grubesteak said:
You got that right. That video says, "Do you know me?"
Um, "No?"
"Do you know how I can change your life?"
Oh please. If something tells me it's going to change my life, it usually doesn't. But it's those things that come out from nowhere and blindside you (ahem, iPod) that make an impact.
It's amazing how all the money in the world can't buy creativity.
Yeah, I don't know why MS people have been acting like a bunch of care bears recently. Introducing Vista, they said the phrase "if you care about that" or "memories you care about" blah blah blah about caring, and yet their user interface and the organization of the info includes stuff I can't imagine anyone would care for! Lol. Creative's PMC description, Microsoft's recent software ads, and third party winders box companies' ads all act like being able to store and playback multimedia equates to General Life Betterment and A Happy Gay Time. Like, seriously, it's fun to store photos on an iPod, just because you can, but nobody makes it his hobby, right? The good thing about Apple is that they are aware of what their products are, which are usually solid, focused products that do one realm of things really well - they don't market stuff as a life betterment pill. (I am reminded of a Newton commercial, though, that seemed rather optimistic, but Apple never used language as openly shallow as the Microsoft-affiliated do today, though I think they were guilty of advertising the Newton as something greater than it was.)
The Creative site describes one of their players with such a typical description..."Live life your way with music, photos and video," and "View precious memories - tens of thousands of them," and more gushy care bear talk about how this Vision player is the next electronic Viagra or something. (Not a great comparison, but I think you get my peeve.)
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=12985
Apple, even, says "Browse your memories with photo slideshows," but there is a difference. The Creative site (and most other rival sites) seem to consider each and every photo to be a "precious memory," which is overly sissy. Who the heck puts 10,000 such "precious memories" in a media player to keep with them wherever they go? Maybe a young, stupid couple of new parents, but nobody sane. I mean, it's kind of like having 10,000 wallet photos. On the other hand, Apple's advertising does it right - it recognizes that the iPod has the potential to be a personal photo album in some ways, but Apple doesn't assume that every photo you put on its product will be something of a precious memory. Rather, it's a do with it what you will, but here's an example kind of approach. Plus, Apple has been true to its word in that the iPod is mainly geared at music, and therefore the company doesn't market the iPod as a do-all life enhancer, but as a really cool music player that can now take on multimedia.
I think it is fairly obvious from the stance of the competitors that few companies other than Apple have a clear idea of what consumers actually want and enjoy. MS continues to try to release cool products - they have understood that the iPod is cool - but those guys have yet to learn that the products they are up against are not simply cool, but cool for a reason. There's another difference - Apple's site describes a few things about one of their products and follows it with a reasonable conclusion (ex iPod battery life, capacity, portability, = good companion); other companies just try to force adjectives, claiming their products are gorgeous (with the unstated "like the iPod, choose us instead, please"), amazing, etc. Those are subjective decisions for the user to make, and a smart company will only claim such if it has a knack for making designer products, and still be able to back it up with more than a color (ahem, that would be Apple).
Okay, that's the end of my rant. I'm sure you all already could see this, but my point is that the companies that don't are the oafs like MS and Sony and such that have difficulty winning consumers with their products. Until they learn, their products really won't be all that great, know matter how many adjectives they can throw together.
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