To become the world’s second-most profitable public company – trailing only Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco – while simultaneously being recognized as the world’s most beloved and relevant brand, requires a special kind of marketing jujitsu that only Apple can pull off. Such mastery and long-term commitment allow the company to position itself as the market’s strongest advocate of consumer privacy rights. At the same time, it stands to benefit the most from those walled-garden policies. No wonder frustrated competitors and the advertising industry are muttering under their breath about Apple.
On its way to yet another record-setting quarter of revenue, Apple has long acted as an innovator, tastemaker and wily copycat, ready to spot a trend and reimagine it with a splash of color or an ultrathin bezel. During the annual Apple Event on April 20th, the company exhibited similar tactics, thinking differently just enough to keep us captivated. Here’s what stood out:
IoT Tracking Devices: “Find My” Everything
More commonly referred to as the “Where Did I Leave My ******* Phone?” app, the “Find My” app and the Find My network look poised for huge consumer adoption. The release of AirTags, which are coin-shaped tracking devices that can be attached to your most precious cargo (think backpacks not babies), establishes an entirely new product ecosystem around opt-in tracking and locating. It gives Apple Maps a renewed purpose, and with other brands given access to the ecosystem such as VanMoof, Chipolo and Belkin, it looks like Apple will succeed at the expense of a first-mover.
The New Telecommuter Consumer Computer
If you want to give your employees a reason to come back to the office (or another reason to stay home), the new, brightly colored iMac is now available for pre-order. Armed with a proprietary, superfast M1 chip, Apple claims the machine runs a “whopping 85% faster than the most recent 21.5-inch iMac, offers 2x faster GPU performance, and delivers 3x faster machine learning thanks to the 16-core Neural Engine in M1”.
The seven bright color choices are tamer than those offered in 1999 when Steve Jobs introduced five color schemes for the iMac: blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape.
Full-Spectrum Storytelling
With a string of minor hits on Apple TV+ and Ted Lasso fanboys fired up for season two, the creative and content teams at Apple are all smiles. At the Apple Event, they demonstrated hardware and software purpose-built for creators and used their own content creation as proofs of concept, including examples of how indie creators can use the new AR app, Clips, to make social media content more immersive.
The long-awaited Apple TV set-top box will include a re-designed jog-wheel remote based on the original iPod’s click wheel. To boost the reach of its omnichannel approach to storytelling, the Apple TV app is available on PlayStation, XBOX, ROKU, Amazon Fire TV and most Smart TVs.
