more importantly, it can be used to acquire companies whose IP and resources might strengthen Apple’s business, or help it expand to new areas.

But what does Apple want to buy, and how big will it go? While it isn’t easy to say, it does appear that Apple’s acquisitions are very much situation-dependent, and that the limit of what it’s willing to spend is on the rise.

Apple only started buying up other companies three years ago (its coffers were significantly more full following the introduction of the iPhone) and since then, it’s made more purchases every year. The size of the deals varies, but the number of acquisitions consistently rises. So as Apple’s money pile grows, its aversion to the risks associated with acquisition decreases considerably.

Stacey Higginbotham wrote yesterday about the Big 11 tech acquirers, as identified by Deutsche Bank. You’ll recognize all the names on the list, and probably won’t be surprised to find Apple up there alongside its major competitors in both the PC and smartphone markets. The way tech is headed, acquisitions are quickly becoming the best way to gain competitive advantage. It’s how Apple developed the A4 chip, the component that’s probably made the most difference in terms of production costs for Apple’s iOS devices.

There are a wealth of choices for future acquisitions with $50 billion in the bank. Google only has $30 billion, by comparison, and Microsoft only slightly more with $31 billion. In a very real sense, that means that Apple has more buying power than its competition. It also means something like Facebook could even be on the table. The best guesses say the social network is worth anywhere between $10 and $33 billion, which could potentially put it beyond the reach of anyone other than Apple.

But Apple won’t be buying Facebook, despite meetings between Zuckerberg and Jobs, and what Peter Kafka at All Things D thinks. Not only would it take a huge chunk out of Apple’s cash pile, but it would prove a massive distraction from Apple’s main lines of business, and its contribution to Cupertino’s core interests would be negligible. I can see Jobs wanting to acquire some social networking IP to bolster its efforts with Ping, but buying Facebook to accomplish that would be like swatting a fly with a nuclear bomb.

No, Apple’s acquisitions will be focused on providing its mobile products with key competitive differentiators. That means battery, streaming, and radio tech. We’ll see buys that provide RFID expertise, ways around the battery crunch that’s fast becoming the major barrier in mobile tech, and speedy and dependable methods of streaming content to and from smartphones and tablets. This is where the fight on the horizon is in the mobile sector, and this is where Apple’s many guns will be pointed when the battle comes.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать
iTunes Competitor Awaiting App Store Approval
Steve Jobs said yesterday that Apple’s model with iOS isn’t closed; it’s “integrated.” Well, the integrated model faces a major test close on the heels of having been officially named: Will it, or can it, approve an iTunes competitor for sale in the App Store?

U.K.-based digital music firm 7digital, which was the first to offer DRM-free content from all four major labels, has let it be known that an iPhone app for its service is currently awaiting Apple’s approval. Android’s “fragmented” model saw the introduction of the app last month. It’s also currently available for BlackBerry.

The 7digital app is a complete replacement for iTunes and the built-in Apple iPod app for iOS devices. It allows you to purchase and download music, and to sync wirelessly with your computer, something iTunes doesn’t even offer yet. There’s no monthly subscription fee, unlike other .MP3 stores on the web, and you get high quality tracks (up to 320kbps). 7digital also has plans to introduce streaming services in the future.

Is Apple ready for this? Even six months ago, the answer would’ve been a definitive and resounding “No.” But Apple’s business has changed so dramatically in the last year that its priorities may have shifted enough to let 7digital through. It becomes a question of which it values more: having attractive, useful software available for iOS, or protecting its interests with regards to the iTunes music store.

It’s worth noting that music wasn’t on the agenda yesterday afternoon during the Apple conference call. And Pandora and Spotify (in the U.K.) both made it into the App Store despite presenting obvious competition for Apple’s own iTunes. Cupertino could be relaxing its grip on that market, realizing that allowing a competitive distribution model for music within the App Store will cost them less than revamping iTunes for the inevitable streaming revolution, and be more appealing to users.

I don’t think the time is quite ripe yet for 7digital to make it through, though. For one, the app is markedly different from Pandora and Spotify. You don’t stream content, you download it, directly to your device. That means it competes directly with the iTunes model. And secondly, 7digital promises wireless syncing. I think that’s a feather Apple’s reserving for its own cap, as indicated by the rejection of the Wi-Fi Sync app that eventually made its way to Cydia on jailbroken devices. No, for now, iOS will remain a town with only one major music hall.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
Переслать