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Apple Hawks Madonna iPods
danamania writes "Apple's latest promotion is a gimmick with Madonna, Tony Hawk or Beck's signature, or a No Doubt logo, on an iPod. It seems Apple's really pushing the iPod as a too-cool fashion accessory as much as a too-cooler MP3 player... is Maddie's signature worth an extra USD49 over the standard iPod?" Instead of $50 for the engraved signature, you can spend $20 to print "Madonna's Signature" in beautiful Helvetica.
why would anyone do this? if they are a die hard fan they will mostlikely try for the real thing not just cheap engraved fake. I don't see why a person would waste 50 dollars more on this.
All I can say is....ewwww! I love my iPod and all, but this is a little too cute for my tastes. I'm sure they'll sell. People are so awestruck by celebrity that they will purchase just about anything to identify themselves in some manner or another.
Why would anyone want an iPod with a printed signature or logo. I understand branding etc, but with signatures most people don't care unless it is real. Also, for the price you could get it engraved with your own custom item makeing the iPod unique. That seems much more practical to me. Then at a later date when you happen to be at a coffee shop in London and Madonna forgets her purse again you can get her to autograph her iPod when she asks to borrow two pounds for that cake she is buying for her kid.i cle.cf m/103366/115819
http://english.planetarabia.com/content/art
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't some of Madonna's newest CD's made with one of the new copy protection schemes? Doesn't it seem strange for her to be supporting the ipod while her music can't be played on it?
Personally, I dont really see what's wrong with this. It's just like having a signed by . Hardcore fans pay good money for 'autographed' items.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I've got a slew of Mac Plusses with Steve Jobs' signature engraved inside and it didn't cost me $50 on top of the original $4000.
Jory
Because Marketing, two chimps and a wolverine, at Apple went to "focus groups" (the three idiots that thought Performa was a strong name) and they said, "I will buy something with Madonna's scrawl on it."
And thus there was crap on the shiny back of an iPod to be covered in the thumb prints of day to day use.
(I have a 20GB iPod - Back gets all printy fast)
No, your Nomad will look just as pleebian as ever and Apple will sell new iPods with more features and new avant guarde styling.
And people will buy them. That's the powerful combination of technology and fashion which Apple's more recent success is almost entirely due to.
_nfotxn
It was cool when the iPod was the first easily usable MP3 player with a hard drive that fit in a small space. It was cool when they got linux support. It might've been cool if it was engraved with RMS' signature or CowboyNeal's, or even maybe Steve Jobs'. But remind me one more time why I, a geek/nerd/this/that/whatever, care about this? IANATroll, but this has gone a little too far with the 'slashvertisements'.
Ah well. I can see my karma dropping now. Mods, do your worst...
--j
This could be cool (rather, worth the money) if Apple and the artists' labels got together and offered unique and compelling content only available for the signature-series iPods. Instead of pushing this as a logo gimmick, maybe selling "a year-long subscription to content only available to these iPods" would make the offer appealing.
It seems like a really bad move from a marketing strategy viewpoint. I am just not able to see how people who buy portable hardware for playing digital music (even the user-friendly Mac flavor) are the same people who would enjoy having something signed by a pop-star. But let us say that they are - I still don't see why you need to advertise a solid hi-tech product with a cheap gimmick. It is not just simple endorsement.
It would be pretty interesting to be able to upload a black-and-white GIF or perhaps some similarly colored vector graphics to have engraved on the back. That sounds like the next obvious step after this pre-made designs and text customization.
Fuck that, Mirwais has written most of her hits in the last couple of years.
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Industrial design is a funny thing. I'm not sure I agree that the "brushed-metal-look-plastic and primary colour bezel" look is any more valid (in the long run) than any other choice out there. It may depend on how one defines "timeless", but I'm not sure the current Creative or Panasonic designs are necessarily timeless. Of course, only time will tell.
Both are relatively recent takes on a look that has been around for some time. My first personal cassette player was a tiny Toshiba that was rounded-rectangular, brushed silver with black trim. Very iPod like for the time. That was close to 20 years ago.
Not to mention the creative also offers the NOMAD Jukebox Zen, which is aimed directly at the value-oriented would-be iPod buyer.
Creative is doing what most companies do: creating brand-recognition through design and style, while offering enough of a departure (read: copying other successful styles) to pick up the margin customers.
-- clvrmnky