iPod Is The Toaster Of The 21st Century

We talked of an Apple Backlash way back at the beginning of the year and it could be that the commoditisation of the iPod is the tipping point for this. The IHT has an article in which it points to the growing trend of corporations using iPods to promote or incentivise their products.

This rampant piggy backing can only damage the Apple brand. Since the launch of the iMac in 1998, Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs and aesthetic eye of Jonathon Ive, have gone from strength to strength. With the launch of the iPod, and subsequent Mac Mini, Apple has become the top name for marketeers to drop into conversation and impress clients and colleagues of their trendyness.

However, despite a lack of encouragement from Apple, companies have been hopping on the Mac bandwagon and boosting their cred, whilst Apple enjoys the cash but loses the cred it has worked hard to achieve. People have become slightly embarrassed of their iPods – at first it felt good to be the only person on the train with white headphones, then you’d see a fellow iPodder and feel a bond; the next stage was reverting to your old Walkman headphones to avoid being mugged but also to feel slightly different again as your parents, bosses and nephews got their hands on an iPod.

Pretty snobby you might think? But for a company that makes creative tools, it’s the edge dwellers and early adopters that you need to keep closest because these are the people that will ensure your brand stays at the top of the cool stakes and keeps moving forward.