Apple Picking

Meditation #1

WHY AN APPLE??

is the question. Recently I had an experience in an Apple Store down in Pennsylvania. Let’s just say that when I left the store I was not very happy. I still however gave them my money by purchasing a new iPod nano while in the store. Logically, this does not make sense because if I was unhappy why would I be giving Apple my money. That's what the company does though. They make their products so appealing that despite poor customer service they can still get you to buy the product. Everything about Apple makes it extremely appealing. Their ads just draw you in. You could say this is affecting the limbic brain because their appealing images are just the start of what makes you interested. To the right is an image of an ad for the new iPod. It uses bright colors and makes it look like if you have an iPod you will have a great time. This also can be seen as a production technique that Apple uses to draw in customers.

Thinking about it more I wondered what made a Mac so special. What drew everyone to buy Apple products? Looking at the following commercials I found out that both companies, Apple and Windows, use some persuasive techniques. One was plain folk, which used average people who would be typical customers. Another was name calling, where the companies said negative things about each other in their individual commercials. You can say Windows did copy some of Apples ideas from the commercials, but who wouldn't? Apple has the premier computers and MP3 players. People also say that copying is a form of flattery.




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I read an article called Mac vs. PC: What You Don't Get for $699 that pertains to the subject. It definitely connected with my experience in the Apple store. The title of this article affects the Neo-cortex part of the brain because it really makes you think, "What am I not getting for that $699?" I know it made me think, especially while in the store when asking the sales representative about what makes the newest 13'Mac so much better then before. I got the answer "It’s a Mac." Like that made everything perfect, but in reality it didn't, because nothing can be prefect. No matter how highly Apple thinks of themselves, when you ponder about it; you are paying so much more for a Mac when you can get something that's basically the same for a much cheaper price. Also, PC's at times will have deals but according to the man I spoke with at the Apple store Apple will not have deals because that would entail that Apple does not value their products. There is so much more information I can go into about both Macs and PC's. One other thing I noticed was how Apple’s look also has a big affect on the business they get. They have a classy appearance to them that is clean and sharp looking. You can say this goes along with the Epistemological Shift. Things use to be based on what was said about a product, but now an image can say a thousand words. Similar to how in the store I wasn’t told any information about the computer other then that it was a “Mac,” which is more of an image then anything else.