ninjaturtle
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Apple's Biggest Marketing Secret Revealed In Court
- Thread starter HardOCP News
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AnonymousUser
Gawd
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I definitely don't hate on Apple. I think their laptops (MacBook Pro) are very nice machines. I just personally don't like the OS too much, I might just be used to Windows though. My next laptop might be a MacBook Pro with Windows 8 64 bit as the primary and the latest OS X Mountain Lion in VMware. I'd just replace the standard drive with a newer 256-512GB SSD and max out the RAM to 16GB. Oh wait, they started soldering all the components together to be unchangeable, that's right, never mind.
MavericK
Zero Cool
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I have noticed a LOT more Apple product placement in TV shows/movies than in the past. I guess that goes for other products too, but any of that blatant plugging of an item in a TV show just pisses me off. It's not even subtle most of the time.
There is an imac in the background, and Ive seen mac laptops, with bullet hole stickers partially obscuring the logo. So no, Dell/Alienware doesnt have Big Bang locked down.
ballistic90
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Well, apparently they've been in daytime soap operas forever, according to my wife.
Maybe it's because I just don't watch the right TV shows -- or much TV at all -- but what Apple product placement I've seen has all been fairly low-key. Sure, I see the occasional glowing Apple, but no more than I would walking into the average Starbucks.
Now, you want some truly heinous bought-and-paid-for TV screen time? Windows Phone placements on prime-time Fox shows. "Hey everyone, Microsoft's check just cleared; someone grab the macro lens." Special mention goes to Bones, where you can tell they're reading ad copy verbatim. (Yes, I know it's a terrible show. No, I don't care.) "Here. Let me bring it up on my $WINDOWS_PHONE_DEVICE_MODEL. <INSERT BULLET POINTS HERE>" It's more egregious than when they cashed the checks from Toyota for the Prius and from Ford for whatever terrible econobox they were pushing at the time.
rudy
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Revealed what idiot did not already know this?
MavericK
Zero Cool
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Yeah, Bones is a good example actually. They have some really blatant and obnoxious product plugging.
It depends on what shows you watch, and I can't recall any off-hand, but I've just noticed more where they zoom in and show the Apple logo right in the middle of the screen while the character's face is slightly above the screen while they're using it. Then at the end of the show you see "Promotional consideration furnished by Apple" in the credits.
Yea that is obvious
The thing is, it IS obvious, it's just not EASY to do which is where Apple excels.
No, paid for by the taxpayer.
Only the most expensive products will do for our governmwnt workers!
Metrocall
Gawd
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On the one with the 2880x1800 screen yes, but all the standard MBP's have user changeable ram and hard drives. You can even get a pretty cheap kit to change the ODD with a HDD bay to house two HDD's (or SSD's).
Exactly. Retards generalizing that Apple users are "less tech savvy" than windows users or linux users is laughable. It's called preference.
Yes, the ones who buy Apple products; they usually deny it when I talk to them.
Now there is irrefutable proof.
AnonymousUser
Gawd
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On the one with the 2880x1800 screen yes, but all the standard MBP's have user changeable ram and hard drives. You can even get a pretty cheap kit to change the ODD with a HDD bay to house two HDD's (or SSD's).
I agree as it's something newly implemented by Apple (they seem to be heading this way though). However, if I was to buy a MacBook Pro, I'd want the retina display. Therein lies the problem.
NIVO
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i thought it was adding one or two small items to a product that you could've added before, and then someone or some website saying"OMG WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT" 3-6 mos down the road?
An independent reason being ... they actually looked at a bunch of different phones and picked one they liked. The two people in my immediate family that have iPhones never actually looked at any other phone on the market. Well, my sister's boyfriend started to but she told him he had to buy an iPhone for no reason that she gave him ... and he did. Typically, people picking up Android phones are out looking at the many different models available and picking something that they physically like (either size, shape, colour, etc).
And, yes, Apple markets the shit out of their products. That's why they have many people showing up at stores asking for the iPhone without looking at any competing products. I've met many people talking about getting an iPhone and when I suggest they look at other products and decide which is best for themselves they get annoyed that I might be telling them they're making the wrong choice or trying to convince them to buy something else. Once the good marketing gets its claws into someone it is very difficult to convince them to change their mind. Good marketing relies on emotional responses and that's one of the more difficult things to get people to reconsider.
Apple dominate in america because their products are heap compared to your salaries. Switch iver to western europe and dolars convert to euros +vat = already more expensive. Now go to eastern europe where the average salary is 400 ~ 500 euros and its imposible to own a 2000 euro apple laptop. Now swich over to asia where the avarege salary is even less and u can see where i am going with this. Americans should shut it with apple been pricy,u don't know what pricy means
the thing is that when your girlfriend tells you to buy a specific electronic device that's a reason to do it in and of itself
most of the rest of the guys lurking around mobile phones fondling all of them aren't doing it because of all the choice it's because most of them are married and the choice is implicit: in the budget (inexpensive) and not likely to get to buy another one anytime soon so it's best to maximize whatever choice that guy has
very few people are comparing internal specs of a phone or much of any other consumer electronic device after the "will it do what I need it to" metric
Dr. Righteous
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I did say tech savvy but he would go in the clueless category.
Dr. Righteous
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Yeah, I will stand by it. I said "some of the least tech savvy people I have ever dealt with"
And I'm really not talking about Apple fan boyz; just people that live in a tech bubble that starts and ends at the apple store. If it is not Apple, it does not exist or is irrelevant.
It's a government contract obviously....doubt they were given for free, more like 10 times the price you pay.
The OP point about mindshare is true, but there is one aspect of Apple vs PC which I think has skewed users' POV even more: The fact that unless you upgrade your pre-built Windows PC, it's going to be underpowered, especially from a RAM point of view. Apples have always tended to come with enough memory to run the OS smoothly. This means that less tech-savvy people buy Dells or HPs half the RAM they really need for a smooth experience. They have a slow computer that clunks because it's always accessing the disk. Then they try an Apple which was sold with adequate RAM and come away with the impression that "Apples are faster" as opposed to the truth which is "My PC doesn't have enough RAM."
Can't edit so here's a second try at that middle statement:
Apples have always tended to come with enough memory to run the OS smoothly. Because Apple are the ones building Apple machines and they know it will only hurt them to make the baseline underpowered. PC builders are numerous and locked in price competition. This means that less tech-savvy people buy Dells or HPs with half the RAM they really need for a smooth experience. Meanwhile if they just doubled the RAM their computer would seem like an entirely different machine.
Apples have always tended to come with enough memory to run the OS smoothly. Because Apple are the ones building Apple machines and they know it will only hurt them to make the baseline underpowered. PC builders are numerous and locked in price competition. This means that less tech-savvy people buy Dells or HPs with half the RAM they really need for a smooth experience. Meanwhile if they just doubled the RAM their computer would seem like an entirely different machine.
Vermillion
Supreme [H]ardness
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BBT has a few Macbook Pros (with the logo missing via a sticker). In particular Raj always has a MBP.
Dell XPS is pretty damn visible though. Remember the old TV show "Viper"? That in itself was nothing but an hour long Dodge commercial.
Or the new Knight Rider...all Ford all the time. Anyways...product placement isn't some super secret marketing scheme. They all do it. Apple is just very good at it at times.
The NASA thing I found interesting. Makes me wonder how many use Linux or Windows though on that Mac. Lots of Macs over at Google, but most are running Goobuntu. Most of us at the [H] may not like what's running inside due to the cost since we know we can get more bang for the buck elsewhere, but you can't deny that Apple does make a good laptop that is good looking.
The Apple logo - forerunner of HypnoToad
That wasn't always the case. The iBook G3 I have came with the standard amount of RAM in it for a base model, 128MB. This was in 2002 though, which is ancient history in the computing world. Both Jaguar and Panther ran like molasses - which is to be expected...but I wouldn't say that less tech-savvy were instantly set up for success either way. Of course, upselling additional RAM in the Apple Store was probably a cinch, so you have your point haha.
My original point was "independent reason" not "any old reason at all". My point is simple ... that Apple gets far more word of mouth justification than actual in-store or web research justification. A decent percentage do understand what they're getting, yes. But, I feel Apple has garnered a higher percentage of pure brand push purchasing. I also never brought up anything about specs ... I actually said looking at them and deciding which one they liked best (feel in the hands, colour, etc).
Apple isn't alone in this either. Used to be Sony had this sort of reputation as well. Word of mouth and TV commercials with no independent justification sold a ton of Sony audio equipment and TV's back in the day. Not unlike Apple, people just assumed that Sony products were the "best" in their category without doing any research.