Apple Promotes iPhone 15's 'Find Your Friends' Feature in Star Wars-Themed Ad

[mazz0]

Oof, the bit with the cape caught in the door was tense - people have been seriously injured in real life situations like that!

 

[freediverx00]

Very cool feature, but it's going to be a few years before all my friends have 15 or higher iPhones to make this work consistently.

I'm not sure what the technology is that makes this work (Bluetooth, NFC?) but like so many things it would be much more useful if it was platform-agnostic and I could share location with people whether they have an Android or an iPhone.

If we only got features that were platform agnostic and worked retroactively on all old devices from the moment of launch, we would never get any new features worth mentioning. We’d still be using windows PCs, dumb phones, and blackberries.

 

[ignatius345]

If we only got features that were platform agnostic and worked retroactively on all old devices from the moment of launch, we would never get any new features worth mentioning. We’d still be using windows PCs, dumb phones, and blackberries.

I'm just wishing more stuff was built on open standards. I know, probably pretty unlikely given how territorial all these "ecosystems" are, but it's definitely a better user experience.

 

[robgreene]

I think you're missing the forest for the trees. It's not about form and design and company direction, but rather to just illustrate a simple use case. It's metaphorical for the situation in which many people nowadays find themselves: lost amongst a sea of apparently similar-looking people in a noisy environment. Think of an airport, for example. Of course, having it be Star Wars themed and presented in this short story form makes it cohesive and fun at the same time.

"Missing the forest for the trees" = missing the bigger picture because of focusing on the little stuff. You then proceeded to explain that this is not about "company direction" (big picture) but rather "a simple use case' (little stuff).

Remind me who's missing the forest for the trees?

Even within the "simple use case" - if it's "metaphorical for the situation in which many people nowadays find themselves," why illustrate with an example the general population will be so disconnected from (Star Wars Cosplay conventions), that they don't even make it to the end of the commercial to see that Apple has/is the solution they're looking for.

 

[Coffee50]

I'm not questioning the use of the technology. I'm questioning the choice of ads to showcase the technology.

I do think there is room for both. In all honestly, this isn't even a typical 30 second spot (It is moving in short film territory at almost 3 minutes)

I don't think this overrides their traditional advertising...When Apple does ads like this, it is for a specific reason. After this dropped, it was trending and featured on social media, multiple sites, with a ton of articles (it was even promoted on Star Wars official site). It was listed on everything from Ad Age, to Hollywood Reporter, to international news sites.

Compare that to a traditional Apple ad (I mean "traditional" in the sense of, any of their "non holiday" ads), and those ads don't get this sort of coverage or attention. There are plenty of iPhone ads showing off a feature.

People still talk about Volkswagen Star Wars Super Bowl commercial. I see it this as one of those humorous "pop culture" bits they did for May the 4th. I don't think it is the template for all of their upcoming ads.