On dog walks I usually listen to UC Berkeley podcasts. Today, it is Cognitive Neuroscience course taught by Prof. Richard Ivry. In one of the lectures he talks about the difference in how we perceive live vs non-live objects. When asked to describe a live object people are most likely to mention its properties or attributes. For example, they would say that cat is soft, black, friendly, etc. But describing a non-live object, they would focus on its function. For example, hammer is good for pounding nails, car for driving, and etc.
Armed with this knowledge, let's turn our attention to how Apple markets its products. For example, Steve Jobs describes iPad as wonderful, magical, beautiful, amazing device.
Apple's Mac vs PC ad campaign also focuses on Mac as a person, rather than device. What is being sold is a fashion item; when consumer buys it s/he adds personality first and functionality second. And here's the line-up of Apple's portable products:
iPod - $100-200
iPhone - $200-400
iPad - $500-700
MacBook - $1,000 and up.
As we can see, iPad fills nicely into the niche between iPhone and MacBook. Now, everybody who wants to make a computer fashion statement can do it at will.
tags: apple, information, social, psychology, science
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