That’s how Europeans used to describe Americans. (Some still do.) It’s also how Intel has decided to describe the Apple faithful, those who live, breathe, and delight in the highly controlled environment of the Apple ecosystem. Below is a video showing four minutes of Apple fan people being simply shocked. They’re shown laptops that fold over, laptops that double up as tablets, laptops that look lovely and aren’t made by Apple. A succession of people who are, as one puts it, “100% loyal to Apple,” are brought into a room, presumably to see some new inventions created by Apple. You hear some already grunt that if these really were new inventions created by Apple, no real-life human would be allowed to see them until they’re launched. Indeed, if a real-life human got hold of a new invention by Apple, they’d be pursued by the Apple police, told to give it back, and instructed never to mention they’d seen anything of the sort — or else. Still, Ryan Shrout, Intel’s chief performance strategist, explained on Twitter: “We took 12 REAL Apple fans to a focus group touting features of ‘upcoming devices’ that were, in fact, already PCs you can buy today. A fun experiment that shows the power of the PC ecosystem, our partners, and @intel tech.” Ah, so they weren’t told these were Apple inventions, but the room did have a certain Apple feel about it? It’s no secret that Intel isn’t fond of Apple, especially since Cupertino started to make its own chips. This isn’t the first anti-Apple ad Intel has created. Here, though, these Apple lovers are entirely clueless that customization, more extensive gaming, twin-touchscreens, and folding laptops could possibly exist. And then Intel goes for Apple’s epiglottis with what (it must believe) is an epic jibe; the ad offers that there’s “one more thing.”
The one more thing is, you’ll be stunned to hear, that all of the devices these myopic Appleites have seen are Intel-powered laptops that are available right now. The Appleites are overcome.
They just can’t believe it. They’re shocked this is all so cool. They’ve never been to Best Buy? For many PC users, this is a tale that rings quite true. There are many, many in the Apple world who automatically, robotically just buy the next Apple thing.
“Everything I know, I’m going to have to upgrade in my mind,” one astonished Apple person in the video says. You must decide how much this man knew and when he knew it. I’m rather a supporter of Apple-skewering. Rarely has a company deserved it more, especially having done the reverse so well with the “Get a Mac” campaign and then locking customers quite firmly into its ecosystem. The world of Lightning cables and dongles is so very convenient, no? I can’t help wondering though, whether it isn’t a little obvious to most people that Apple’s rounded aesthetic is a little different from that of even the most delightful PCs.
Some might wonder whether Intel, as well as suggesting Apple users are ignorant, is also accusing PC makers of emitting very poor marketing to support these adorable products. I wonder how many Apple users will be moved by these ads, so moved that they’ll give up their familiar operating systems for something quite new. And I wonder how many will merely wish that Apple would be a little more flexible.