Apple have significant leverage not only in the business sphere but also, significantly, in popular culture. The arresting design of their iPod portable music player, for instance, has been achieved through target advertising (one recalls the silhouette advertisements with shadows wearing the distinctive white earbuds), making the hobby of music listening something that is hip and trendy and associated with rock music.
The iTunes download store was the first to legitimately offer legal music downloads as an alternative to physical copies or illegal, pirated files, meaning music can quickly be purchased and a collection built. This method does, however, devalue music by making it singles-led, with people cherry-picking their favourite tracks unless they have grown up listening to albums with expansive cover art and sleeve notes, absent in a download stored in .mp3 form on a hard drive or in an iPod device.
Moving away from music, the tablet computer market and mobile phone market are both affected by advances by Apple: The iPad’s second incarnation prompted queues outside shops as people rushed to get the latest gadget. Apple provides a reason for people to own a device which enables them to read magazines or store their documents without a need for a bulky laptop (or, indeed, a Macbook).
As the competition increases between users to be hip, trendy or just keep up with their mates in the gadget stakes, Apple must ensure teething problems are sorted. If not, there is a general malaise about the product, such as when an iPhone user reports a bug, and there are sundry computing magazines, websites, forums and user guides online for guidance. The bugs themselves do not impact the Apple devotees whose lives revolve around their phones and music collections.
In environmental terms, the backlight function of a Macbook, for instance, means that less energy is used. Also, the quantity of elements such as lead and mercury, which are heavily used in the production process (most Apple products are made in China, though there are huge questions over the fair treatment of factory employees), are being attenuated in the finished products, which tend to be recycled much more regularly by their users.
The iTunes download store was the first to legitimately offer legal music downloads as an alternative to physical copies or illegal, pirated files, meaning music can quickly be purchased and a collection built. This method does, however, devalue music by making it singles-led, with people cherry-picking their favourite tracks unless they have grown up listening to albums with expansive cover art and sleeve notes, absent in a download stored in .mp3 form on a hard drive or in an iPod device.
Moving away from music, the tablet computer market and mobile phone market are both affected by advances by Apple: The iPad’s second incarnation prompted queues outside shops as people rushed to get the latest gadget. Apple provides a reason for people to own a device which enables them to read magazines or store their documents without a need for a bulky laptop (or, indeed, a Macbook).
As the competition increases between users to be hip, trendy or just keep up with their mates in the gadget stakes, Apple must ensure teething problems are sorted. If not, there is a general malaise about the product, such as when an iPhone user reports a bug, and there are sundry computing magazines, websites, forums and user guides online for guidance. The bugs themselves do not impact the Apple devotees whose lives revolve around their phones and music collections.
In environmental terms, the backlight function of a Macbook, for instance, means that less energy is used. Also, the quantity of elements such as lead and mercury, which are heavily used in the production process (most Apple products are made in China, though there are huge questions over the fair treatment of factory employees), are being attenuated in the finished products, which tend to be recycled much more regularly by their users.
