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Wednesday 12th of January 2005, 4:55

Apple, Purveyors of Fine Design

I no longer feel the same excitement for Christmas that I used to feel as a much littler kid. The anticipation and the adrenaline rush that I once felt before Christmas morning’s traditional present-opening ritual I now feel in the hours before one of Steve’s keynotes. The same displaced giddiness overtook me again before today’s presentation. I have no shame. The same childish reverie was responsible for reducing Sony president Kunitake Ando to a babbling Steve fanboy during his short endorsement speech.

[I will only take two this week, grocer, thank you.]

Apple has always been known as the “niche” computer company, peddling premium products with flashy design to fruity types. Today’s announcements of the $499 Mac mini, the $99 iPod shuffle, and Pages “word processor with style” combine to form a rather different view of Apple. The new, cheaper hardware products help commodify Apple design, an impression helped by the plastic window packaging of the iPod shuffle and the stack of Mac minis shown on one of the product pages. With Pages the focus is on the beautiful “Apple designed” templates that help instill a touch of class and style into your word-processed output. The same stands for iDVD themes and iPhoto books: now even you redneck folks at home can produce stuff that bears the Apple hallmark of style, darling.

As I watched the keynote (with frequent painful interruptions thanks to my ultra-sucky and overpriced DSL connection) I scribbled “Apple: a design company” on a pink post-it note. The realisation came to me that Steve’s outfit is not really a technology company at all. They use technology as a tool, sure; but the real product is graphic, interface, industrial, and lifestyle design. Design!

Think about it: Sony is not a design company; they are a technology company. As soon as something is technologically feasible Sony will put it in fifty products with slightly different feature sets and slightly different industrial design, flooding every conceivable subset of the market. They do not make critical choices about what might produce the better experience; rather they give consumers all the different combinations and let them decide which one they like. Id est they relegate what should have been product design considerations to the market. Apple considers, decides, and selectively releases the one product which its boffins thought offers the best experience, both in aesthetic and functional terms. This is similar to the modus operandi of, say, a chair designer. Instead of producing a chair to suit every possible taste, a chair designer will produce a few models that reflect his/her preferred design solutions to the “sitting problem.” Likewise, Apple believes that a flash-based music player should have no screen.

If this isn’t merely a shift in my own understanding of Apple and is an actual paradigm shift for the company, then it is a positive change. When the design of the experience of a tool (a term I use loosely; a chair is a tool for sitting) becomes the focus, the technology behind its function has been allowed to become invisible. That can only happen when the technology is solid and mature.

Anyway, enough theorising. Where’s my credit card?

Comments

Raphael Friday 14th of January 2005, 20:58

Good. One tiny step further, and you enter the wonderfully repetitive whorld of deconstruction: Apple is a business. It makes money for its shareholders by deciding on a set of strategies. How and to what end? By playing the dynamic and evolutionary game of preferences to which is its agents are also subject to; the end is self-subsuming.
Futility rules.

eLfie Saturday 15th of January 2005, 13:33

mac mini!! mac mini!! :D saw it in my inbox and drooled.. hehehe :)

Nige Monday 17th of January 2005, 2:16

ahhhhh mac schmac. yes, brands and ideologies sell. but I wanted a product, a warranty, service and to be met by a genius at the “genius bar” - not some brainwashed monkey with a half eaten apple on his shirt.

Orestes Tuesday 18th of January 2005, 20:20

Sounds like there’s a story there about the time when Nigel went to the big bad Apple Store. Care to relate?

eLfie Wednesday 19th of January 2005, 0:56

hehe.. yeah, i guess they just didnt know enough to meet nigel’s standards..

Raphael Wednesday 19th of January 2005, 17:18

I object to the description “half eaten apple”.
By no reasonable analytical, reductionistic, or ontological standard is the referree object half, or eaten, or indeed apple.

Orestes Thursday 20th of January 2005, 13:40

>By no reasonable analytical, reductionistic, or ontological standard is the referree object half, or eaten, or indeed apple.

Nigel was being “literary.” He descrbed the referee object in suggestive, associative, emotive, inaccurate terms well enough to not only make you think that he was referring to something other than an actual half-eaten apple, but also to relate a certain contempt for the logo.

Nigel Monday 31st of January 2005, 23:31

>By no reasonable analytical, reductionistic, or ontological standard is the referree object half, or eaten, or indeed apple.

Incorrect; by all those standards the referee object could have been all of the above mentioned.

Jenny Bean Friday 4th of February 2005, 20:19

I got the Belle de Jour book in my little hands, hee hee hee hee hee! Have you got yours get? Can we squeal over it any time soon??

Orestes Thursday 10th of February 2005, 1:24

Mine is in the post. You’ll have to wait a bit. I’m pretty sure it’s a quick read though. :)

Jenny Bean Monday 21st of February 2005, 19:44

I have read it! Great read, though about half of it is copy-pasted from her blog. You’re right, quick read.

I casually lent it to my housemate/childhood friend of Ray and he thought it was texual p0rn and is shocked by my perverseness. I think Ray is paranoid about what his friend thinks of him and a bit disappointed in me. Am sad and embarrassed now :-/ (how could I not have noticed the porn-ness??? Because in my mind, p0rn = ghei, alas)

felicia Tuesday 5th of April 2005, 20:05

Hey x, I dont know if this is the right place but please pimp my brotheres ride.. so u know its not an old truck its sorta new but i want him to be comfortable so can yall really pimp it out. Hes been in training for a long time and hes going to iraq at the end of april and of course when your away for home u wanna be comfortable. My mom is single and she takes care of me felicia my sis crystal my cousin jackie my cousin kevin and my grandma betty.. Kevin and betty are very ill in and out of hospitals my mom also baby sits for a living, and dosent get paid much and my brother helps us out big time he deserves more than anyone……. Trust me youll see he is the best big bro ever….. please mtv pimp my Brothers ride.!!!!

Orestes Saturday 9th of April 2005, 12:23

For fuck’s sake, Felicia. Not only the wrong site, but the wrong blog entry on the wrong site! What’s this? Is there a rumor that if you click on “Comments” on the bottom of this fufurasu.org site Xzibit comes out of your screen and takes you to neverland? It was quaint when all the “pimp me” comments were tidily under the pimp my ride entry, but now it’s just plain stoopid. Try mtv.com.

Anonymous Wednesday 27th of July 2005, 2:47

Please mtv pimp my mom’s ride because i have to sit in that fugly suberban and go to school in it.so please mtv pimp my mom’s ride.

KAREN SCOTT Wednesday 3rd of August 2005, 10:42

DEAR PIMP MY RIDE. MY SON LIVES IN JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA AND HAS A 76 MONTY CARLO CHEVY.I WAS ASKING TO PLEASE PIMP MY SONS RIDE!!!.MOST OF THE TIME IT DOESNT RUN. IT IS KINDA HELD TOGETHER WITH RUST. THIS IS HIS FIRST CAR. HE IS 19. HE WORKS ALL OF THE TIME AND TO GO ON DATES HE HAS TO DRIVE HIS WORKS COMPANY VAN. WHICH HAS A BEE HIVE ON IT AND FULL OF AIR CONDITIONING REPAIR EQUIPMENT. I AM ASKING YOU THIS FOR HIM. HE HAS TAKEN ON THE ROLL OF BEING A FATHER TO MY DAUGHTER. THEIR FATHER IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR THEM AND I AM STATIONED IN YOKOSUKA JAPAN WITH MY NAVY HUSBAND. HE HAS TAKEN ON SO MUCH RESPONSABILITY TRYING TO HELP MY 17 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER DEAL WITH LIFE. HE IS PAYING FOR EVERYTHING SHE DOES AND IS A GREAt SON. HE HAS TAKEN ON HUGE RESPONSABILITIES AND DOES NOT HAVE THE FUNDS TO TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN CAR.HIS DREAM IS IN MUSIC BUT DOESNT HAVE ANY FUNDS TO CHASE HIS DREAM. PLEASE CONSIDER MY SONS CAR. HE DESERVES THIS AWSOME SURPRISE. THANK YOU KAREN SCOTT

Orestes Sunday 7th of August 2005, 22:52

Dear Karen,

Your son deserves the car he drives, exactly as much as I deserve your irrelevant comment on my personal website.

Orestes Chouchoulas

Lana Saturday 21st of January 2006, 22:54

My car is fuck up

Jean Jaramillo Thursday 26th of January 2006, 21:31

I have been trying for months to send a letter to mtv pimp my ride. but the web address pmrusa@mtvstaff.com will not go through.please help me.

noel a matias Tuesday 31st of January 2006, 20:12

hi pimp the ride mtv i will like you guys to pimp my 1963 ford falcon 2 dr to hook me up with this car my girl friend think the car is uggly and i we like to show her the is not with your help dream with come true thats the only thing the i will like you guys to help me with my old school ride,,,,,,,,,,,,,,please get back to me pimp the ride mtv sincerly,noel a matias