Did the ad signify that Apple wants to do more and more to make an iPad the new computer for most people? Did the ad generate enough press (good or bad) that it was beneficial for Apple + the iPad? Or did Apple kinda screw themselves over by creating this expectation that the iPad should be a laptop/computer replacement? Was it a misleading ad? Or did it really have little effect on the iPad and its trajectory?
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All iPads So, was the "What's a computer?" ad a success or failure?
- Thread starter xxray
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I suggest you look at the iPad as laptop replacement thread and draw your conclusions from there.
But at the end of the day, it’s just an ad to sell more stuff.
But at the end of the day, it’s just an ad to sell more stuff.
I see it as a provocation to the PC industry.
Apple know better than to believe that the PC era is over.
the Ad worked very well because we are discussing this today.
according to some graphic design professors back in the day.
according to some graphic design professors back in the day.
The ad was a pretty big misfire in certain ways, and they've since stopped making statements like that at keynotes or in commercials.
It's not that they're wrong. It's just that they didn't get the right people talking. The people that use their iPads and iPhones "as their main computer" did not need this commercial to tell them that an iPad can step in for a computer for most or all of their usage. This ad was targeted at the people that DON'T believe that.
I'm not saying the ad is wrong--I wholeheartedly agree that the iPad is a perfectly capable laptop if you want it to be, and of course depending on what you are doing with the hardware. I think for this ad though, Apple lost sight of who they were trying to convince. The iPad users already know what the ad is trying to tell them.
I was an iPad-only guy at the time of the ad and agreed with it. I'm 99% back on the Mac now and don't have any more than an iPad mini 3 as my consumption device. I still think the ad is correct--for most people an iPad is all you need. People like me are the minority.
M1 has thrown a major wrench in all that too. Before M1, an Intel MacBook, in my mind, was FAR inferior to an iPad Pro due to heat, speed, and battery. Now we have M1 in all MacBooks AND the iPad Pro, so the comparison turns into iPad Pro vs. MacBook Air/Pro. In that matchup, for me, any model M1 MacBook wins hands down.
But yes, as far as us still talking about it now, yeah, I guess that's what commercials are supposed to do.
It's not that they're wrong. It's just that they didn't get the right people talking. The people that use their iPads and iPhones "as their main computer" did not need this commercial to tell them that an iPad can step in for a computer for most or all of their usage. This ad was targeted at the people that DON'T believe that.
I'm not saying the ad is wrong--I wholeheartedly agree that the iPad is a perfectly capable laptop if you want it to be, and of course depending on what you are doing with the hardware. I think for this ad though, Apple lost sight of who they were trying to convince. The iPad users already know what the ad is trying to tell them.
I was an iPad-only guy at the time of the ad and agreed with it. I'm 99% back on the Mac now and don't have any more than an iPad mini 3 as my consumption device. I still think the ad is correct--for most people an iPad is all you need. People like me are the minority.
M1 has thrown a major wrench in all that too. Before M1, an Intel MacBook, in my mind, was FAR inferior to an iPad Pro due to heat, speed, and battery. Now we have M1 in all MacBooks AND the iPad Pro, so the comparison turns into iPad Pro vs. MacBook Air/Pro. In that matchup, for me, any model M1 MacBook wins hands down.
But yes, as far as us still talking about it now, yeah, I guess that's what commercials are supposed to do.
Thanks, I hadn’t seen that commercial before.
I think the campaign did elevate the iPad to something more than just a larger iPhone.
And there’s certainly a segment who may have previously used it only for watching movies and playing games.
If anything, it made people consider an iPad instead of a desktop or even a laptop.
I know I went with an iPad Air 4 w/keyboard for my daily uses. Granted that was before the M1 MacBook Air was out. While I’m quite happy with my iPad, I’m not sure I wouldn’t go the MacBook Air instead if I had the choice today.
Well it literally became the punchline of jokes, which is probably not what they were going for, but it did get a lot of attention... so I guess it's a matter of how you define a successful ad.
Considering I own an iPad Pro and no computer, for me it worked.
Coupled with Affinity for sure, Word and some little apps I can do everything I did on a Mac on an iPad!
Coupled with Affinity for sure, Word and some little apps I can do everything I did on a Mac on an iPad!
That’s a very interesting definition of “computer “ both in your comment and in the ad as well.
I don't have any hard numbers for how many sales the ad bolstered (or didn't for that matter). I'm guessing it was a way to reach out to those who would've never had that thought... that an iPad can be a suitable "computer" replacement.
At the end of the day, gather your needs for a computing device, and make sure that an iPad can indeed cover those. Overall, you'll want an ipad from the Air line, if not Pro (as opposed to the "regular" line). Those are hella expensive, rivaling actual laptops in price, but there are some things that an iPad Pro + accessories (e.g. Apple Pencil, smart keyboard cover). It is much more portable as well. OTOH, there are the usual woes, like doing something with an iPad will have extra hurdles that MacOS, Windows, and Linux can easily do "just like that".
For my use cases...
--I have a PC at work
--I have a desktop PC at home
For video games, internet, and productivity. I could probably get away with just a Chromebook, but internet is a superior experience on there. Speaking of which
--Chromebook for internet while on travel
If I'm settled at a hotel or family's house, this is what I use for internet
--Android phone
For the usual phone stuff, and "internet in my pocket"
At the end of the day, gather your needs for a computing device, and make sure that an iPad can indeed cover those. Overall, you'll want an ipad from the Air line, if not Pro (as opposed to the "regular" line). Those are hella expensive, rivaling actual laptops in price, but there are some things that an iPad Pro + accessories (e.g. Apple Pencil, smart keyboard cover). It is much more portable as well. OTOH, there are the usual woes, like doing something with an iPad will have extra hurdles that MacOS, Windows, and Linux can easily do "just like that".
For my use cases...
--I have a PC at work
--I have a desktop PC at home
For video games, internet, and productivity. I could probably get away with just a Chromebook, but internet is a superior experience on there. Speaking of which
--Chromebook for internet while on travel
If I'm settled at a hotel or family's house, this is what I use for internet
--Android phone
For the usual phone stuff, and "internet in my pocket"
I don't understand....
By definition the iPad IS a computer.... the form factor is a Tablet design..
What I meant is, I do not have an "ordinary computer" as in the Desktop / Laptop form factor, hence, the iPad can be considered a "substitute", wich is what the ads want to show.
For all? Of course not, but for some it is.
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Exactly and thanks for acknowledging that too. Your initial post (as well as the ad, to a degree) sounded like the opposite when I read it.
This forum has quite a few people who are set in their ways that a computer can only be a computer if it runs Windows or macOS hence my comment initially.
No I think it has more to do with the form factor, people tend to thing computer = Wind / Mac OS /Linux and Laptop / Desktop.
What I and the ads (I suppose because I did not invent this campaign) wanted to mean is that people need to think outside those boundaries.
It's like saying if you think of computer in the traditional term, you are missing out.
I've thought a little more about this, and I think many of us (me included) have forgotten what people actually hated about that commercial. It wasn't the concept of "What's A Computer?" itself that seemed to generate the most criticism among people I talked to. The people that argue online about computers are the people that took umbrage with Apple even daring to suggest that an iPad could serve as a perfectly acceptable, or in some cases superior, "computer" for most people. There seem to be a LOT of people in forums just like this one that think they're judge and jury on what an iPad is/isn't or what you should/shouldn't be doing with one. So to that group, this kind of commercial is naturally rage inducing.
But I did have a few friends and family bring up that commercial in conversation back in the day--none of those people being the type that argue about computers online. Their complaint was always about the delivery of the line and what a snot the kid seemed to be. Even more notable--I think most of those people already owned iPads or at least iPhones.
Taking the commercial as it is though, it was merely Apple's first signal that things were really about to change. Look at what's happened to the iPad since then--the fastest one on the market shares a chip architecture with the Mac! What OS it runs or what accessories it does/does not ship with is totally immaterial. It's definitely a computer and always has been. It's a certain kind of computer for a certain kind of user or use case. Everything from the Apple Watch all the way on up to the most maxed out Mac Pro is a computer.
But I did have a few friends and family bring up that commercial in conversation back in the day--none of those people being the type that argue about computers online. Their complaint was always about the delivery of the line and what a snot the kid seemed to be. Even more notable--I think most of those people already owned iPads or at least iPhones.
Taking the commercial as it is though, it was merely Apple's first signal that things were really about to change. Look at what's happened to the iPad since then--the fastest one on the market shares a chip architecture with the Mac! What OS it runs or what accessories it does/does not ship with is totally immaterial. It's definitely a computer and always has been. It's a certain kind of computer for a certain kind of user or use case. Everything from the Apple Watch all the way on up to the most maxed out Mac Pro is a computer.
I think the ipad is the perfect computer for people who simply want to access the internet. While there are also specific tasks that an ipad does excel at, I feel they are also too niche and too scattered to form any unifying theme or messaging around, because there is likely still some part of your workflow that you will need to fall back on a PC for.
Apple seems to now be content with the ipad playing a supporting role to the Mac, what with features like sidecar and the new universal control.
In hindsight, I think that ad was aimed at people still using cheap windows laptops and in the market for an upgrade. Now that the market seems to have been saturated, they are now looking at getting more people in the apple ecosystem to own an ipad, either as a complement to the iphone or to the Mac.
Whatever helps sell more devices, I suppose.
Apple seems to now be content with the ipad playing a supporting role to the Mac, what with features like sidecar and the new universal control.
In hindsight, I think that ad was aimed at people still using cheap windows laptops and in the market for an upgrade. Now that the market seems to have been saturated, they are now looking at getting more people in the apple ecosystem to own an ipad, either as a complement to the iphone or to the Mac.
Whatever helps sell more devices, I suppose.
ad guy here. came to say the same thing.
TV ads aren't direct response. they're branding.
so the fact that we're still talking about it 1-2 years later, means that it was memorable and built up apple's brand equity...so yes, it worked.
Yep. I would even say it's more than a supporting role. All the things regular people use "home computers" for have always worked on the iPad from launch day in 2010. Not even the iPhone can make that claim, even though it definitely laid the groundwork for 3 solid years before the iPad launched.
I always say the kind of person that would have owned a beige box Gateway 2000 PC in the 90s, and where I lived that was most people, is the perfect candidate for an iPad-as-computer setup. That's a pretty big addressable market that doesn't really need a full blown Mac or PC. The "What's A Computer" commercial was going after those people.
The core message has been a successful one, but this advert in isolation wasn’t a success.
Apple marketing on occasion lends itself to cringe, self-indulgence, pretentiousness and hyperbole. This ends up detracting from, rather than helping the product they are trying to promote. The advert in question was certainly on the cringe end of the spectrum.
The worst offending Apple advert I’ve seen was for a previous MacBook, which basically marked out MacBook ownership as being linked to taking part in political revolutionary movements and social justice. I felt pain in my shoulder just from that massive marketing overreach.
Apple marketing on occasion lends itself to cringe, self-indulgence, pretentiousness and hyperbole. This ends up detracting from, rather than helping the product they are trying to promote. The advert in question was certainly on the cringe end of the spectrum.
The worst offending Apple advert I’ve seen was for a previous MacBook, which basically marked out MacBook ownership as being linked to taking part in political revolutionary movements and social justice. I felt pain in my shoulder just from that massive marketing overreach.
The Genius Store Guy commercials though.............I remember being worried Apple was turning into Dell.
Not directly. It was to help people who DID make that decision feel good about it. That's one of the aspects of Apple's marketing.... less about convincing people to buy their product and more about them feeling good about the purchase they already made.
Yes, it generated a lot of press... mostly negative, which is good for any marketing campaign. Any attention is good.
It had little effect on the iPad and its trajectory. From a technical perspective, it was a silly ad campaign. Of course the iPad could be a computer for people. Many already use the iPhone as their computer. Apple knew that by using the word "computer" it was vague enough to generate buzz and conversation. Mission accomplished.
It was very successful.
Apple never calls iPad a tablet anywhere on their marketing materials - not on their website and not during presentations. The goal of the campaign was to get the viewer to understand the iPad isn't a computer. It's more than that. Some people misunderstand and believe it was about whether iPad can replace your notebook computer. It was never about that. The idea is iPad an entirely different category.
More and more people call for an iPad by name vs. a tablet. This is similar to the older campaign where Apple was promoting, "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone."
Apple never calls iPad a tablet anywhere on their marketing materials - not on their website and not during presentations. The goal of the campaign was to get the viewer to understand the iPad isn't a computer. It's more than that. Some people misunderstand and believe it was about whether iPad can replace your notebook computer. It was never about that. The idea is iPad an entirely different category.
More and more people call for an iPad by name vs. a tablet. This is similar to the older campaign where Apple was promoting, "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone."
I couldn’t say whether Apple feel the campaign was successful or not, but I think the campaign is building on the idea that, for a certain generation, the iPad might be the only computing device they have really used.
Remember this from 10 years ago?
Many kids will have been given an iPad whilst they are growing up; as a toy, as a game machine, as a way of watching funny YouTube videos and so on. iPads are intuitive to use, portable, light (especially the Mini) and so on. To someone like that, they may primarily think ‘iPad’ when they want a computing device, rather than thinking of a traditional form-factor device.
I think part of the message of this advert was: you don’t need to buy your child a laptop or desktop so they can study - just buy them a better iPad.
Remember this from 10 years ago?
Many kids will have been given an iPad whilst they are growing up; as a toy, as a game machine, as a way of watching funny YouTube videos and so on. iPads are intuitive to use, portable, light (especially the Mini) and so on. To someone like that, they may primarily think ‘iPad’ when they want a computing device, rather than thinking of a traditional form-factor device.
I think part of the message of this advert was: you don’t need to buy your child a laptop or desktop so they can study - just buy them a better iPad.