Tag: ipod

New iPhone ads are simple in true Apple style

Posted on by mygoodgomez

Apple iPhoneI will confess, although I am no Apple-fanboy (yet), their commercials and advertising practices are truly impressive. If I owned a business, I would kidnap every person on their PR and marketing teams. Like many, I was very disturbed by the iPhone ads that were recently shown of about a million famous people saying “hello?”; they were annoying, repetitive, and didn’t tell me anything about this supposedly revolutionary device. Now, after seeing the new iPhone ads, I’m glad that Apple has returned to their minimalistic style.

These new ads are very basic in nature. What do they show? How to work the device. Through clever workflow ideas (Calamari) they display the ways that the iPhone can easily switch from and to each different function in-between sessions. The narrator is soothing, the music appropriate, and the visual part is as simple as it can get: a hand holding an iPhone. Then again, it does have one level of complexity at times; its that damn second hand.

That second hand is going to be a big problem for Apple. The fact that the iPod is completely functional is one hand is amazing (but this attribute is repeatable). June 29th is the launch date according to these commercials. Continue reading “New iPhone ads are simple in true Apple style” →

Creative Zen Stone proves the Shuffle is crap

Posted on by mygoodgomez

Creative Zen Stone Color Range

Take a good look at that image. Now realize that this 1GB flash media player costs only $40. Seeing the word Zen branded on these little devices tells you that they are part of the Creative Zen line of a wide variety of media players. And like many of Creative’s products, it does what Apple’s products do at a drastically reduced price. Apple’s Shuffle, which does the exact same functions (play music files randomly w/o an LCD screen), costs $80 (double the Zen Stone).

The Zen Stone exemplifies my main problems with Apple’s products and their pricing schemes. Apple is able to charge ridiculous prices for ordinary products employing technology that has been available for years. There is no use trying to deny that their marketing and PR departments are probably the best in the world, but I still don’t think that their products justify their prices. Paying more for an inferior product isn’t cool, though it might be fashionable.