7 ms·

This is like saying Apple products are popular because Apple has a great marketing team, as opposed to because said products are genuinely easier to use (they "

This is like saying Apple products are popular because Apple has a great marketing team, as opposed to because said products are genuinely easier to use (they "just work") than their alternatives.

petewailes 11y ago
Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not...
njharman 11y ago
But that is why Apple is so popular. They are a marketing monster! They sell a "lifestyle" and they do it extremely well. They tell you to "Think Different" (as long as it means buying an apple product). They tell you one button is easy and the best. They tell people what to think and (some) people think that.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  Yet they spend less on marketing then most major tech companies. One could just argue they spend their marketing budget well, but you have to wonder.
  - kbenson 11y ago
    Less as a percentage of gross income, or less in total dollars?
    - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
      Both. Apple is infamous for its anemic marketing budgets; e.g. http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/apples-advertising-budget-dwarfed-by-microsoft-and-samsung/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/apples-advertising-budget...
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    They spend just maintenance level. Tech press and media does the marketing for them.
mempko 11y ago
Apple products got good because of large amount of investment, not because they were popular. If IRC tech got the investment slack has now, it would only get better.
Avshalom 11y ago
It worked for Nike and De Beers. The entire sports drink industry. The supplement industry.
nodamage 11y ago
Sadly, a lot of people (generally die-hard nerd types) genuinely believe that marketing was the sole reason for the iPhone's meteoric rise in 2007. They don't place any importance on user experience and therefore can't tell the difference between the iPhone and the early-gen smartphone predecessors (Palm/Nokia/etc). These are the same people that are now confused as to why Slack has risen in popularity despite the existence of IRC, which (in their eyes) is technically superior.
- pyre 11y ago
  To be fair, (as a Slack user) I'm not sure off-hand what Slack has that couldn't have been done on top of IRC. Almost everything could have been done with an IRC Server + Backend Services + Fancy Client model.
  - riking 11y ago
    Problem: "Backend services" - how many of the Slack integrations don't have public APIs and Slack was only able to do it by being a single company? Good luck convincing people to set up the API keys for all of those services.
    - pyre 11y ago
      Why can't Slack run irc servers on their own equipment? The "integrations" would just be IRC bots running on private Slack servers, no?
ris 11y ago
> (they "just work") Please don't say that Apple products "just work". We've got an office full of them.
- shaan7 11y ago
  and I need to "put a USB keybord, take it out again" when suddenly my Mac keyboard and trackpad stop responding xD I'd rather have "easier to debug when it doesn't work" than "just works, most of the times"
TeMPOraL 11y ago
Yes, it's pretty much self-evident truth. "Genuinely easier to use", even if it was clear-cut thing, doesn't explain the levels of popularity Apple products have. Lifestyle branding does. It reminds me of Raspberry Pi. There are lots of more powerful boards that you can buy cheaper, but people still mostly buy RPi because it is the brand.
- muzmath 11y ago
  Buying 'the brand' can also lead to much more documentation which can make the 10% change in price worth while.

This is like saying Apple products are popular because Apple has a great marketing team, as opposed to because said products are genuinely easier to use (they "just work") than their alternatives.

petewailes 11y ago

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not...

njharman 11y ago

But that is why Apple is so popular. They are a marketing monster! They sell a "lifestyle" and they do it extremely well. They tell you to "Think Different" (as long as it means buying an apple product). They tell you one button is easy and the best. They tell people what to think and (some) people think that.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago
Yet they spend less on marketing then most major tech companies. One could just argue they spend their marketing budget well, but you have to wonder.
- kbenson 11y ago
  Less as a percentage of gross income, or less in total dollars?
  - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
    Both. Apple is infamous for its anemic marketing budgets; e.g. http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/apples-advertising-budget-dwarfed-by-microsoft-and-samsung/ http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/04/apples-advertising-budget...
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  They spend just maintenance level. Tech press and media does the marketing for them.

mempko 11y ago

Apple products got good because of large amount of investment, not because they were popular. If IRC tech got the investment slack has now, it would only get better.

Avshalom 11y ago

It worked for Nike and De Beers. The entire sports drink industry. The supplement industry.

nodamage 11y ago

Sadly, a lot of people (generally die-hard nerd types) genuinely believe that marketing was the sole reason for the iPhone's meteoric rise in 2007. They don't place any importance on user experience and therefore can't tell the difference between the iPhone and the early-gen smartphone predecessors (Palm/Nokia/etc). These are the same people that are now confused as to why Slack has risen in popularity despite the existence of IRC, which (in their eyes) is technically superior.

pyre 11y ago
To be fair, (as a Slack user) I'm not sure off-hand what Slack has that couldn't have been done on top of IRC. Almost everything could have been done with an IRC Server + Backend Services + Fancy Client model.
- riking 11y ago
  Problem: "Backend services" - how many of the Slack integrations don't have public APIs and Slack was only able to do it by being a single company? Good luck convincing people to set up the API keys for all of those services.
  - pyre 11y ago
    Why can't Slack run irc servers on their own equipment? The "integrations" would just be IRC bots running on private Slack servers, no?

ris 11y ago

> (they "just work") Please don't say that Apple products "just work". We've got an office full of them.

shaan7 11y ago
and I need to "put a USB keybord, take it out again" when suddenly my Mac keyboard and trackpad stop responding xD I'd rather have "easier to debug when it doesn't work" than "just works, most of the times"

TeMPOraL 11y ago

Yes, it's pretty much self-evident truth. "Genuinely easier to use", even if it was clear-cut thing, doesn't explain the levels of popularity Apple products have. Lifestyle branding does. It reminds me of Raspberry Pi. There are lots of more powerful boards that you can buy cheaper, but people still mostly buy RPi because it is the brand.

muzmath 11y ago
Buying 'the brand' can also lead to much more documentation which can make the 10% change in price worth while.