Apple's New Soul: the Macbook Air
Apple has always been known for their clever advertising, and even more so for their clever products. They have won accolades for their “Think Different” campaigns and everyone remembers their Microsoft blue screen of death commercials. When it comes to products, Apple is no less revolutionary, with the introduction of their iPod first and then their iPhone. Recently apple laptops just received an extra addition to their product palette with Steve Jobs introducing the Macbook Air at Mac World. Apple’s well known design creativity and original advertising came together perfectly in their first Macbook Air commercial.
Just as Steve Jobs pulled out the first iPod nano from the change pocket in his jeans, in the commercial the Macbook Air unfolds from an envelope; which no other laptop could fit into. After all, no other laptop comes with dimensions as compact as the Macbook Air, which boasts itself as the thinnest laptop available on the market today. It is likely also the only laptop capable of fitting inside an envelope and the commercial uses the best metaphor available to demonstrate the product’s uniqueness. Many companies claim their products are the best at something, or most advanced, however, few can prove their claims so succinctly and clearly as Apple does in their entertaining ad.
But what would an Apple advertisement be without music? Completely incomplete is the answer, and the new macbook air song for introducing their latest marvel is the trendy “New Soul” piece sung by Yael Naim. Of course, in addition to lending the advertisement an upbeat sound, the song’s lyrics fit perfectly into the Macbook’s presentation. The Apple MacBook Air is then introduced as a new soul, and what could be a better description of a product simultaneously entitled “Air” and nearly as light as air. Clearly Apple has let outdone themselves in this short, but brilliantly executed commercial. The user is, however, more concerned with something else, namely, how well the actual product performs.
Does it have enough Power for such a thin Laptop?
One might think that Apple would have to really sacrifice in terms of performance to engineer their envelope thin laptop, but this is fortunately not entirely the case. I say not entirely because Apple did have to make some sacrifices, though these with a few quick solutions these become relatively minor. For one, a DVD drive would have made the laptop much fatter and had to be jettisoned from the product. Of course, this problem is easily rectified with an external DVD drive, termed Apple MacBook Air Superdrive, the plugged in via USB. Although having only one USB port makes matters slightly complicated and forces the user to prioritise between their needs.
Enough of the disadvantages, let me elaborate on some of the major advantages and benefits, including the use of solid state hard drive technology. The technology not only allows hard drives to be much smaller, but also offers an improvement in performance. Moreover, the laptop comes with a specially designed Intel Core 2 Duo chip, that Apple engineered to take up 60% less space. The Macbook Air still packs quite a performance bunch, despite nearly being able to float with its lightweight of only 3 pounds. With such strong performance specifications, Apple can definitely expect strong macbook air sales. It will be interested to see what other funny and clever commercials Apple comes up with for marketing their envelope thin wonder. Perhaps they could slide the Macbook Air under doors in the next one. At any rate, a trendy new soul has definitely arrived.