Macbook Air Parody

Feb 13, 2008


Mitch Joel created a Macbook Air parody, showing off his Sony Vaio. There are probably lots more out there.My biggest takeaway from this? How Apple are able to build so many conversations. I don’t think any other company has ads that are parodied as often. Apple, as a brand, are able to create conversations. They start trends, and get people talking.And it all just helps to further the brand.

The Advantages of Shortcomings

Jan 28, 2008

Sometimes having shortcomings and failures can be positive. Why? Because it gets people talking. Being “remarkable” (as Seth Godin says) isn’t necessarily about being really good. Sometimes if you’re too perfect, there isn’t much to talk about. Sometimes, the best way to get people talking is to have shortcomings – or rather “supposed” shortcomings – to stir up controversy.

Example: Apple. One of the biggest conversations about the iPhone was how it was locked. Yes, people talked about the revolutionary multi-touch screen and software and all. But people also talked a lot about how it was closed. And when it was broken, it got a whole new round of press. The same is happening with the Macbook Air and its lack of an optical drive. If the products didn’t have these ‘flaws’, they probably wouldn’t have been talked about as much.

The ultimate end result of it all? The products get talked about more. And more people find out about them. Yes, some people will not like what they read. But others will go find out more about it, and might end up buying the product – a product which they might otherwise have never heard of.

As they say, there’s no such thing as bad press, right?

Macbook Air – Why I’m Excited

Jan 18, 2008

The Macbook Air was just announced a couple of days ago, and it’s been stirring up quite a lot of commotion in the technology world.

I don’t want to go into any review of it or anything, because I’ve yet to see it in person. But it does excite me. It looks really good. The pure sleekness of it makes me already want to buy it.

But more than that, why I’m excited about it is because what it reflects for the future. More and more emphasis is being placed on portability and mobility. On making gadgets easier to carry around, while not compromising on computing power. And now we have a notebook that is 0.16-0.76 inches. It’s just making me wonder. What will it be like in 5-10 years? When I go out to the working world. What will technology be like? And the progress on contact lenses with circuits really pushes it the possibilities even further.

The possibilities are just mind blowing.