How to spot (and avoid) terrible Apple commentary
The one word to look for to know whether or not a piece is worth your time.
This morning my eye was caught by the following headline at Inc Magazine: “Apple Plans to Use a Pricing Secret Discovered By Harvard.” The piece is about rumors that Apple might introduce a new subscription pricing service for the iPhone. An interesting topic to be sure, but my interest in the piece came to a screeching halt when I encountered the following sentences:
The problem is that Apple is failing to match pricing strategy to consumer behavior. As Apple attempts to give its consumer base what they want, it overlooks why it's cult-like following actually buys it. It's not that the latest phone will change their lives compared with the next iPhone model. It's the thrill of the race and the exclusivity that comes along with owning the latest Apple devices.
Any time you see the word “cult” used seriously in a piece about Apple you know you’re not dealing with serious analysis. Does Apple have a loyal customer base? Yes. Is it an often enthusiastic customer base? Indeed. But is it a “cult” customer base?
First, consider what comes to mind when you see the term. It’s probably nothing positive. You’re probably thinking of ritual suicide or emotional manipulation. I don’t think any serious person thinks that’s going on with Apple. Or maybe you think of a “fringe” movement. Again, does that sound like Apple, a company who sells hundreds of millions of products annually? About the most positive use of the term I can think of is referring to a movie as a “cult classic.” But here again we’re talking about something that is beloved by a small number of people while being disliked or unknown to most of the rest of the population. That doesn’t describe the Apple of the 21st Century.
Some people employ the term because they don’t like Apple or whatever caricature of an Apple fan they’ve constructed in their mind, but I think in most cases it’s just an exercise in lazy, clichéd writing. There was a time when the word “cult” had some semblance of meaning when applied to Apple and its customers. There was a period in the 90’s when Apple was in danger of bankruptcy and catered to a truly small group of loyal customers. But even then the use of “cult” would have been pretty demeaning.
Later on in the piece the author says of Apple:
…its fan base of early adopters are those that love the thrill of the race to be the first to get the latest device. This eliminates that thrill, making the latest model more commonplace, and with that more mundane.
Again, this is a lazy caricature. I doubt there are many early adopters who are motivated by being one of the first to get the latest iPhone. There are lots of early adopters who want to get the new iPhone as quickly as possible, but I bet you’d be hard pressed to find many of them who are specifically motivated to get it before everyone else does. And whatever number of these people might be out there, they’re a microscopically tiny sliver of Apple’s customer base. It’s like many of these tech writers, in their minds, are still living in 1995 when Apple’s customer base truly was fairly small. But that hasn’t been the case in a long time, not even within the lifetimes of many working-age adults.
I’m fine with criticisms of Apple and lodge them myself where I feel them necessary and appropriate, but miss me with juvenile, click-baity “analysis.” Apple’s not a cult, it simply makes hardware and software products that connect deeply with an incredibly large number of people worldwide, which buys it an enviable amount of brand loyalty. Good analysis needs to operate under that framing, even if coming from a writer who personally doesn’t care for Apple’s products.