The NextWeb mentioned today a Wired article that offered a few reasons why Apple is not so exquisite anymore simply because you can now find it almost everywhere you go.
Apple is big in Hollywood and this is pretty obvious in the nice product placement in Wall-E. However, this is no big surprise, since Steve Jobs was the CEO of Pixar. Apple is also skipping MacWorld because evangelizing is not needed anymore. Apple’s marketing machine has pretty much achieved its goal turning the brand into a lovemark.
Steve Jobs will no longer be the MC of the Apple keynotes at MacWorld, being substituted by one of his senior VPs (rumors say that this is mainly because of his health, but they also say that MacWorld is no longer so important to require Jobs’ presence either). Because it can, Apple is giving up on FireWire, the cool data transfer technology it invented and pushed onto the market, simply because USB is more ubiquitous, and thus, more mainstream.
Apple has become the laughing stock of the Simpsons, showing us that it’s culture is not so cult anymore, as it caught the attention of the general public. Even Obama uses Apple and has used Apple technology in his US Presidential campaign. Moreover, Wallmart is selling the iPhone in its retail chain, thus bringing the world’s coolest and most exclusive smartphone at the fingertip of the masses.
Fortunately, Romania is still far away from becoming a mainstream Apple culture and thus you are still cool and hip if you own an Apple device. However, this won’t last for too long, since we, as a nation, seem to have the strong tendency to copy the Western world, especially the Americans.
The question for the future is: How would Apple position itself in the mainstream economy? Would cool still be its primary emotional hook on its customers? Would Apple be forced to become more competitive on the functional attributes of its products? How would Apple shepherd its fans if coolness would not be a differentiator anymore? God knows… or maybe Steve Jobs :).
