Why Apple Never Compares!

Have you ever noticed that Apple never talks about their competitors? Not on their websites, not at their launch events or in their advertisements. Basically, nowhere! Why?

Comparing yourself to your competitors and proving how you are better than them is probably the most straightforward advertisement strategy that exists. We’ve all seen advertisements by Samsung making fun of the ‘notch’ and ‘removal of the headphone jack’ for example. Also, launch events for most tech companies is mostly them comparing their products to their competitors.

Yet, Apple, who knows a thing or two about marketing, basically never does this! Why?

They did it once in the past when they compared themselves with Windows but haven’t ever since.

The only comparison they ever do is with their own products launched previously.

“This is the best iPhone we have ever made” — Steve Jobs
“This is the best iPhone we have ever made” — Tim Cook
“This is the best iPhone we have ever made” — Phil Schiller

The Reasons

I believe there are 2 core reasons for this.

Reason 1 — By never talking about the competition and just comparing themselves to their older versions and exciting you about their newer versions, they are making sure that your total and complete mind-space is occupied by the Apple ecosystem.

Apple doesn’t want you to think “which ‘phone’ should I buy?”
It wants you to think “which ‘iPhone’ should I buy?”

Reason 2 — If you take any Android phone that’s priced even half of what iPhones are priced at and compare their specs, Android phones will come out way, way, way ahead of iPhones.

iPhone specs do not make sense on paper.

It’s almost common knowledge that iPhones still feel better than Android phones that are half their cost and the reason is their great, consistent design and impeccable merge between hardware and software. This intangible smooth functioning in no way can be compared. The argument doesn’t stand when numbers come into play.

Other Reasons I believe they might not compare

Apart from the 2 core reasons, there might be others I speculate why they may not compare:

• They do not want to acknowledge/give importance to their competition and give unnecessary importance.
• They will not be punching up if they compared. Virtually, there is no ‘UP’.
• They believe that using an iPhone is an experience and not a commodity much like an Android phone. An ‘Experience’ cannot be compared with a ‘Commodity’.

That’s all. Do you believe there could be other reasons for the same? Do let me know in the comments below.

If you liked what you read, do clap. Things like that motivate me to write more often :)

Until Next Time,
Yash.