Intelligent Design

The world (that is, mostly techies) is aghast with news of Apple's newest products after Steve Jobs delivered his hotly anticipated keynote address at the Macworld Expo on January 15th. And guess what--Apple does it again with the ultra-thin Apple Air.

My response to the Apple Air has been an emotional roller coaster. At first, the lower functions of my 'shiny-object-loving' brain fired away screaming "ooooooo" and "ahhhhhh". In following with Mac's recent trend in uber-sheik design (see Macbook, iPhone, or every Apple product) there is no doubt the Apple Air is the sexiest piece of machinery on the market. My next thought was that sexiness is all well and good but what can this ultra-thin and necessarily stripped down laptop do? The machine has less processing power and storage space than its heavier brethren and requires a $100 add on media drive. That's where my thoughts came to a screeching halt and the genius of the Apple Air became clear--the days of conventional hard media are over. It makes space-efficient sense that the conventional media drive is an add on for the sake of making the Apple Air as thin as possible but more importantly it predicts the complete digitalization of data and media content. Why pop in the DVD of your favorite movie when you can just download it from a digital content provider (Netflix and now iTunes movie rentals) or simply stream it? Why buy a computer game on disc when you can download and install straight from the manufacturer?

The Apple Air anticipates the heightening growth of digital data and media delivery which requires only an interface and an internet connection. Purely digital delivery is by no means an recent innovation, but the Apple Air and its smaller phone hybrid counterpart the iPhone are the most intuitively designed and most attractive products to push this movement forward--and the people at Apple know this.

Combined with solid product, there is an undoubtedly powerful (and at times mystical) marketing machine in play that cultivates the Apple hype. There is a developing cult of personality around CEO Steve Jobs as the techno-profit of today coupled with a tightly orchestrated secrecy around any press. This has led to a groundswell of loyal Mac users and increasing PC converts.

"...When Dell makes an announcement you don't have 5000 people waiting in line for 8 hours. There aren't websites dedicated to Toshiba's next machines..." David Pogue, NYT

Marketing aside, what is at the core of Apple products success are brilliant ideas that match the sleek and elegantly simple exteriors. The iPhone has revolutionized the mobile communications industry in so much that consumers will demand features that at least match Apple's forward thinking, i.e. touch screens, visual voice mail and effective access to the internet (finally!). PC manufactures will scramble to make a competitor to the Apple Air that will be the consumers gateway to increased digital productivity and entertainment consumption. Competitors would usually have enough time to scoop up the steadfast PC users with their second (to Apple) generation products but at this pace Steve Jobs could make Mac users of us all. That is what I call intelligent design.