The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft
> Just check out its striking video for the Surface Studio — it is so influenced by Apple’s playbook that I’m surprised there’s no Jony Ive narration.<p>What's happened is that other companies have figured out how to emulate Steve Jobs's playbook that's now several decades old and there's nobody at Apple to write new plays.<p>Jobs always talked about how Microsoft didn't have taste and when you look at MS products up until around 2005ish in comparison to Apple products, he was right. At some point a lot of business people realized what was making Apple successful - they weren't just selling computers, they were selling a lifestyle, they were selling <i>cool</i>. Oh, you are a creative? Well, shouldn't you have a Mac? It's what Einstein and Gandhi would have used.<p>Jobs was an absolutely brilliant marketer. Since 2005 other companies have gotten successively better at emulating Apple's design, experience, and marketing. They've distilled what Jobs knew intuitively into a formula that they can iterate on. It's not just MS, it's Dell, it's every medium and high-end manufacturer, it's Google. Please tell me what the difference between this [1] Pixel commercial and every Apple commercial made within the last decade is with the exception of the logo.<p>It's the Applefication of tech production and marketing and Apple doesn't have anything to stand out anymore.<p>1. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCI1tcu8tQw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCI1tcu8tQw</a>