Interface
Most technology ads these days don’t make much of an effort to show you exactly why you might be interested in buying the product. They’re all about lifestyle, showing the product to be cool so that you think you’ll be cool if you buy it. Intel have always been the masters of this, never even mentioning how many Mhz their new processor happens to be or any other technical information, it’s always about the music you’ll be able to create or the things you’ll be able to do with your pictures, but always in a very abstract way.
Apple have followed this example as well, the iPod ads are always just figures dancing to some form of upbeat tune, rather than a demonstration of the scroll wheel capabilities, or how easy it is to sync with the music on your computer. For years they’ve been criticised in their Mac adverts for not better showing off OS X and what it can do, but how do you cram the feel of a desktop user interface into 30 seconds when on the face of it, it’s all just windows, icons and a pointer.
All of this is what makes the new iPhone ads so special, because unlike any other technology ad, and especially unlike any mobile phone ad, they’re actually all about the interface. Thirty seconds designed to quickly and succinctly show what makes the phone so special, without any fast music, without any quick cuts, just a camera looking at a phone held in someone’s hand, being touched by a finger in real time. No need to shout about it, no need to fancy it up with special effects, just exactly the kind of demonstration you’d give to someone if they were standing next to you and had never seen one before.
If it works as well as is advertised, and of course we have no reason to suspect it won’t, then it cannot fail to make an impact on the market. If only to shake all the other manufacturers up a bit.
