Commentary: Gulf between Apple patrons and PC users just got wider
SINGAPORE: Apple recently launched the new iMac. Its most striking element? Its availability in a beautiful range of brilliant colours.
It comes with Apple's very own M1 processor coupled with a number of appealing features that might interest some Apple enthusiasts.
Although Apple's iMac seems timely seeing how more people are working from home and might be looking to upgrade their computers, some computer enthusiasts have said there wasn't anything impressive nearly this new personal computer. But that would be missing the wood for the trees.
Apple tree certainly is not launching a new PC to concenter attention or refresh a product line.
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No, Tim Cook is moving a large chess piece equally he leads Apple towards a grand "checkmate". And he has a cunning plan.
AN IMAGE Make-OVER
Yes, Apple is working their style towards consolidating a make paradigm. The iMac'south new colours has something to exercise with this where playing on nostalgia is a central marketing strategy.
During the days of Steve Jobs, many of Apple's products portrayed a make personality that was sleek, vivid, exciting and fun. Kids born in the 1980s and 1990s would know.
We saw this in their iconic iMac G3 and iPod which came in multiple colours. Their advertisements accentuated this too.
Apple epitomised a engineering science driven brand with a cult personality. The iMac G3 was the beginning brave personal computer to jettison the floppy disk, replacing this with what has become a universal standard: The USB port.
This strategy works because Apple knows in the past few years, it has been drifting. Their products accept not been actually outstanding.
Their concentration has been focused on feeding the appetite of the global demand for the highly profitable iPhones. Products came in only two to three shades of colours (if yous phone call white, blackness, gold and silver colours).
Sure their products remained stylish, but the lack of bold colours just killed the unique personality one time so closely associated with Apple's stuff.
Possibly Apple knows this and therefore launched the iPhone XR and Apple tree watches in a wide array of hues – with six bright colours for the sleek iPhone XR and an endless spectrum of Apple watch wrist brands.
This desire to bringing back a strong aureola shows – not only in their ads, but in their iconic floating Apple tree stores and so much more.
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Just Apple is signalling something else besides. The matter is, Apple's absurd gene has e'er gone across the way its products look. That'due south just the cherry on the superlative. It's near the dummy-proof, superior user experience and country-of-the-art technology.
Fans of Apple love their stuff for their user friendliness, speed and efficiency, where the microprocessor is at the eye of it all.
And here'south where discussions over the iMac's new wait have obscured the bigger shift underway.
The new iMac is the first of Apple tree'due south desktops to exist fitted with Apple's proprietary M1 processor previously installed in MacBooks and Macbook Air, demonstrating how the tech giant is serious most shifting away from its 15-year partnership with chipmaker Intel.
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Certain this isn't groundbreaking. The M1 bit shares the same engineering compages equally the A-series chips in Apple smartphones and tablets.
Just it upgrades the iMac'south performance substantially, with programmes running up to five times faster co-ordinate to some estimates. A best-in-class, it easily outperforms all by Intel fries used.
This entire shift, requiring major R&D investments in producing their propriety microprocessors, is in line with Apple CEO Tim Melt's belief in the visitor's long-term strategy of fully controlling core technologies behind their products, costs and innovation cycles.
After a brutal The states-China trade state of war and growing uncertainty over a semiconductor shortage, this is amazing news. Apple can be independent and self-sufficient.
They can focus on widening the functioning gap between them and the competition. Stronger hardware performance provides the foundation to a meliorate, more efficient user experience.
But the pervasive use of the M1 fleck could alienate Windows-based software from Apple products in the future. Though the ARM version of Windows can exist installed on M1-based machines, not all Windows-based applications (including many games) are supported.
Edifice THE APPLE ECOSYSTEM
With the incorporation of its M1 chip into all Apple tree products, Apple is on stronger footing to build an even bigger ecosystem.
With all Apple products operating on a mutual applied science platform, users can look frontward to a seamless use of apps across all devices and a hassle-free user experience across all Apple tree devices in the future.
Developers, data scientists and content creators will dearest the born neural engine in the M1 scrap, which makes machine learning in tasks like video-editing and voice recognition xv times faster. Compared to even the about powerful Intel chips, M1 presents the fastest unmarried-core operation.
And with the introduction of the subscription model, Apple's ecosystem may aggrandize its empire to more customers and app developers.
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With an integrated ecosystem, users may be glued to Apple tree even more than. For example, iPhone users prioritise an iMac when they consider purchasing a personal computer.
More existing users are using services like Apple Pay and Apple tree TV across iPhones, Apple Watches, iPad, iMac and MacBooks, with such integrated Apple lifestyle services seeing few alternatives", further widening the gap between Apple and non-Apple users. It'south hard to imagine an Apple user making a decision to switch to a range of alternatives after beingness locked into the Apple experience.
Few firms have tried to replicate Apple's strategy, with none succeeding. Microsoft, with its massive base of operations, tried to create a phone operating on Windows Mobile only they could not get plenty vendors to create apps. This consistent lack of apps drew tepid response from customers, and marked the demise of the initiative.
This giant ecosystem of apps is another Apple tree reward. The firm knows this and has been ambitious in incentivising app developers to redevelop and update their apps – to ensure their huge client base is kept satisfied.
The vendors only need to perform a one-off code re-writing and update; and the revised app volition exist operable across unlike Apple products.
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Vendors too know Apple tree'south gluey ecosystem is an attractive platform to exam market responses for new apps. This is evident from the exclusive availability of Clubhouse on Apple Store only when launched in 2020.
And for the use of many apps at one time to go off without a hitch, the hardware has to be solid.
Distortion FIELD IS Real
While the M1 chip may support convergence of functions across different production lines, Apple must be careful that their products don't inadvertently cannibalise each other – something that happened to the MacBook and iPad in 2013.
Thus far, Apple tree'southward bold move to enhance both hardware and software performance is strengthening the distortion field for Apple customers.
Looking alee, the ongoing fence every bit to whether the premium market place is large enough to sustain Apple, known for its vibrant and distinctive style.
Apple could continue to focus on its niche market of tech-savvy content creators in the media industry and the luxury segment who benefit from Apple tree'southward growing entertainment and personal lifestyle ecosystem.
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For sceptics concerned about the company'southward futurity growth, a solution probably lies in the concluding chess piece: Apple could introduce an fifty-fifty more comprehensive subscription-based model where customers can choose to pay a monthly fee for Apple products of their option plus access to the unabridged ecosystem. This could make Apple somewhat affordable and notwithstanding non devalue its premium price positioning.
This may also prolong the lifespans of older product versions where pricing tin be lower, allowing for price discrimination without diluting the brand.
A hybrid of these two models will sustain market growth, encourage demand and draw more customers into their ecosystem.
The new iMac may merely be a glimpse of that promised land Apple tree has yet to reveal to us.
Dr Vanessa Liu and Dr Lau Kong Cheen are senior lecturers, Marketing Program at the School of Business in the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-gulf-between-apple-patrons-and-pc-users-just-got-wider-281196
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