This new iPhone ad is one of the best ads I’ve ever seen.
In 30 seconds you learn you can hold this thing in your hand, you control it by touching the screen, it flows, you can watch a movie on it, the screen pivots, it’s fast, you can type on it, it has maps, it knows your location, it makes useful decisions for you, and you can make calls. It’s all so obvious and comfortable and easy in 30 seconds without being rushed.
And you learn all of this in the context of a scenario, not in the context of an explanation. An anonymous hand can be yours, your mother’s, your father’s, your kid’s, your grandparent’s, anyone’s. A friendly voiceover represents your own internal voice. Easy music reinforces an easy product. This is the actual interface, not an interface that is enhanced or embellished so it looks better on TV.
A simple close-up focus on the product and the experience because both are so good. This recipe doesn’t need any additional seasoning. Which other cell phones are advertised on the quality of the experience and interface? When’s the last time you’ve seen any technology product advertised like this?
This is wonderful advertising.
Daniel
on 04 Jun 07I was already having a difficult time convincing myself to hold off on the first-gen model.
After seeing these ads, building on the other videos and details about the device on the Apple site, the only reason why I’ll be able to hold off on the iPhone is that I have to be able to replace my 30 gig iPod photo with the same storage capacity. 8 gigs won’t do, because I’m one of those few folks who actually puts the entire music collection on the iPod.
But I tell ya, it’s gonna be a difficult wait :-)
Dusan Belic
on 04 Jun 07Yeah, it’s a good advertising and somewhat different than Apple’s usual lifestyle-based approach (i.e Think different). I’m just hoping that the all-touchscreen device will work seamlessly under the sunlight—that touchscreen layer always caused problems in all touch enabled devices I’ve been using.
Darrel
on 04 Jun 07I so wish I had the need for a cell-phone so I could justify getting this.
Alas, I just lost my cell phone for a month, and, I have to say, I got by just fine without it. sigh
That said, props to Apple for selling a phone based on USABLE FEATURES rather than the typical ‘you must get 50 contacts so you can add them to your friends list so you can call them and text them every 5 minutes’ logic (which, admittedly, is probably targetting a completely different age demographic than myself…)
John
on 04 Jun 07I spoke about this earlier with one of my friends—that particular ad (the “calamari” version) is the best of the lot. It demonstrates the value, the ease-of-use, and also the finesse of the thing (the animated map pins are awesome).
Best. Tech-product. Ads. Ever.
(On a semi-related note, y’know what I think the best thing is about the iPhone? Wifi. Such a simple thing, yet it will take the mobile app/browsing/email experience further than any phone has before)
Nate Bird
on 04 Jun 07I’d like to see a parody commercial like this with a regular cell phone. Now that would be funny!
JF
on 04 Jun 07I’d like to see a parody commercial like this with a regular cell phone. Now that would be funny!
I had the same thought! I’m sure we’ll see this on YouTube shortly.
Trey Reeme
on 04 Jun 07Perfect advertising, indeed. You asked, “When’s the last time you’ve seen any technology product advertised like this?”
Nintendo Wii tried with their TV spots. Actually, the demo videos that they released on the Wii website were of plain Joes and Janes of all ages discovering the console. They would’ve made for much better commercial watching than the spots that kicked off the launch.
Apple nailed it with this one.
Karl N
on 04 Jun 07I do like all the aspects about the ad Jason mentioned, such as demonstrating the actual interface. However the main reason it didn’t sell me is because I wasn’t convinced of the use case. iPhone seems like a Gameboy (I find portable videos/games unnecessary) coupled with a GPS (which I don’t want to pay for). Whether they’re relying on people to actually need that stuff, I’m not sure.
It’s just the insinuation that I’m going to have a craving for squid while watching a movie in the middle of San Francisco and then call up any random restaurant is a bit much. The GPS is fine and useful and all, but the use cases they are showcasing are a bit far-fetched from reality to me. And what good are the features if you aren’t going to use them.
brad Hurley
on 04 Jun 07@Karl: I see your point, but in fact Apple is brilliant at using gee-whiz demonstrations like this to convince us that we need features that in fact we don’t need at all. I remember being wowed when I saw a demonstration of Exposé in OSX, and it was one of the things that convinced me to upgrade. But in fact I almost never use it. Same goes for the widgets—they’re cool and I have a few, but I hardly ever use them. But Apple got me to uprade my version of OSX simply because those features were so cool and I thought I might find them useful.
Anonymous Coward
on 04 Jun 07Karl, it’s fun. The movie—> calamari part of it is just for fun. I wouldn’t take that so seriously.
Trafik33
on 04 Jun 07Any word if the screen is going to be as easily scratched as the iPods are? I hope apple put some sort of coating on it, otherwise that thing will be cool for about 3 days…then it will look like someone ice skated on it.
Karl N
on 04 Jun 07Trafik33 – I heard these screen protectors are good for iPods, etc.:
http://www.shieldzone.com/
Aaron Alexander
on 04 Jun 07@Trafik: I was wondering the same thing. My first-gen nano looked 5 years old after about 24 hours of carrying it in a neoprene case.
Aaron
on 04 Jun 07It looks like a sweet product, typical from Apple. It will undoubtedly have the iSheep flocking…
However, given that you’ll need to do business with the “Evil Empire” that is AT&T in order to buy and use the iPhone, no thanks…
Matthew Pane
on 04 Jun 07What Karl seemed to miss was that the iPhone won’t have GPS functionality built-in. (or at least not until future versions)
The iPhone doesn’t know where you are; Google Maps pulls in local restaurants and stores based on where you tell it is. Along with that, it can give you directions from one place to another, same as the web-based version.
Rahul
on 04 Jun 07I’d also say the Wii’s initial introduction videos and the Nintendo DS’s approach to accessibility in your hand with a touchscreen came in the immediate area of what Apple is doing with iPhone.
Adam
on 04 Jun 07Another nice little touch that I appreciated was the fact that the phone’s date in all the ads is last night - June 3rd - the first night I at least saw the ads and I assume the first night they aired. A cool, small detail that gives it an extra fresh, up-to-date feel.
Sean
on 04 Jun 07The GPS capability would be nice. Google Maps works great on my Q but the GPS option sitting on the menu is tantalizingly useless. The thing is, the phone can produce GPS coordinates via triangulation. They aren’t perfect, but it would be good enough. I don’t understand why phones does expose this information to the other apps.
BTW, the iPhone is ultra cool but for $500 and forced to use AT&T, I’ll stick with my $50 Q on Verizon.
minxlj
on 04 Jun 07$500? I’ll eat my hat if we Brits get to pay $500. I’m guessing we’ll end up paying £350-£400 ($800) for it. But, I don’t care if I have to sell a kidney, I am getting one! :-)
Mike Swimm
on 04 Jun 07Jason,
I agree totally with your review. Apple is selling the product by showing the experience, really smart.
The other major thing that struck me about this commercial is its confidence. Apple doesn’t even mention that this thing is an ipod or show any of the other innovative features!
I think this type of confidence and reserve is really difficult for smaller companies dying to tell EVERYONE, EVERYTHING that their product does ALL AT ONCE. Customers end up feeling like they are trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose.
John Topley
on 04 Jun 07They mention that in the other two ads.
mike
on 04 Jun 07Does anyone want to comment on the unrealistic loading times for e-mail, maps, and web browsing in these commercials? If you’ve used an EDGE phone you know what I’m talking about.
Also, my 60gb iPod STRUGGLES through menus and clicking around. I am skeptical that the processor in the iphone is really as smooth as the ads lend you to believe.
That being said: GIVE ME ONE OH MY GOD!!!
Ted
on 04 Jun 07Does anyone else notice 1 key feature missing from the advertisement?
It’s making a simple phone call!.
Karl N
on 04 Jun 07The other ads are here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/
Brandon
on 04 Jun 07I’m definitely getting on on the 29th, as long as I can get in line first!
I don’t care if it’s a first gen or if it only has 8GB of memory… I know for a fact it will blow away every PDA on the market. I have a Treo 680 right now but have used Windows Mobile too (ugh). Even if it’s only half as fast as the commercial, it’ll be 4 times faster than my Palm.
I can’t wait to camp out the night of the 28th… I haven’t been this excited since… since… well, since the first iPod. :)
Jesper
on 04 Jun 07Ted: All three ads end with a phone call – this one on account of calling the restaurant and the other two on account of getting a call. My guess is that they want to focus on what they do – or how they do it – that their competitors don’t, rather than show off placing a typical call. (In essence, this particular ad is all about placing a call, just by finding a restaurant on another app rather than dialling one of your friends or co-workers.)
That said, I’ve always said that the number one thing holding the smartphone back is the mental disconnect that “the phone is just a program among others”, and that applies here too. The phone is not the epicenter of the product on any smartphone, including iPhone.
Sam
on 04 Jun 07Bets that if the exact same advert was for a Microsoft product, you’d be blogging about how bad it is right now…
Scott Meade
on 04 Jun 07Visual Voicemail is my favorite feature.
A great example of how Apple design is so deliciously different. For decades we’ve thought of modern voicemail systems as little more than digital versions of a tape answering machine. You listen to messages in order making voicemail almost useless and impossible to prioritize and organize. Apple’s Visual Voicemail lets you manage voicemails almost like emails.
Scott Meade
on 04 Jun 07Sam – from a marketing perspective, the closest MS device might be Zune and Zune ads don’t show you what it does, how it does it, or why it’s better. The iPhone ads do.
Chad
on 04 Jun 07And I’ll stick with my Blackberry Pearl.
John Topley
on 04 Jun 07@Scott Meade: I think another reason only Apple could come up with Visual Voicemail is because only Apple are in a position of having some clout with the telcos, without which Visual Voicemail couldn’t work (it requires infrastructure changes). Apple are in that position because they make stuff that people really, really want and the telcos have recognised that and are willing to bend a little way towards what Apple want, in the same way the music industry did with iTunes.
Doug
on 04 Jun 07Tutorial based marketing, This is def a great thing. Not only shows you what it can do, walks you through how to do it. I have things on my current phone that I have not a clue what they do.
sloan
on 04 Jun 07The GPS thing would have sooooo many potential uses. It should be part of the phone stack in the OS, but so far they haven’t said anything about it. But I was more wondering, the thing has a microphone right? How about integrating the Mac OS X voice recognition with the GPS to be able to just walk and say out loud, find local pizza. Or integrate with some kind of new e-commerce API and say, find nearest and cheapest gas? The main idea of saying what you want instead of typing is part of OS X, but is it in the OS X on the phone? It will be great once the thing is released so we can find out.
Oh yeah, and can the phone do phone and chat at the same time, use the phone line and WiFi in parallel? I imagine having a phone conversation and sharing links and emailing files while talking…
Steph Gray
on 04 Jun 07It’s a great, simple ad, but what’s really amazing isn’t the promotion, but the product itself.
If you’ve got a truly great product, how much advertising do you need?
You get the feeling that at Apple, the ad people come second to the engineers, designers and product people. That’s what’s great.
Bob Dobbs
on 04 Jun 07The day that people plunk down the cash and then try to reproduce what they see in that ad is the beginning of the end for Apple’s phone aspirations. This device will not work as advertised. The UI will be slow, connecting to the internet and downloading info will be slow. It will be like my old SE30 running PageMaker oh what a satisfying user experience that was – though we did crank out some nice newsletters.
B
on 04 Jun 07The UI will be slow
You know this how?
Dave Schappell
on 05 Jun 07I liked the Ads (didn’t love them)... but did anyone else think the keypad functionality looked painful when the commentator was typing ‘Seafood’? I have a touchscreen interface on my T-Mobile MDA and I am not a fan. I have faith in Apple’s ability to drastically improve on it, probably by having smart typing that corrects for mistakes based on future input, but still… I’ll need to be convinced. If the first trial is too painful, I think a Blackberry Pearl is in my near future.
Note - the T-Mobile MDA is actually the world’s worst telephone, bar none - stay away—stay very far away.
Michael Chui
on 05 Jun 07but did anyone else think the keypad functionality looked painful when the commentator was typing ‘Seafood’?
I’m biased, since I saw the earlier iPhone demonstration by Jobs himself, but they made it a point to enlarge the characters while typing so that it’d be easier to do keypad. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s a nice idea.
Allan White
on 05 Jun 07Re: UI Responsiveness:
The UI itself will be quite snappy. Loading, on the other hand, will depend if you’re sucking through the coffee straw that is GPRS (Edge? I forget) or wi-fi, which in all these ads is connected (see the little icon upper left). No doubt, all the demos are done connected to wi-fi.
Which, in my opinion, is still awesome. I may not be able to resist joining the other sheep in the minefield. mmBaa…hello?
Norbert Crombach
on 05 Jun 07We had a similar reaction over at Fingertips. Good stuff.
John Fan
on 05 Jun 07None of the ads show the “multitouch” feature, in particular using two fingers to zoom in on a webpage.
Riel Roussopoulos
on 05 Jun 07Ooooo gaga for apple sauce.
Am I the only one that doesn’t think this is the coolest thing since sliced bread?
What’s my bandwidth charge going to be after downloading google maps to see where the closest gas station is?
I just paid a $70 bill for running goosynch on my phone for a month to synch my calendar.
Not to mention of course that my iphone will only synch to my imac and it’ll only upload my pictures on my phone to .mac and if I want to change the battery I’ll have to buy a new cell phone.
Sorry, but while I agree they make good ads (you can afford to when you charge %50 more for your products than anyone else does.) I’m not a lover of their products, or more particularly their “we don’t play in other people’s sandboxes” mentality.
I was done with mac when my 2nd powerbook’s logic board fried and I found out I had to send back my ipod to get a new battery installed.
I won’t be purchasing their latest FAD PHONE, despite all the hype.
B
on 05 Jun 07Reil, this post is about the advertising. Get off your little high horse in regards to your “Am I the only one…” criticism of a product you’ve never tried.
Sandy
on 05 Jun 07It doesn’t excite me. I’m generally averse to being sold ‘handy gadgets’, so I’m probably prejudiced against this. The scenario of watching a movie/ordering food seems a bit kitsch to me, too.
I daresay the actual mechanics of this add are well executed, but the overall doesn’t appeal to me.
Sarah in Orange County
on 05 Jun 07It would be nice to see some ROI numbers for anyone who has tried something like this.
Nate Burgos
on 05 Jun 07Maximum message with minimal storytelling, where the product is the hero which should make the consumer the hero too.
ron connor
on 06 Jun 07i’ve had a palm treo, a pocket PC w/ gps and wifi (pretty cool but crummy screen) and now a blackberry. the bb blows the others away, so i am excited to see something even more seamless. i have lots of gadgets at home work and car.
i also own a zen and an ipod and i don’t really get the ipod buzz. but what i really don’t get is why i would watch a movie on the damn thing?
the speed of it in the commercial is astounding. if that is real time, real world i’ll get it asap, but on that i am skeptical.
help me on the movie thing…
ron connor
on 06 Jun 07i hope i don’t sound like a crank, or give the wrong impression. i love this stuff and all the progress gadgets ar making and i have no agenda about apple, or price, or fads like some of the posts. and i get its a commercial and uses a creative license and suspends reality a bit. cool.
i just don’t get the movie thing.
carlivar
on 06 Jun 07How much space does a movie like Pirates take up?
Sebhelyesfarku
on 06 Jun 07The iPhone is an overhyped, underhardwared turd for Mactards and fashion lemmings.
Rob
on 07 Jun 07Some guy actually called Pacific Catch and got the inside scoop
This discussion is closed.