Apple and Nintendo Have More Than Looks in Common
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
My first post here is a free-write on my research topic to-be, an unsystematic flow of the mind, a preliminary text on what interests me at the moment. The focus of my now-broad topic may shift in the weeks to come; please feel free to leave comments on this original posting, and look forward to an infinitely more refined and polished final draft in early December!
Now to begin:
We all know of the long-standing, never-ending Mac-vs-PC debate. One is chic, simple, and user-friendly, while the other carries the image of a for-work-only machine. And then there’s the more recent Wii-vs-Playstation 3 rivalry (although Xbox is an unignorable third contender—I will talk more about Microsoft in a later post). Like the Mac, the Wii is also clean and simple, easy to learn, and made for everyone, while the new Playstation 3 is a high-definition high-performance game console (as well as Blu-Ray!) that crunches out ridiculously beautiful pictures with its 1080p Full HD.
So the archrivals Mac-PC and Nintendo-Sony are always compared to each other. But now consider comparing the Mac to Wii for a change (this is my research topic).
I casually noticed that Apple and Nintendo have much in common (especially in their marketing), even before conducting any research. This was readily apparent in their fun-filled commercials, choice of shape and color for their products, target audience, and more recently, Apple’s introduction of portable gaming with their iPhone. So I typed into Google: “wii mac nintendo apple”, and the ninth hit caught my eye. It was a blog post titled “12 unexpected parallels between Apple and Nintendo,” which more or less summarized the most obvious similarities between Apple and Nintendo.
Here is the link:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/08/19/12-unexpected-parallels-between-apple-and-nintendo/
Most of the points made are obvious, but it’s a good place to start. “1. Both love white… 2. Both sometimes go color-crazy… 5. Both have an ingrained love of simplicity”—these are all visually obvious—but also quite superficial once you begin thinking about WHY the two companies have these things in common.
Think about why both love white: is it because few people dislike that color? Because it's a lack of color? Because it looks clean and simple and the exact opposite of menacing? Now think about the color-craziness: Do they do that because kids want to have an iPod or DS of their favorite color? Because color-differentiated products make great Christmas presents that seem somewhat intended to be personalized or perhaps minimize arguments between siblings? Because it’s a great excuse to go out and buy another one? And then think about the simplicity: Why do the Wii Remote and iPod have so few buttons (and in the case of the iPhone—one)? So that it’s easy to learn and easy to use, from little kids to your grandmother? Because it’s just plain pretty?
Probably.
If you begin thinking about Apple and Nintendo’s products as large-scale (and largely successful) marketing schemes, (as opposed to… well, I guess they can only be thought of as profit-gushing products, unless you argue that they have positively impacted the current generation with their creative, state-of-the-art technology, though some parents may argue that Nintendo has corrupted their children’s minds—but sorry, I digress) the fact that their decisions surrounding design are so similar becomes fairly reasonable. They have similar targets and therefore, consequently, similar marketing techniques. In my opinion, both Nintendo and Apple target both extremes of the age spectrum—the young and old. Of course, there are many other categories besides age to be discussed in the realm of advertising—such as occupation, level or intensity of gaming, ethnicity, culture or location of the target audience—but I will narrow my focus as I complete more drafts. For the time being, I would like to concentrate and elaborate on Apple and Nintendo’s similar appearances, advertisements, and general “brand image.”
Look forward to more posts to come… :)
Comments
YAY! Akiko is the second person to post.
Posted by: bastidas | October 11, 2009 05:12 PM
This is a really interesting topic and I really hope that you can dig even more into it. Nintendo and Apple both have very similar work philosophies and are constantly working to innovate and do things right. Having seen the internals of both companies, Nintendo and Apple place significant focus on perfection of design, and develop with the user in mind, usually resulting in relatively less advanced, but more polished technology.There are some significant differences in the two companies though, especially with this generations hardware.
Apple is quickly straying from the all white design, and actually gets most of its designs from outside companies who do the design work for them. Nintendo, on the other hand, designs hardware completely internally. Futhermore, both companies are quickly moving to different color schemes. Nintendo released a black Wii in non-American areas a while back, and colored controllers just came out. A colored Nintendo DSi doesn't even exist. Same with apple. iPods and laptops are quickly losing their colors letting aluminum, chrome, and black, and glass step in. The companies' focus' are different as well. Apple considers itself a hardware company, and Nintendo considers itself a software company. It will be interesting to see how companies with similar work ethics move in such different directions!
Posted by: Alan Sien Wei Hshieh | October 13, 2009 10:41 PM
One of the things that I find interesting is that about 20 years ago (roughly) Nintendo and Apple were at the forefront of their respective industries. I remember that all my computers in school were Apple computers up to the fifth grade. Nintendo, I would say, was also leading against Sega in the console war. Then, both companies dipped in popularity as Sony entered the fray, and PC began expanding with Windows 95 OS. Now, both are returning to the forefronts.
I would agree that both companies are also using a highly user-focused marketing campaign. The Wii's name is literally "we", while the Mac vs. PC ads show that the everyday person is a Mac user. I might say that the hardcore computer user or gamer might also be diverted away in these campaigns. The Xbox 360 is often seen as the "gamer's console" while PCs are still the standard work PC (Linux for the absolute hardcore). Still, the campaigns to get in the everyman have been successful for both companies.
Good luck with your paper, and I hope to see what your research turns up!
Posted by: Shayon Saleh | October 14, 2009 03:19 AM
It strikes me from your post that in some ways it might be good for you to look at a book like Norman's The Design of Everyday Things -- to do some poking around in product design and branding as a framework for your more specific discussion of Wii and Playstation. What that will do is give you a framework that you can use to discuss these very specific examples.
It would also be interesting to look specifically into Nintendo to see if they were at all influenced by the Apple phenomenon, since Apple made the turn to simplicity and innovation in design years before the Wii came out.
Good luck with this project!
Posted by: Christine Alfano, Stanford | October 16, 2009 06:19 AM
This article only very briefly touches on the idea of Wii's branding, but it might be an interesting place to start more focused research on that aspect of your topic - branding seems a really important search term that you could pursue.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/15/microsoft-discusses-wii-esque-project-natal-branding-strategy/
Posted by: Christine Alfano, Stanford | October 17, 2009 06:40 AM
Your topic is very eye catching since now in day technology is a huge thing. You could narrow your topic further. why not compare the Playstation3 and the Wii or just both companies, Apple or Nintendo. Now you do have many good information, but research further on the companies indivisually. You do recognize the companies target, therefore why not explore what the targets prefer. What they like about Nintendo and what they like about Apple. Also find scholarly articles on the history of the companies, and if you want to compare systems find out more about what playstation3 has that wii doesn't and viceversa
Posted by: Elayne Castillo | October 19, 2009 03:04 PM
Hi Akiko, the questions you have for technology are addressed to the tastes of the community of technology users. If you think about the craziness about technology that boomed at the crossing of the 80' to the 90' where brand consoles and remotes were competting each other about the "look", making every new artefacts got very complicated, with incountable new features and so full of color lead indicators simil to a jet console. "You've got the control" you've seemed to feel when in use. At the begining it was exciting to think in the possibilities of the new technologic advances the human being was able to reach. But the market is reigned by the capabilities of the costumers and, as it little by little was more accessible to a broader market, the learning and assimilating the use of the new technological item took longer than the new product was launched on the market. What the companies gained was a frustrated customer that started to feel than could never catch up with the new technology by colecting corpses of undated black artefacts.
I think that a lot of this was taken in consideration when re-thinking the designs and functionalities of the new technologies after 2000.
Many computer designs follow the same new "Dutch" patterns (say, Dell). Also, in furniture (say, the intenational Ikea) and contemporanean art uses simplicity and extreemn "cleanniness" as the most pure feeling of nothingness. To day a technology user customer could say "I don't need anything because everything I need is within me"
Posted by: Alejandra Cetrangolo | October 19, 2009 03:40 PM
Video games around us are forever changing, and the way we play, and what we play them with will change along side with them. I am quite interested in your research paper, and interested to know as to what next level is the controller going towards. I think that the Wii has set the standards so high in the gaming world by coming out with motion sensors really separating from the Pac. I really like how your ideas are headed, but you may have trouble finding articles to support your statements, or may not find enough. What you may want to look into is the completion between all the different gaming companies, and see what extents are they taking to bring out the next best thing. Find out what there future ideas are, and how they plan on using controllers as an innovation.
I feel like the level of technology companies have developed, can taking gaming so far and to the next level of thinking. Soon there might be a way of playing hands free, and controllers will be a nuisances, and buttons as we know it will be absolute. But for us to get to the future we need to start here in the present. I really think your on to something really good, and hope to read your paper.
Posted by: Jafor Ahmed | October 19, 2009 07:58 PM