Marketing

Space gray and blue are the most popular colors for iPhone 5s and 5c

This year, Apple is offering the iPhone in more colors than ever before. The iPhone 5s comes in white, space gray and gold, and the iPhone 5c comes in white, pink, yellow, blue and green. That makes for a total of 8 colors—6 more than the handset came in last year.

But according to data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (or CIRP), 2 of the colors are noticeably more popular than the others. For the iPhone 5s, over 40% of customers have purchased the space gray model. And as for the 5c, blue has been the top pick...

Apple’s new ‘Life on iPad’ video highlights creative iPad uses the world over

In addition to the inaugural iPad Air television commercial dubbed 'Pencil' and the promotional video featuring Jony Ive and other executives who talk about solving the design challenges of making the iPad Air 28 percent lighter and 20 percent thinner, another video has just gone live on Apple's YouTube channel.

Appropriately titled 'Life on iPad,' this one celebrates Apple customers' creativity and genius in using their iPads and covers a wide range of uses in business, education, entertainment, health and in many other fields.

It's included right after the jump so give it a quick watch right now...

Apple’s inaugural iPad Air ad – ‘Pencil’ – hits YouTube

You've read all there is to know about Apple's iPad Air, watched Jony Ive talk enthusiastically about the crazy attention to detail that had gone into designing the product - perhaps streamed or even downloaded the entire keynote to your computer - and now you can appreciate Apple's inaugural, feel-good, mission-statement iPad Air ad.

This is the same 60-second commercial that was played to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts audience yesterday, and now it's just gone live over at Apple's YouTube channel. It's included for your viewing pleasure right after the fold and I urge you to give it a watch and join the discussion down in the comments...

Watch Apple’s iPad Air promo video now

Apple's event has wrapped up. As the media continues to chew on on the announcements, Apple's already refreshed its homepage with gorgeous graphics, new product information and promotional videos. These feel-good clips featuring Apple execs like design guru Jony Ive also pop up on Apple's YouTube channel, though usually a few days following the event.

In my personal opinion, the iPad Air promo is definitely worth sharing and even though one can always stream this particular clip straight from Apple's website, I've decided to make a YouTube version for easy embedding, have a look below...

First iPhone 5s ad: ‘your finger is the password’

Since announcing a pair of new iPhones on September 10, Apple has not aired a single television commercial or published a newspaper ad to promote the flagship iPhone 5s.

Instead, all of Apple's advertising activities to date have centered around the colorful iPhone 5c, ostensibly because the company is having lots of issues fulfilling iPhone 5s demand.

But as Tim Cook & Co. expand the new iPhones into new markets - an additional 50+ countries will get the handsets by November 1 in addition to eleven launch countries - the first print ad for the iPhone 5s has just been spotted in The New Yorker magazine. It looks nice and I've included it for your viewing pleasure right after the jump...

Apple surpasses Coca-Cola to become world’s most valuable brand

Apple has overtaken Coca-Cola as the new most valuable brand in the world, according to a new report from brand consulting firm Interbrand. The move puts an end to the beverage company's 13-year reign as #1.

The firm calculates that the Apple brand is worth in upwards of $100 billion. And it says that its 'ethos' played a big factor in why the iPad-maker was able to beat out other tech companies like Google and Samsung...

Nissan becomes exclusive iTunes Radio ad partner

With Apple's Pandora killer now out of the gate, Tim Cook & Co. are looking for monetization opportunities and have reportedly signed up high-profile advertisers. Several big name brands are said to have agreed to paying big bucks in exchange for rich media ad slots on iTunes Radio.

According to a report yesterday by The Wall Street Journal, Nissan has become an exclusive automotive partner on iTunes Radio through 2013. Also, Nissan's Versa Note and Leaf vehicles will gain custom iTunes Radio content, with unique content available across Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC devices.

But wait, there's more...

Apple said to double ad and marketing teams

A new report Monday by AdAge asserts Apple is doubling headcount across its internal marketing and advertising teams, ostensibly in a bid to tighten the message and produce even more marketing and advertising in-house. Saying the timing of the hiring spree is telling would be an understatement.

Apple's Fall was recently called "blockbuster" and we have every reason to believe 2014 will be a landmark year as the firm readies the rumored iWatch, iTV, iPhablet, 13-inch iPad Pro and other gizmos unbeknown to us yet.

With that in mind, Apple is going to need some of the world's top creatives to get its message across, retain the narrative and talk its non-gullible customers into purchasing new-category products...

Apple’s next-gen Mac Pro ad hits YouTube ahead of Fall release

As Apple engineers scramble to finalize the next-generation Mac Pro for US-based assembly, the company's marketing department has been increasingly teasing and hyping the dream machine ahead of its Fall launch. Moviegoers who'd gone out to see the new Jobs biopic last weekend, or any other movie for that matter, spotted a Mac Pro video.

The clip, which later started airing in theaters nationwide, shows the radically new machine from various angles without revealing too much. Now that Apple has uploaded the commercial to YouTube, expect to see it rolling on television nationwide. I've queued up the video right after the fold...

New Microsoft ad touts Lumia 1020 camera, mocks iPhone users

My how the tables have turned. Five years ago Apple was running its 'I'm a Mac' ads, attacking the perceived weaknesses of PCs running Microsoft's Windows software. And now we have Microsoft making ads that attack Apple products.

The Redmond company's latest in a series of Cupertino-bashing commercials pits the 41MP camera of Nokia's Lumia 1020 against that on the iPhone 5. And as you can imagine, the spot paints iPhone users in a not-so-favorable light...

Nokia’s Lumia 925 ads take jabs at iPhone’s low-light performance

Apple's iPhone 5 is far superior to the iPhone 4S/4 in terms of the camera performance in low-light conditions. The industry hasn't stood still either and has been inching forward since last September's iPhone 5 debut. Specifically, Nokia's high-end Lumia smartphones have emerged as the mobile imaging devices to beat.

Its culture rooted in mobile imaging, Nokia felt compelled to challenge Apple's iPhone with a series of Lumia ads that criticize the Apple handset's relatively poor low-light performance compared to the Lumia PureView range.

It started with a rather bizarre ice-breaker 'Zombie' ad which set the overall tone two months ago. Then came Nokia's take on Apple’s 'Photos Every Day' ad and now two more commercials have arrived to proclaim the Lumias the king of low-light mobile imaging...

Emboldened Samsung says anti-Apple ads ‘really mess with the order of things’

Do you remember Samsung before the Apple crusade? Far from being an also-ran, Samsung back in 2010 started doubling-down on the Galaxy brand message, signaling intention to establish itself as the smartphone maker to watch. But it wasn't until the South Korean conglomerate began airing its first television commercial which ridiculed iPhone owners that it started positioning itself as the anti-Apple.

And the message resonated with the demographics outside the Apple fold. In doing so, Samsung has earned itself lots of free press and attracted a following comprised of bloggers, media outlets and customers who for whatever reason couldn't stand Apple, its culture and products.

We already know the anti-iPhone ads are working and now a Samsung executives acknowledges that the anti-Apple campaign has been a "tipping point" for the Samsung brand. Which probably means those ad attacks will only intensify going forward...