The Loss of Apple's Class

I've been reading all the Apple rumors lately. I saw the usual fare: New iPad leaked parts, new iPhone leaked parts, etc, etc, etc. As we found out way back before the iPhone 5, Apple no longer has much of a claim to secrecy. You don't even have to watch Apple's highly choreographed "keynote" product releases anymore. Just check the leaks. Because most of the time, they're right. 

Just check out this video, uploaded on September 1, 2012, a full 11 days before the iPhone 5 was even announced, let alone the 2 week waiting period before it was available in stores.

You could go on and on. There were pictures of the iPad mini a full month before the announcement, there were leaks of the new iMac's thinner profile before most people had even heard of it, and no one can forget when a working iPhone 4 was found in a bar in 2010. Apple has long relied on secrecy before the product announcements in order to drum up hype to increase sales. But with spies on every corner and a camera in every pocket, that secrecy has almost ceased to exist. I've learned to believe the rumors like this one about upcoming products, because they're almost always right. For instance, I already know what the iPad 5 will look like. (Picture a blown-up iPad Mini.)
 So Apple has almost completely lost its secrecy. Has it also lost its class?

Let me explain. 

One thing Apple had going for it was class. And by class I mean the "cool" factor. Apple's products cost on average much more than equivalent products from the various competition. If you own an Apple product, you make it clear that you have paid significantly more for said product than someone who buys something from, say, Samsung. I'm not claiming that this is the reason that all Apple customers have for buying Apple's products. But you simply can't deny that this is a factor. Pride and status symbols have been a part of our human nature since, well, the beginning of time. So by appealing to the "elite" crowd, Apple gains not only a lot of wealthy customers but also an overall image of superiority. Class envy sells products. That's a fact that will never go away. Lots of people upgraded their perfectly functional iPhone 4S's to iPhone 5's not because there was anything wrong with the old ones, but because the iPhone 5 is the newest model. And it's not fun to have an "old" product when everyone else is walking around with something newer. I've experienced this myself, and it's definitely a hard thing to ignore.

Another reason Apple has the "cool" factor is marketing. Take a look at these Apple commercials.

Apple's saying here, "Look! Look at these pictures of Einstein! And Amelia Earhart! And Ghandi! They were smart people. They were cool people. Don't you want to be like them? The way you can be like them is to buy an Apple computer!" [Never mind that none of these people ever owned an Apple product in their lives.]

In this series of ads, we see Apple painting a picture. The picture describes those who use Windows computers as squares. Balding, middle aged businessmen, who will never escape their cubicle. (They look like lame, brainless "followers".) Boring, boring boringness. 

But look at the mac! Young, hip, wearing a hoodie (definitely a rebel), he's got his whole life ahead of him. This guy is obviously creative. And cool. Definitely not a boring corporate tool like PC over there. (He looks like a leader. More about that later.) And if you buy our computer with the gently glowing fruit logo on the back, everyone will be able to see how cool you are.

This mentality is a big factor when it comes to Apple's success. After all, no one wants to be Mr. PC Guy, at least, not the way Apple paints him. 

The third reason for this "cool" factor is the products themselves. I'll freely admit that some of Apple's products look cooler than some of the competition. Let's just ignore the important part of a laptop, which is its technical specs, and look at its appearance. Would you buy this:

Or this:

I'm ignoring the fact that these are entirely different devices with entirely different specs, purposes, and target audiences. Apple wants you to think that all Windows computers are like the Thinkpad above. They're big, bulky, and ugly. And by extension, you, the user, are drab and unsophisticated. As a side note, if you are that obsessed with looks, you can still get a Windows laptop like the one below for hundreds less than a Macbook.

We've only looked at computers so far, I haven't even touched on the mobile market, where Samsung pulled ahead of Apple a long time ago. But the principle stays the same: Apple wants you to think that they are the ones with the class.

So how is Apple losing it? A clue lies in the iPhone. Back in 2007 when the iPhone was announced, it was the best touchscreen smartphone on the market, hands down. There were in fact other smartphones out there, but they were not as advanced as the iPhone. And the ones with touchscreens were downright terrible. It didn't matter that the iPhone cost $500 and up, it was the best on the market. So it sold very well. And that was the proof that people were willing to pay a lot for something newer and better. But that was six years ago. Other companies like Samsung, LG, Sony, Google, and Pantech saw a great opportunity and made their own smartphones. With the Android platform to work on, they quickly passed up Apple and started making better phones. Apple stopped innovating in 2010 with the release of the iPhone 4. After that, the iPhone 4S was just a minor upgrade to the iPhone 4. Why did Apple hurriedly push out a new iPhone so soon after their iPhone 4? They saw that they were losing their grip on the market, and needed something to hold on to the customers until they could release a better phone. When the iPhone 5 came out in 2012, Apple had simply added a half inch to the screen. But that half inch is my biggest point. You see, up until then, Apple faithfully followed the late Steve Jobs's mentality that "it's not up to the consumer to decide what he wants." But that half inch changed all of that. Up until the iPhone 5, Apple vigorously claimed that the tiny 3.5 inch screens they had used for five years were the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. The consumers thought otherwise. And so they bought phones with 4.3, 4.8, even more than 5 inch screens. Apple realized that they were very late jumping on this bandwagon. So they released the rather disappointing iPhone 5. And now we hear rumors about things like a jumbo iPhone or a budget iPhone! Why does this matter? 

It's because Apple is no longer a leader of the herd. Instead, it's a follower. That's why it no longer has its class. It started following. Samsung gave consumers bigger screens and faster processors. Apple saw that, waited 18 months, and then released a phone with a bigger screen and faster processor. 

A lot of companies had 4G phones a very long time before the iPhone 5. Apple saw this, waited a couple of years, and then finally introduced 4G.

We'll see what the future holds for Apple. Maybe the rumors will come true, or maybe they won't. But the bigger question is, can Apple regain its footing and scramble back up to the top? 

I'd love to talk about this in the comments. Please leave me one and we can have a nice long argument.