Have you ever noticed that Apple basically
never talks about the products of their competitors? Not on their website, not on their launch events,
not in their ads, basically nowhere. So in the 42nd episode of The Story Behind
series, let's explore why. With a little bit of help from Arun,
whose channel you should probably subscribe to. This video was sponsored by Skillshare. The first 500 viewers to sign up using the
link in the description will get 2 months of premium access for free. Comparing yourself to your competitors and
pointing out where you are better than them is probably the most straightforward advertisement
strategy out there. I'm sure you've seen ads from Samsung making
fun of the Apple notch and the removal of the headphone jack for example, and launch
events of most tech companies are often just them comparing their products to the competition. Seems pretty straightforward. You tell people why your stuff is better than
the competition and that should convince them to buy your stuff, right? And yet, Apple, who knows a thing or two about marketing, basically never does this. They did it in the past, with their famously
aggressive Windows vs Mac ad campaign for years for example, but those days are long gone. If they make a comparison, it's either to
an older Apple product, to show progress over time, or to a device from a different category
like comparing iPhone cameras to professional digital cameras, for example. The way they sometimes seem to refuse to acknowledge even the existence of but for them I think it makes a lot of business sense. OK, so comparisons like this, if you think about it, they really do 2 things. irst they tells you that one thing
is better than the other, but second, they But more importantly for this video is that they create a sort of association. They put two products on kind of the same level and they tell you that these two products are comparable And you as a consumer will probably want to make a decision, a choice between these two. If they weren't comparable and kind of on the same level, this comparison wouldn't really make sense, right? Otherwise comparisons would be meaningless. And if you know Apple, you know that making you think that there are comparable substitutes to the sacred iPhone or the Mac or an Apple Watch is the last thing Apple wants. They don’t want you to think "which Phone
should I buy", they want you to think " which iPhone should I buy". Your choices should be made within the Apple ecosystem. And given how rare it is for Apple users to switch away from Apple to something else, So Apple doesn't want these comparisons, but other companies certainly do. Let me switch to Arun and he'll give you some details. What’s up guys, my name is Arun, from the
Mrwhosetheboss Channel, and you might have noticed that Android phone makers LOVE to
compare, and specifically to the iPhone. Samsung shows off the fact that it’s phones
have a broad set of features, Huawei likes to show off one or two exceptional specs,
like its 40MP camera sensor, or its 3 times optical zoom. And this makes complete sense for them. Not only do these devices devices stack up well on
paper vs Apples, but by putting themselves on the same page as them, they are free-riding off Apple's brand power. Apple invests so much in making their products
seem magical and otherworldly, that when Huawei comes out and tells people that their
flagship is the same but better, and also cheaper, it’s a powerful message. That's right. Android phone makers do these comparisons in part
because they want to have the associations that Apple would rather not have. But notice also that they, they don't just compare themselves to anyone. Samsung only ever mocks Apple and they mostly
pretend like Huawei, LG and the others don't exist. They want you to think their phones are comparable
to the latest iPhones, not one of those of other Android phones. And it's a similar picture for other companies too. The other reason why Apple might be avoiding comparisons is that comparisons only really work if you have a seemingly obvious advantage over your competitors. Remember, that advantage doesn't have to be
100% truthful, but it has to appear to be obvious. Back in the Windows vs Mac commercial days
it was easy for Apple to make fun of Windows for being a magnet for viruses and getting
stuck or having to reboot often, but these days the results of that same comparison would
be a lot less obvious. Random errors for example just aren't a super frequent problem on Windows anymore these days, so that comparison wouldn't be super exciting, and also, comparing iPhones to Android phones
would often lead to problems for Apple. Here’s why. If you look at the spec sheet of an iPhone
and an equivalent Android phone, to a lot of people it will look like these are devices from a different generation. On paper and in an ad, these comparisons would not be in the favor of the iPhone. The iPhone XS Max has a 12MP camera vs 40,
4GB RAM vs 8, and 30% fewer pixels on its display than the Mate 20 Pro. And yet, most people would agree that the Huawei does not have a camera that’s 3 times better, it is NOT necessarily a faster phone, and it definitely doesn't have a better display. So avoiding these comparisons helps Apple stay
out of the spec race. It allows them to focus on the things that actually make the phone experience better, as opposed to also adding in a whole bunch of other stuff just to grab the headlines. And you end up with a phone that is a more efficiently
planned, and one that costs less to make. One that DOESN’T have 12GB RAM because that
makes it sound powerful, or a 4K display that an average consumer can’t come close to
discerning. All this translates to lower hardware costs,
and more profit for Apple. This all just goes so perfectly hand in hand with
Apple's philosophy where they think they know better what's good for you from a product than you know yourself. It's like Apple is saying "Shh, shh, shh, forget about those other companies, they are just throwing around meaningless metrics like RAM and pixel counts. All you need to know is that the new iPhone
is faster and has a better camera than the other one and it comes in a cool new color. Now pay us a lot of money." And despite recent slowdowns, that has clearly
been a very profitable message so far. Now, it's important to point out that Apple is probably one of the only major tech companies who can afford to avoid external comparisons like that for a couple of reasons. First, their products are actually pretty
unique with their own operating systems and often even custom chips powering them, making
comparisons less meaningful, they have a fanbase that is fiercely loyal and happy to ignore
the competition, and they have the cultural significance where basically everyone understands
an Apples to Apples comparison. So to a lot of people, Apple saying their
newer iPhone is faster and has a better camera than their previous models is probably enough
information to decide if they should buy the thing or not. Whereas Android phone and Windows PC makers
have to fight on specs and they have to play the comparison game, otherwise how else would they convince you to buy their stuff over that of their competitors? Anyway, thanks to Arun for his insights and
thanks to Skillshare for offering the first 500 of you 2 months of premium access for free. I've recently started taking the Productivity
Masterclass from fellow YouTuber and friend of the TechAltar channel Thomas Frank, it's
a great course that really put some structure into my workflow and made me more efficient,
so try either that one or learn graphic design, photography or coding or anything else from
their catalogue. They have over 20 000 courses and let
you submit class projects and get feedback from teachers, so it's like a real class. Use the link in the description below to get
access and to let them know I sent you. It really helps my channel.
What about the keynotes? Pretty sure they have talked about their competitors there at some point or made some hints at the competition when providing stats.
They talk about competitors all the time, though...
Apple used to knock IBM on taste, Microsoft on stability/security, now they're knocking Google on privacy. It always looks desperate.
Businesses only talk about the competition when the business is weak. Strong businesses don't need to trash talk or puff themselves up in comparisons. Their products speak for themselves and stand alone.
One of the top rules of marketing, when your top dog, is pretend you have no competition.
I’m not watching an 8 minute video, but do you not remember how apple ran the “Mac vs PC” ads for like 3 years???
And before that, they had the ad campaign where a person shared a horror story of how their windows ruined some aspect of their life or business and they switched to PC.
Think higher level. Android phone makers here talk about technical attributes, like how many bytes or pixels it has. Somehow, these often don't translate into an improvement in user experience.
Is there any Samsung phone, with any RAM capacity or CPU core count, at any price, whose web browser is as fast as Safari on a latest-generation iPhone? What good is 12 GB of RAM if it's still slower?
Apple promotes their user experience, because that's where it excels. That's difficult to put in a table. Samsung and others promote their physical attributes, because that's where they excel. Those are easy to put in a table.
Pretty sure during the first iPhone keynotes, Steve Jobs bashed the other motorola und palm devices for being neither smart, nor easy to use.
Having said that, in Europe you aren't allowed to promote your own product by bashing your competitors in advertisements.