7 ms·

To expand on mrk-hn's comment, I don't think the comparison is entirely without merit. From what I can tell, a lot of the scorn directed at hipsters (or at le

by skermes 15y ago

To expand on mrk-hn's comment, I don't think the comparison is entirely without merit. From what I can tell, a lot of the scorn directed at hipsters (or at least the "hipster" archetype/strawperson) stems from fact (or perception) that they value cultural artifacts based on the social status that they can leverage those artifacts for, rather than for any intrinsic value they might have. Compare someone who tells their friends about a band because they like the lyrics of that one song they listened to all the time in high school, vs someone who tells their friends about the same band because they want to be the first to do so, gaining some reputation in the process. (Obviously there are more subtle gradients of behaviors and motivations here, but lets stick to broad strokes.) Apple's branding and advertising tends to exhibit a similar focus on how their products will improve your status, rather than on the capabilities of the actual hard/software. Consider the 1984 Mac ad, or the iPod silhouette ads. They weren't telling you to buy an iPod because it could hold more songs, they were telling you that if you had an iPod, you could be one of the happy beautiful people dancing on a soundstage. Compare that to a run of GeneriCo (seriously, I've seen it like ten times but I can't recall the brand) ads that have been running for back-to-school PCs on Hulu. The whole thing is a laundry list of features without any context for why they're going to make your life better. And there's a creepy guy hanging on the wall of a girl's dorm room. They haven't even grokked JWZ's level of marketing savvy (http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html) let alone Apple's. Collide that with some long-standing geek ethics (function over form, a hard-won appreciation for the inner beauty of seemingly ugly tech, etc) and a backlash isn't all that surprising. The hipster thing is just convenient. Hating on them is already a popular internet pastime, so throwing that (as above, somewhat spiritually appropriate) label on Apple is a nice shorthand for showing how much you don't care about how big bezels should be or whether your corners are rounded. It doesn't help that there are a fairly substantial core group of Apple devotees who engage in some absurdly irrational behaviors for status-seeking reasons (which is pretty much what "hipsterism" is all about). Why, our enraged geek wants to know, would anyone stand in line at an Apple store for hours for a new iPhone? THAT IS WHAT THE INTERNET AND FEDEX IS FOR SMAAASH So, yeah. Extending that to accusations of overpriced-ness is left as an exercise for the reader.

2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
Back when the iPod came out, MP3 players were all about features. A pure feature for feature comparison of an iPod vs other players makes the iPod look bad. They were probably trying to play the social status card. This seemed to have changed when the iPod actually got new features like the camera, the clip. But I forget all the campaigns. Let's look at the ad campaigns for the Mac and iOS devices. There was the Switch campaign where they had people talking about why they switched and how it made their lives better. The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" campaign which was a bit abstract but talked about what the Mac could do. And the iOS ads, all of which show you real life functions of the iPhone and iPad. The iPod Touch is being marketed as a game console and they are showing real games that you can play. Contrast this to the current crop of Samsung commercials. All the ones I have seen on TV do not show the product in any useful way, do not show what you can do with their products and claim that you will be better for buying their product. They are all very abstract. The Acer Iconia ads are much better but aren't very well made. The Droid Does campaign was pretty good but a little impersonal. But there was also their initial iDon't ad which told you nothing about their device but subtly referenced their competitor. Then there was that Droid X space thing which was supposed to be what exactly? And then the Droid commercials where they try and show something that the phone can do and BTW, you will turn into some super awesome android guy. So in recent times, Apple has not been playing the social status card so much. Also, geeks are just as vulnerable to the social status message. Just look at this "Apple is over priced and it is all about marketing" meme. Geeks are just seeking increased social status in a different group. But they want it just as much as the Apple crowd.
zmmmmm 15y ago
> Apple's branding and advertising tends to exhibit a similar focus on how their products will improve your status, rather than on the capabilities of the actual hard/software Look at the lid of every mac book. Which way up is the Apple? Your way so that you naturally see it right side up when opening the lid? - no - it's upside down to you, because the point is, everyone else is supposed to see it.
- guillaume_a 15y ago
  It's upside down to you because it's on the back side of the LCD panel- if it were the right way facing you, then it would just be upside down when you use your computer, which just looks silly ಠ_ಠ

by skermes 15y ago

2muchcoffeeman 15y ago

Back when the iPod came out, MP3 players were all about features. A pure feature for feature comparison of an iPod vs other players makes the iPod look bad. They were probably trying to play the social status card. This seemed to have changed when the iPod actually got new features like the camera, the clip. But I forget all the campaigns. Let's look at the ad campaigns for the Mac and iOS devices. There was the Switch campaign where they had people talking about why they switched and how it made their lives better. The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" campaign which was a bit abstract but talked about what the Mac could do. And the iOS ads, all of which show you real life functions of the iPhone and iPad. The iPod Touch is being marketed as a game console and they are showing real games that you can play. Contrast this to the current crop of Samsung commercials. All the ones I have seen on TV do not show the product in any useful way, do not show what you can do with their products and claim that you will be better for buying their product. They are all very abstract. The Acer Iconia ads are much better but aren't very well made. The Droid Does campaign was pretty good but a little impersonal. But there was also their initial iDon't ad which told you nothing about their device but subtly referenced their competitor. Then there was that Droid X space thing which was supposed to be what exactly? And then the Droid commercials where they try and show something that the phone can do and BTW, you will turn into some super awesome android guy. So in recent times, Apple has not been playing the social status card so much. Also, geeks are just as vulnerable to the social status message. Just look at this "Apple is over priced and it is all about marketing" meme. Geeks are just seeking increased social status in a different group. But they want it just as much as the Apple crowd.

zmmmmm 15y ago

> Apple's branding and advertising tends to exhibit a similar focus on how their products will improve your status, rather than on the capabilities of the actual hard/software Look at the lid of every mac book. Which way up is the Apple? Your way so that you naturally see it right side up when opening the lid? - no - it's upside down to you, because the point is, everyone else is supposed to see it.

guillaume_a 15y ago
It's upside down to you because it's on the back side of the LCD panel- if it were the right way facing you, then it would just be upside down when you use your computer, which just looks silly ಠ_ಠ