People forget the circumstances of the 1984 commercial. IBM moved into the personal computer market in 1981 in response to the success of the Apple II and Commadore PET. Microsoft produced DOS the same year but was an insignificant player at the time. Just 3 years after IBM managed to produce it's first affordable personal computer, Apple changed the game completely with the Mac. IBM was at that time a stodgy, monolithic and absolutely gigantic business-oriented mainframe company making moves to take over the fledgling personal computer market. The personal computer movement had been associated with 70s counterculture and IBM was as far from it as you can get. The ad spoke to people. Compare with the Motorola ad where they're advertising an also-ran product by speaking to the tiny minority of people who think Apple's curation of the App Store is an insult to freedom and doing so by portraying iPod owners, who probably make up 99% of their potential buyers, as mindless sheep. Anyone who actually understands the reference should be offended.
Your post got me thinking, the Motorola advert would have been so much better if they'd used 2012. They could have spun it into the end of the world for Apple and the rise of the Xoom. But then they would have had to back it up with a device that was actually elegant and powerful enough to cause the end of the world. Too bad too, that would have been a fun and memorable commercial.
Business is an incestuous affair. They are enemies by day and sleep together by night. Apple battles with Google, Android, and Honeycomb, yet the former CEO Eric Schmidt used to be on Apple's Board of Directors. Apple battles with Microsoft -"I'm a Mac. I'm a PC" and Apple sells and supports the Microsoft Office Suite and Microsoft Suite supports Apple's anti-Flash strategy while making overtures to Adobe. Apple battles Adobe on Flash and yet sells and supports Adobe's Creative Suite, even offering free classes on Photoshop and Illustrator at their Apple Stores. Motorola and Apple, on the other hand are no enemies. Apple and Motorola teamed up with IBM to produce the Power PC chip. In fact Apple got into the mobile phone business, creating the first mobile phone that also had iTunes on it and supported music purchased from the iTunes store. Apple's next iPhone and iPad will also have a Motorola chip and lincensing. Considering how these companies have ties with each other, you will see that at "night", they are the best of friends.
Any inference of Apple fans being Drones or PC-users being "inefficient" is done in the name of business. A popular book in Advertising and Business is "The Art of War" by Sung Tzu?complete with spying and tricking the enemy into making the first move.
If we create an "enemy" and promote a "cause", we have a "nation". How else do you explain the Coke Classic battle of consumers rebelling against a formula change and why we automatically ask for a Coke when a Pepsi will do? Why did we fight Communism and now buy products produced in China? Any student of History and Psychology will see it's all about "business". At the end of the day, the average school kid will come home from using a Mac to using his Dad's PC to browse the Web on Firefox or play on both a Playstation and an Xbox, practice piano, text homework with one hand, hack Linux and watch sports on a Sony monitor while his or her mother is talking to Grandma with an iPhone in one hand and an iPad in another hand as she is doing laundry with a Samsung washer/dryer as a Roomba vacuums the living room and the government in Iran generate hate for the US, having once been friendly with the US, having once been the civilization from which all modern civilization came from. It's all a game ... and then we die. All computers, tablets, operating systems, and machines are just tools. If we spend all our time battling over which ones to use, then we aren't using them.
I thought the soon-to-be-released Xoom was competing with the April 2010 iPad, not the 1984 Macintosh. Man, Motorola is later to the game than I thought!!
\
Let's not forget that Motorola designed and manufactured the 68000 CPU that powered the original Macs. So does that make them complicit in some evil mysterious plot that is depicted in the ad?
It's kind of ersatz "charming". You have to wonder, though, if a pastiche like this that imitates a medley of other works (the 1984 ad and the faux Yann Tiersen score--is it Yann Tiersen?) is perhaps not the way to extol something that is entirely fresh and original. Maybe THAT is the point. I wish Apple would make their earbuds in black, white and other colors.
In a way Apple today is kind of like IBM of the 1984 commercial. There was a saying around IT purchasing agent circles at the time. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". Now-a-days people are thinking, I won't get laughed at by my friends for buying an Apple.
Buying an iPad is the safe way to go since they have already been proven to be very popular. Xoom may be a fine tablet and Android an adequate OS but they are still going to have a hard time competing with the momentum that Apple has. As long as Apple just stays focused and delivers incremental upgrades without any major revamps, it will remain on top for quite a while - at least another 2-3 years. By then they better have something completely new to to sell to the fan base.
The ad was an obvious jab at Apple, not them "tipping their hat."
Think about it, the original Apple ad was meant to set Apple apart. This ad shows how ironically, the masses are now Apple drones, with the "Think Different" crowd actually not being Apple anymore.
The Xoom will fail because of the mandatory 1 month data package from Verizon (which is probably a stipulation Apple pushed for in order for Verizon to get the iphone.)
The iPad is slow, doesn't play flash, and you're limited to buying your programs from Big Brother via the App store. I don't think the iPad is a slam-dunk by any means.
More options are good. Apple is becoming the Big Brother they once slung the hammer at in '84.
Really funny to see Windows PC users trying to slam Apple for being sheep. The irony is just too rich.
Clearly, whoever made the ad is not very creative or innovative. I walked away from this with the feeling that something was missing, there had to something more than white capes and earbuds.
The fact that there were a couple of iPad ads floating around that were far more interesting did not help Motorola.
At the end of the day - it was a lame boring poor ad.
There are two primary form factors: one that should fit comfortably in any pocket and another that should be large enough to comfortably read a book, watch a movie, take meeting notes, etc.
The iPhone is a perfect match for the first and the iPad a perfect match for the second.
Those Android phones with big screens are too large to fit in most pockets and uncomfortable to operate with one hand, making them a suboptimal choice for a primary smartphone device.
The 7 inch "tablets" are both too large to fit in a pocket and too small to provide a significant viewing advantage over more pocketable devices. Moreover, the 16:9 aspect ratio is a misguided choice given that movie watching is hardly the primary use of these devices.
good points. just would add, since i've needed to routinely be out and about with a shoulder brief bag for the last 15 years for all my stuff, the iPad is great for using anywhere. so my wife has the phone.
also, very little comment elsewhere about 16:9 vs. 4:3 for tablet screens. yes, i think 4:3 is more versatile, and is simply better for web viewing in particular. which is the #1 use of any tablet. Since apparently ALL Android tabs will be 16:9, we will find out how consumers react by later this year.
True. It is a derivative product but so what? To say it is a copy is unfair because how do you make a tablet computer that isn't a copy in some way or other. It could be squarer, it could be fatter, it could have more buttons but that's about the extent of it in terms of its physical design.
The ad is derivative and not as many claim, a copy. It is 'plays on' the 'original' but the message by suggesting that the new drones are the Mac users but the tone is different. The appeal to the individualist to break free from the mindless 'follower' syndrome is very similar but in this case it rings more hollow as Apple users usually are portrayed as individualists rather than followers.
I think the Motorola pad looks quite nice in the ad (what little you see of it) and the ad may be quite effective in piquing people's interest in the product. Ultimately, however, I suspect Apple may benefit more from this ad.
It’s that extra half inch on the diagonal that makes it overall larger, but you imply the iPad’s aspect ratio gives it a larger area for a given diagonal size.
PS: I thought 10” was too large? I thought 7” was the key to killing those HUGE iPads?
oops! 8.08" x 6.06" is NOT a 16:9 aspect. that's 4:3 too. the aspect is the physical dimensions, no matter what the dpi specs, ignore them. so a 16:9 Xoom screen will measure about 8.8" x 5.0". which totals 44" sq area. if the aspect is actually 16:10 viewable, then it would be about 8.5"x5.4" = 46" sq.
safe to say the total screen area of the Xoom is about the same as the iPad.
I want you all to bookmark this page, and check it one year from now. By this time next year, the iPad will have less than 50% of the tablet market. This is so certain it's basically fact (please don't try and debate this, I'm completely right). Allow me to explain:
Android currently has 22% of the Tablet market. That's pretty much just thanks to the Galaxy Tab--a device that really can't compete with the iPad, in software or in hardware--as well as several of those cheapy Android tablets made by companies you've never heard of.
But this year, beginning with the Xoom, we're going to see a major explosion of high-profile tablets, running software that was actually built around the tablet form-factor (instead of just an upscaled phone operating system, like with the iPad and the Tab).
Just like the Motorola Droid was the harbinger of Android's domination in the smartphone industry, the Xoom will be the harbinger of its domination in the tablet industry.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Please don't try and argue with me, as it's pointless; everything I said is completely right and true. Please bookmark this page and check it one year from now.
Ha! It would probably be gratifying to show how completely out of touch with reality your views are but there is almost no chance you will be anywhere to be found. You will have moved on to a new identity and still spewing silly counter factual statistics (Galaxy Tab owns 1/5 of the market???? Please, show me even one in the wild. It is simply a lie.)
There are Apple stockholders here who do care specifically how well Apple performs. However, my guess is that most people here are gadget enthusiasts who have gravitated to Apple because it is the only company in the past ten years that has been willing to innovate. The others have been content to wait to see what device from Apple they are going to copy this time. Some celebrate this wanton parasitical behavior (like you) and others are less sanguine about its possible deadening effect.
True. It is a derivative product but so what? To say it is a copy is unfair because how do you make a tablet computer that isn't a copy in some way or other. It could be squarer, it could be fatter, it could have more buttons but that's about the extent of it in terms of its physical design.
The ad is derivative and not as many claim, a copy. It is 'plays on' the 'original' but the message by suggesting that the new drones are the Mac users but the tone is different. The appeal to the individualist to break free from the mindless 'follower' syndrome is very similar but in this case it rings more hollow as Apple users usually are portrayed as individualists rather than followers.
I think the Motorola pad looks quite nice in the ad (what little you see of it) and the ad may be quite effective in piquing people's interest in the product. Ultimately, however, I suspect Apple may benefit more from this ad.
The white hoodies - love'm. Where to get one?
The problem with Moto's ad is that it's attemping to ridicue the very product that it's emulating. I would say few were able to tell the difference between the guy's pad and the girl's pad in the ad without the end scene where we were told it's actually the Xoom.
BTW, judging by your last statement and other poster's similar comment, I think the next growth segment for Apple has been identified: high end fashion appearal that matches perfectly with their owner's Apple products.
In a way Apple today is kind of like IBM of the 1984 commercial. There was a saying around IT purchasing agent circles at the time. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". Now-a-days people are thinking, I won't get laughed at by my friends for buying an Apple.
Buying an iPad is the safe way to go since they have already been proven to be very popular. Xoom may be a fine tablet and Android an adequate OS but they are still going to have a hard time competing with the momentum that Apple has. As long as Apple just stays focused and delivers incremental upgrades without any major revamps, it will remain on top for quite a while - at least another 2-3 years. By then they better have something completely new to to sell to the fan base.
No, Apple isn't anything like IBM in 1984. The point of the 1984 ad isn't that IBM is popular and has a lot of users. The point is that IBM is a gigantic, stodgy, business-oriented company that's trying to take over the PC market and make our personal lives as dull and regimented as our work lives. Apple is, in fact, the same company it was in 1984. It's still consumer-oriented, it still concentrates on a few products done well, they're still setting the direction of the market, the same guy is calling the shots and they're still releasing revolutionary products like other companies release quarterly reports. There's a reason people are excited about what Apple is doing and there's a reason those same people find it sad when all of this is forgotten in order to make some lame point about how you don't want to be perceived as a follower who purchases products other people are understandably enthusiastic about.
I'm pretty sure Creative tried this same ad strategy against the iPod and quickly discovered that mocking your potential customer base is a horrible idea.
Somehow, I doubt iPad users were the target of the ad. The ad speaks to people who identify with a shy, creative types who lust for Sarah Michelle Gellar in a white hoodie. A potentially huge market.
It's a pretty good ad cinematically, but looking at it from a consumer's POV I come off thinking I want a tablet, and by extension the "cool iPad" I've heard about--not a Xoom. The iPad being $300 cheaper helps as well.
P.S. Anyone else hear a bit of a resemblance between Xoom and Zune?
Comments
REJOICE!
They got something right. The number of Xooms compared to the number of Apple devices.
It's funny cause its true!
People forget the circumstances of the 1984 commercial. IBM moved into the personal computer market in 1981 in response to the success of the Apple II and Commadore PET. Microsoft produced DOS the same year but was an insignificant player at the time. Just 3 years after IBM managed to produce it's first affordable personal computer, Apple changed the game completely with the Mac. IBM was at that time a stodgy, monolithic and absolutely gigantic business-oriented mainframe company making moves to take over the fledgling personal computer market. The personal computer movement had been associated with 70s counterculture and IBM was as far from it as you can get. The ad spoke to people. Compare with the Motorola ad where they're advertising an also-ran product by speaking to the tiny minority of people who think Apple's curation of the App Store is an insult to freedom and doing so by portraying iPod owners, who probably make up 99% of their potential buyers, as mindless sheep. Anyone who actually understands the reference should be offended.
Brilliant. Thanks for posting this.
Your post got me thinking, the Motorola advert would have been so much better if they'd used 2012. They could have spun it into the end of the world for Apple and the rise of the Xoom. But then they would have had to back it up with a device that was actually elegant and powerful enough to cause the end of the world. Too bad too, that would have been a fun and memorable commercial.
Business is an incestuous affair. They are enemies by day and sleep together by night. Apple battles with Google, Android, and Honeycomb, yet the former CEO Eric Schmidt used to be on Apple's Board of Directors. Apple battles with Microsoft -"I'm a Mac. I'm a PC" and Apple sells and supports the Microsoft Office Suite and Microsoft Suite supports Apple's anti-Flash strategy while making overtures to Adobe. Apple battles Adobe on Flash and yet sells and supports Adobe's Creative Suite, even offering free classes on Photoshop and Illustrator at their Apple Stores. Motorola and Apple, on the other hand are no enemies. Apple and Motorola teamed up with IBM to produce the Power PC chip. In fact Apple got into the mobile phone business, creating the first mobile phone that also had iTunes on it and supported music purchased from the iTunes store. Apple's next iPhone and iPad will also have a Motorola chip and lincensing. Considering how these companies have ties with each other, you will see that at "night", they are the best of friends.
Any inference of Apple fans being Drones or PC-users being "inefficient" is done in the name of business. A popular book in Advertising and Business is "The Art of War" by Sung Tzu?complete with spying and tricking the enemy into making the first move.
If we create an "enemy" and promote a "cause", we have a "nation". How else do you explain the Coke Classic battle of consumers rebelling against a formula change and why we automatically ask for a Coke when a Pepsi will do? Why did we fight Communism and now buy products produced in China? Any student of History and Psychology will see it's all about "business". At the end of the day, the average school kid will come home from using a Mac to using his Dad's PC to browse the Web on Firefox or play on both a Playstation and an Xbox, practice piano, text homework with one hand, hack Linux and watch sports on a Sony monitor while his or her mother is talking to Grandma with an iPhone in one hand and an iPad in another hand as she is doing laundry with a Samsung washer/dryer as a Roomba vacuums the living room and the government in Iran generate hate for the US, having once been friendly with the US, having once been the civilization from which all modern civilization came from. It's all a game ... and then we die. All computers, tablets, operating systems, and machines are just tools. If we spend all our time battling over which ones to use, then we aren't using them.
I wouldn't be surprised if this ad boosts iPad sales more than it helps any of the other tablets.
Actually, that's a very good ad. I do like it a lot.
Yea yea
Agreed.
I thought the soon-to-be-released Xoom was competing with the April 2010 iPad, not the 1984 Macintosh. Man, Motorola is later to the game than I thought!!
Let's not forget that Motorola designed and manufactured the 68000 CPU that powered the original Macs. So does that make them complicit in some evil mysterious plot that is depicted in the ad?
Buying an iPad is the safe way to go since they have already been proven to be very popular. Xoom may be a fine tablet and Android an adequate OS but they are still going to have a hard time competing with the momentum that Apple has. As long as Apple just stays focused and delivers incremental upgrades without any major revamps, it will remain on top for quite a while - at least another 2-3 years. By then they better have something completely new to to sell to the fan base.
Think about it, the original Apple ad was meant to set Apple apart. This ad shows how ironically, the masses are now Apple drones, with the "Think Different" crowd actually not being Apple anymore.
The Xoom will fail because of the mandatory 1 month data package from Verizon (which is probably a stipulation Apple pushed for in order for Verizon to get the iphone.)
The iPad is slow, doesn't play flash, and you're limited to buying your programs from Big Brother via the App store. I don't think the iPad is a slam-dunk by any means.
More options are good. Apple is becoming the Big Brother they once slung the hammer at in '84.
Really funny to see Windows PC users trying to slam Apple for being sheep. The irony is just too rich.
The fact that there were a couple of iPad ads floating around that were far more interesting did not help Motorola.
At the end of the day - it was a lame boring poor ad.
There are two primary form factors: one that should fit comfortably in any pocket and another that should be large enough to comfortably read a book, watch a movie, take meeting notes, etc.
The iPhone is a perfect match for the first and the iPad a perfect match for the second.
Those Android phones with big screens are too large to fit in most pockets and uncomfortable to operate with one hand, making them a suboptimal choice for a primary smartphone device.
The 7 inch "tablets" are both too large to fit in a pocket and too small to provide a significant viewing advantage over more pocketable devices. Moreover, the 16:9 aspect ratio is a misguided choice given that movie watching is hardly the primary use of these devices.
good points. just would add, since i've needed to routinely be out and about with a shoulder brief bag for the last 15 years for all my stuff, the iPad is great for using anywhere. so my wife has the phone.
also, very little comment elsewhere about 16:9 vs. 4:3 for tablet screens. yes, i think 4:3 is more versatile, and is simply better for web viewing in particular. which is the #1 use of any tablet. Since apparently ALL Android tabs will be 16:9, we will find out how consumers react by later this year.
Derivative product, derivative ad.
True. It is a derivative product but so what? To say it is a copy is unfair because how do you make a tablet computer that isn't a copy in some way or other. It could be squarer, it could be fatter, it could have more buttons but that's about the extent of it in terms of its physical design.
The ad is derivative and not as many claim, a copy. It is 'plays on' the 'original' but the message by suggesting that the new drones are the Mac users but the tone is different. The appeal to the individualist to break free from the mindless 'follower' syndrome is very similar but in this case it rings more hollow as Apple users usually are portrayed as individualists rather than followers.
I think the Motorola pad looks quite nice in the ad (what little you see of it) and the ad may be quite effective in piquing people's interest in the product. Ultimately, however, I suspect Apple may benefit more from this ad.
The white hoodies - love'm. Where to get one?
Motorola Xoom
» 1280x800 = 16:10 aspect ratio
» 10.1” = 8.08”x6.06” = 48.96”^2
Apple iPad
» 1024x768 = 4.3 aspect ratio
» 9.7” = 7.75”x5.83” = 45.19”^2
It’s that extra half inch on the diagonal that makes it overall larger, but you imply the iPad’s aspect ratio gives it a larger area for a given diagonal size.
PS: I thought 10” was too large? I thought 7” was the key to killing those HUGE iPads?
oops! 8.08" x 6.06" is NOT a 16:9 aspect. that's 4:3 too. the aspect is the physical dimensions, no matter what the dpi specs, ignore them. so a 16:9 Xoom screen will measure about 8.8" x 5.0". which totals 44" sq area. if the aspect is actually 16:10 viewable, then it would be about 8.5"x5.4" = 46" sq.
safe to say the total screen area of the Xoom is about the same as the iPad.
...
I want you all to bookmark this page, and check it one year from now. By this time next year, the iPad will have less than 50% of the tablet market. This is so certain it's basically fact (please don't try and debate this, I'm completely right). Allow me to explain:
Android currently has 22% of the Tablet market. That's pretty much just thanks to the Galaxy Tab--a device that really can't compete with the iPad, in software or in hardware--as well as several of those cheapy Android tablets made by companies you've never heard of.
But this year, beginning with the Xoom, we're going to see a major explosion of high-profile tablets, running software that was actually built around the tablet form-factor (instead of just an upscaled phone operating system, like with the iPad and the Tab).
Just like the Motorola Droid was the harbinger of Android's domination in the smartphone industry, the Xoom will be the harbinger of its domination in the tablet industry.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Please don't try and argue with me, as it's pointless; everything I said is completely right and true. Please bookmark this page and check it one year from now.
Ha! It would probably be gratifying to show how completely out of touch with reality your views are but there is almost no chance you will be anywhere to be found. You will have moved on to a new identity and still spewing silly counter factual statistics (Galaxy Tab owns 1/5 of the market???? Please, show me even one in the wild. It is simply a lie.)
There are Apple stockholders here who do care specifically how well Apple performs. However, my guess is that most people here are gadget enthusiasts who have gravitated to Apple because it is the only company in the past ten years that has been willing to innovate. The others have been content to wait to see what device from Apple they are going to copy this time. Some celebrate this wanton parasitical behavior (like you) and others are less sanguine about its possible deadening effect.
True. It is a derivative product but so what? To say it is a copy is unfair because how do you make a tablet computer that isn't a copy in some way or other. It could be squarer, it could be fatter, it could have more buttons but that's about the extent of it in terms of its physical design.
The ad is derivative and not as many claim, a copy. It is 'plays on' the 'original' but the message by suggesting that the new drones are the Mac users but the tone is different. The appeal to the individualist to break free from the mindless 'follower' syndrome is very similar but in this case it rings more hollow as Apple users usually are portrayed as individualists rather than followers.
I think the Motorola pad looks quite nice in the ad (what little you see of it) and the ad may be quite effective in piquing people's interest in the product. Ultimately, however, I suspect Apple may benefit more from this ad.
The white hoodies - love'm. Where to get one?
The problem with Moto's ad is that it's attemping to ridicue the very product that it's emulating. I would say few were able to tell the difference between the guy's pad and the girl's pad in the ad without the end scene where we were told it's actually the Xoom.
BTW, judging by your last statement and other poster's similar comment, I think the next growth segment for Apple has been identified: high end fashion appearal that matches perfectly with their owner's Apple products.
In a way Apple today is kind of like IBM of the 1984 commercial. There was a saying around IT purchasing agent circles at the time. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". Now-a-days people are thinking, I won't get laughed at by my friends for buying an Apple.
Buying an iPad is the safe way to go since they have already been proven to be very popular. Xoom may be a fine tablet and Android an adequate OS but they are still going to have a hard time competing with the momentum that Apple has. As long as Apple just stays focused and delivers incremental upgrades without any major revamps, it will remain on top for quite a while - at least another 2-3 years. By then they better have something completely new to to sell to the fan base.
No, Apple isn't anything like IBM in 1984. The point of the 1984 ad isn't that IBM is popular and has a lot of users. The point is that IBM is a gigantic, stodgy, business-oriented company that's trying to take over the PC market and make our personal lives as dull and regimented as our work lives. Apple is, in fact, the same company it was in 1984. It's still consumer-oriented, it still concentrates on a few products done well, they're still setting the direction of the market, the same guy is calling the shots and they're still releasing revolutionary products like other companies release quarterly reports. There's a reason people are excited about what Apple is doing and there's a reason those same people find it sad when all of this is forgotten in order to make some lame point about how you don't want to be perceived as a follower who purchases products other people are understandably enthusiastic about.
I'm pretty sure Creative tried this same ad strategy against the iPod and quickly discovered that mocking your potential customer base is a horrible idea.
Somehow, I doubt iPad users were the target of the ad. The ad speaks to people who identify with a shy, creative types who lust for Sarah Michelle Gellar in a white hoodie. A potentially huge market.
It's a pretty good ad cinematically, but looking at it from a consumer's POV I come off thinking I want a tablet, and by extension the "cool iPad" I've heard about--not a Xoom. The iPad being $300 cheaper helps as well.
P.S. Anyone else hear a bit of a resemblance between Xoom and Zune?
At least it's not brown, you know, like....