One reason why Apple won't radically redesign the MacBook Pro
A few days ago, Cult of Mac's Leigh McMullen claimed that the MacBook Pro should not be redesigned, as it's started to attain a valuable kind of mindshare: its current appearance is becoming entwined with the general public's idea of what a high-end notebook should look like. As a result, marketers put it in ads for stuff, free of charge to Apple, because of its aspirational connotations.
If you want a real life example, Leigh, check this out: Grocery chain Giant Eagle using it to sell vegetables and pasta
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Looks to be the North Side Giant Eagle
I don't buy this argument - while I don't have examples in front of me, I recall advertisers using previous Apple laptops in ads. The black PowerBook G3 and white iBooks were in bus shelters, billboards, etc.
It isn't this specific design that's iconic, it's Apple's penchant for great design in general that has captured mindshare.
Couldn't it also be that ad people, designers and photographers have macs?
I mean, if you're setting up this grocery store shot and it needs a laptop, and everyone involved owns a mac, where would you even find a pc laptop to use for the shoot?
If you've ever seen the produce depart at a Giant Eagle, you know that they need all the help they can get.
Agies! Yep, the Dirty Bird.
I thought "the Dirty Bird" referred to the long defunct Forbes Ave. store in Oakland. It was gone long before I moved to Pittsburgh, but I've heard stories, some of which still keep me up at night.
Let me assure you that the north side Giant Eagle is a worthy inheritor of the name.
Looks to me like they are using the laptop to purchase generic drugs - the laptop owner in the picture already has vegetables and pasta...
Or are they selling the idea of shopping online, esp. for people that already have vegetables and pasta and need generic drugs?
Ken
Also known as the Ghetto Eagle... A name that also works for the Lawrenceville Giant Eagle which I will only shop at for the bare essentials despite the fact that the Waterworks Giant Eagle is more than twice as far away. I'm not sure what the store smells like but it smells like something I don't want to eat.
Shop S-Mart!
If that's true then Netscape Navigator should be selling like hotcakes.
I see it a lot in 'internet' stock footage used on the news and in ads, clearly it's not recent footage, and usually only on the screen long enough to see http://[typing].
mhhh no i'm not agree, it's a cultural Short Circuit, usually who make a ads use a Mac, so the it put it on the ads, only because it use it all day.
"aspirational connotations" :P
but i'm the only one that hate this kind of iSmug sentence?
It's a virtuous circle. Designers buy Macs because they are pretty and great for designing with. Then the Macs end up in the ads, because they are pretty. PC laptops tend not to end up in the ads, because designers don't like unpretty things and most PC laptops are not pretty. Simple!
like remove two ribs to make a selfblowjob.
I saw a commercial during the Tour de France yesterday selling virus protection for PCs. Most of the "PCs" in the ad are Macs. The first is an iMac, then we see a white MacBook. Eventually they show what looks like a Lenovo, but they put themselves in the position of having to put small print at the bottom of their ad near the end that says, "(PRODUCT) is for PCs only."
It was mildly amusing, although my wife didn't see why.
It's good for grocery store ads because it looks so inconspicuous. It fades into the white background. It sucks, it just does.
Simplicity is good, but compared to the white and black MacBooks, the Pros are just boring and too big.
I think it's bordering on overuse, though. In time, the Macbook will no longer be the standard for a high-end or well-designed notebook, but just a generic stand-in of something that everone recognizes as a portable computer. Mere advertising shorthand, rather than a conscious reference to a quality product.