With the recent release of the iPhone 5C, I find myself questioning how Steve Jobs would feel about it. I can’t imagine, based on the persona portrayed in his biography, that he would have liked the idea of a cheaper product (both aesthetically and monetarily). I’ve had this discussion with a few people at work. Some have respectfully disagreed, but I’ve decided to take my debate to the internet to see what others think.
Apple was built on a foundation of appearing to be a higher quality product. Aesthetics were important to Jobs when they weren’t as important to Gates. And just as in Weeds when Nancy packaged the same weed into a fancy box, but sold it for triple or quadruple what she was previously selling it for, people love buying pretty packages. It’s why we were willing to pay more for Macs and iPhones as compared to PCs and Androids.
When it comes to the iPhone 5C, it is a far cry from beautiful packaging. You have these awful colors that are super saturated. That’s been done. The trend is on its way out if you ask me (and this is coming from someone who loves using saturated colors, heh, but just take a look at what we see more of out there — it’s more sophisticated “hipster” design). Also given his propensity for Bauhaus mentality, I can’t imagine Jobs would’ve been on board with this new iPhone. Less is more.
Lets not confuse that with monetary costs though. Jobs was never stingy. If providing a prettier product meant having to charge consumers more, he was for that. And there’s a weird psychology with the price of Macs. Due to it’s appearances and marketing it has come across as a far superior product (not the case in every regard, but that’s how it’s perceived). And by being this luxury product it has given consumers the desire to purchase something of it’s caliber.
However, with the 5C we lose that appearance of being a luxury good. Now we have a common good no better than any other brand out there (and I fear pretty soon could become obsolete, depending on how fast Cook and his team can push Apple employees to innovate).
Ultimately, time will tell just how useful or useless iPhone 5C becomes. Hopefully, I am proven wrong because Apple is one of my favorite brands. Jobs did a wonderful job of really setting up the company for success and he was a master marketer. I will probably gush some more about his epicness in the future.
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