Apple's Inspirational Marketing

Joe Wilcox | January 15, 2005, 09:45 AM

In a Thursday post, Steve Gillmor offers an interesting take on Mac mini, iTunes, other iLife apps, iPod, and Mac OS X "Tiger" for preparing podcasts. What he explains is how Apple has put together a compelling production system for creating professional audio and even video content. I'm thinking great as the tools are, it's still too much trouble for podcasting. But what about other contexts?

Right now, my 10-year-old daughter and her sleepover friend are shooting a home movie in the living room. Inspiration was Steve Jobs' streamed-from-the-Web Macworld keynote, which riveted my daughter. She and her friend have turned their stuffed animals into furry actors, written a basic plot and even sketched out storyboards for their--what I expect to be very amateur--production. She's excited about doing post-production using iMovie 5, which we'll pick up next Saturday at our local Apple Store, unless Apple were to, ah, send a copy of iLife `05 sooner (hint, hint).

I'm realistic about my daughter's limited movie directing abilities. But rather than watch Sonic X this Saturday morning, she's making her own entertainment. As a parent, I like that. I wonder how many other people will buy into the inspiration--the desire to create something special, even if they never do--that is so much the marketing behind the Mac.

Yesterday, during casual conversation, I spoke with five people that had already ordered a Mac mini.