Check out Apple's identity statement that they put on press releases [edit: this one's at least a year old]:
> Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
Compared to, say, Microsoft's:
> Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Apple’s is a bit long and overly specific (Seriously, iWork? The software you last gave a serious update more than three years ago?) but that’s more a sign of an identity statement that has grown organically over the years instead of being rewritten from scratch from time to time.
The general idea is good but I would simplify it quite a bit.
I'm sure Google wouldn't describe itself as "a good search engine. Most of the time works pretty well, but if you search many common words you'll only find spam".
Voice matters and it hard to build, especially for engineers. http://voiceandtone.com/ from MailChilp offers a good framework of designing a voice by cataloguing touch-points between the software and the user. You may or may not find MailChimp's voice fitting, but the framework itself is quite useful.
"Here's everything we offer, soup to nuts." isn't really The Apple Voice. That's more the "overly informal and conversational" voice you see so often these days.
I'll take informal and conversational, as long as it's also direct and informative. The worst possible output is marketing-doublespeak or the meaningless-checkbox-comparison page.
Interestingly, this post comes at a time when the Apple voice is changing. I think they're taking it to the next level.
This was discussed in the blog of Ken Segall, who previously worked with Apple (and with Jobs) on Apple's copy, including the "Think Different" campaign.
Increasingly, Apple is relying solely on imagery. The example billboard has no text on it other than the product name.
Apple is showing, rather than telling, and it is transcendent in its ability to do so-- it has established enough credibility with consumers that "easy to use", is no longer a message it has to communicate.
Further, this also globalizes the brand as images do not have to be translated to the local language, allowing a single voice to be present worldwide.
When a company achieves this level of domination, as shown by how we can speak of it in almost ethereal ways, and as it builds a new mega-building, and as it loses its founder/decider/symbol you've got to think it's approaching its high water mark.
That may be, but I think you want to think about specifics, not "seems like it's already pretty big!"
Apple had 8.7% of the phone market last quarter. It's as low as that because the majority of phones sold today are not smartphones. Do you think that will remain true for the next 10 years?
The same people were convinced in 2008 that housing prices would still go up. Not that they're necessarily wrong this time, but I would maintain skepticism.
That is what Enron was saying look how that turned out. Having a huge share price P/E only supported by the next must have object is in the long run not sustainable.
Yes, the voice is clear and simple -- just like the products -- but I curdle when I read Apple's copy, and have empathy for the brand haters.