At least half of Apple's success stems from the fact that it has successfully exploited the human psyche; our fears, our vanities, our need for authority, security and structure.
Apple is an authority in that it has succesfully created an image of itself as a master of design and engineering, and the molding of software to hardware. The reality is that any computing device is tailor made for the operating system it uses: you cannot, or at least will not, design and produce a Symbian phone without taking into consideration Symbian's pros and cons, features and deficits.
Moreover, it has made its people superstars, through the same process of marketing and construction of images. The late Jobs, Jonathan Ive and so on. Apple has an identity that is through and through created to exude competence, whereas other brands are mostly faceless nobodies.
Since Apple is such an authority, it means that making choices, the great downside of freedom that many of us fear, is considerably easier. We do not have to fear making the 'wrong' choice in buying a computer or mobile phone, for there is one choice that is already sanctioned from above, and as such we do not have to fear criticism or ridicule within our social reality -- just refer the detractors to the 'authority', because they know better than anybody.
It goes even further than this; it also creates a structure for our digital worlds. They release only one phone per year, and only one tablet per year(until recently with the iPad 4), and on a rather regular schedule. So, not only do we know who to buy from, what to buy from them, we also know when to buy it.
And then there is of course vanity. Since every culture is a mass-culture, one wouldn't want to stray from the common way of living, in real life or online, but getting ahead is fine, as long as the direction is right. That means not only wearing the right clothes and listening to the right music, but also getting the new phone, first. One couldn't possibly be seen in outdated fashions, could we?
Having the right phone is every bit as much part of building one's identity as buying new shows or getting a haircut is. We want to stand out, but not too much. So we get the black iPhone instead of the white.
My sole argument is, I am impressed by the fact, that Apple is able to sell so many more "higher end" products in massive numbers than any of its competitor.
At least half of Apple's success stems from the fact that it has successfully exploited the human psyche; our fears, our vanities, our need for authority, security and structure.
Apple is an authority in that it has succesfully created an image of itself as a master of design and engineering, and the molding of software to hardware. The reality is that any computing device is tailor made for the operating system it uses: you cannot, or at least will not, design and produce a Symbian phone without taking into consideration Symbian's pros and cons, features and deficits.
Moreover, it has made its people superstars, through the same process of marketing and construction of images. The late Jobs, Jonathan Ive and so on. Apple has an identity that is through and through created to exude competence, whereas other brands are mostly faceless nobodies.
Since Apple is such an authority, it means that making choices, the great downside of freedom that many of us fear, is considerably easier. We do not have to fear making the 'wrong' choice in buying a computer or mobile phone, for there is one choice that is already sanctioned from above, and as such we do not have to fear criticism or ridicule within our social reality -- just refer the detractors to the 'authority', because they know better than anybody.
It goes even further than this; it also creates a structure for our digital worlds. They release only one phone per year, and only one tablet per year(until recently with the iPad 4), and on a rather regular schedule. So, not only do we know who to buy from, what to buy from them, we also know when to buy it.
And then there is of course vanity. Since every culture is a mass-culture, one wouldn't want to stray from the common way of living, in real life or online, but getting ahead is fine, as long as the direction is right. That means not only wearing the right clothes and listening to the right music, but also getting the new phone, first. One couldn't possibly be seen in outdated fashions, could we?
Having the right phone is every bit as much part of building one's identity as buying new shows or getting a haircut is. We want to stand out, but not too much. So we get the black iPhone instead of the white.
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Erik Bernhardsson
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