As Apple's neglect toward the Mac became apparent, the company launched an ad campaign to reaffirm its commitment to laptops and desktops in 2018. "Behind the Mac" echoes the great Chiat/Day "Think Different" campaign of the 1990s, but last week's news challenges the sincerity of Apple's latest slogan.
"Think Different" marked the resurrection of Steve Jobs. After his banishment in 1985, Jobs returned to save the company he once co-founded. He earned a Christlike reputation in popular culture when he took control of Apple as CEO in 1997. He soon bestowed a sacred MP3 player unto us all and offered salvation to a collapsing music industry.
While "Think Different" celebrated the rebirth of a brand and its leader, "Behind the Mac" is almost defensive in tone. After all, how often does a corporation renew its vows to a product line? Since when has Apple been trapped in a loveless marriage with the Mac?
For the "Make Something Wonderful" ad from the "Behind the Mac" campaign, Apple dragged out the ol' black-and-white to hammer home the double meaning of its new slogan. While it can give you the feels, it's in that same icky way an overpackaged ABC sitcom manipulates your emotions.
It may not have the eloquent narration of its predecessor, but both ads end on a small child, representing the limitless potential of the human spirit. The campaign's more like an exploitation of "Think Different" than an homage, but the superficial aesthetic similarities must have worked because "Behind the Mac" is now a global campaign.
It's important to consider the subtle shift Apple’s brand underwent in the last decade when assessing the quality of its advertising. It started with the success of the iPhone. While there will always be a creative dimension to Apple's brand, the company hasn't been as innovative in recent years. Tim Cook is a reliable CEO, but the most impressive product released under his leadership is a pair of wireless earbuds. Let’s be honest, the Apple Watch is a glorified fitness tracker that can cost upwards of fifteen-hundred dollars.
Under Cook's tenure, Apple has become a luxury brand. That’s why "Behind the Mac" doesn't have the same resonance as "Think Different." The campaign references an era when Apple inspired people by example.
Apple’s fanatical base lost spiritual ownership of the brand when the iPhone brought in new customers and Steve Jobs passed away. It started as early as 2011, just months before Jobs’ death, when Apple scrapped the film industry favorite, Final Cut Pro 7, for a totally rewritten Final Cut Pro X that felt like a beefed up version of iMovie for consumers.
This precedent, from eight years ago, would make anyone suspicious of Bloomberg’s report last week. Without getting too technical, there's software that's written for the iPhone and iPad, and there is software written for the Mac. Through a multistep plan called Marzipan, Apple wants to move toward a "single binary" — an app that runs on both desktop and mobile by 2021. The macOS and iOS operating systems will remain separate, but developers will be able to write code that runs on Apple's mobile and desktop platforms.
This sounds like a logical evolution, especially if you consider all the different operating systems Apple has nowadays. Not only is there tvOS for the Apple TV and WatchOS for the Apple Watch, one must assume HomePod has its own weird thing going on in the shadow of Alexa.
Simplifying app development isn’t just practical from a technical perspective; there are business reasons why Apple wants to make this change happen. Smartphone sales are leveling off, so the company needs to focus on software and services for future growth. Also, there are more iOS developers than macOS developers, which means the initiative could spur growth for the Mac.
So yeah, Marzipan could help the Macintosh, but if you think back to the Final Cut Pro debacle, it’s hard to imagine Apple stepping in to preserve Mac applications as we know them today. The platform trends toward the consumer end of the market. Even as iOS apps become more sophisticated, they offer limited functionality relative to desktop applications. The iPad Pro, for instance, has been criticized for lacking software for pros.
As the lightweight tap tap swipe user-experience of the iPhone makes its way onto the Mac (which has already begun), the economic viability of software built for professionals exclusively on the platform starts to waver. After all, how lucrative would the professional software market have to be for a developer to limit an app's availability to only a fraction of Apple's users?
Even if developers continue to release applications exclusively for the Mac, it's hard to imagine that the software will remain as competitive as it is today. For example, the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, After Effects, etc.) is essential for many digital professions. While it’s hard to picture Adobe retiring the Creative Suite altogether, the larger ecosystem of apps that target digital professionals will likely dwindle. As that competition decreases, Adobe won’t be forced to innovate in the way it has in recent years.
"Behind the Mac" suggests Apple wants to protect its personal computers from market forces, but the swift timeline of last week's news jeopardizes the likelihood of this. Aside from an ad campaign, it's unclear if Apple really cares if its users create in the future, or if it's content with just letting them consume.
