Articles | Eric Van de Valle

What is Apple's "Why", its inspiring ideal?

We must first pay tribute here to Simon Sinek and it's famous book "Start with why", who sat us on the path, writing that "Think different" is Apple's Why.
"Think different" would be, as Sinek says, what makes this brand so appealing.

I will developp here that "Think different" is a signature, it is not yet the deeper Why of Apple.

It's the expression of a concept that must be found further upstream.

Jobs and Wozniak "Think different"was posed against the trivializing and deadly forces of the norm. It affirms the importance, for life in general, of regeneration through the creation of variety, difference, dissymmetries, singularities.

The Why is in essence often difficult to identify, the words are, in appearance, limited to express the power of the concepts to which they refer.
It's necessary to explore, go back and forth to understand and appropriate them.

There are many ways to "think differently".

Semantics indicates several fields: stepping back, imposing one's difference, cultivating it internally, defending oneself or defending that of others, distinguishing oneself in intelligence, perfecting it, multiplying it by quantity, creating it...

Finding the right field means identifying a company's "meaningful positioning" and its source of differentiation.
We must therefore go further.

So what is, among these possibilities, "Apple's angle of differentiation"?

We can only understand it by approaching it: it is that of "creation".
But... we knew it... nothing new... it's the hallmark of creative people !
Apparently...

But do we wonder about the meaning of "creation"? and more precisely on the deep aspect that makes this brand so "desirable"?

What does "Create" mean ?
Again, it goes further, thanks to semantics.

There are several ways to create: to maintain life, to multiply by cultivating, to give birth to beauty and beyond timeless masterpieces...
Where is the "creation" of Apple ? How to qualify this Why?
Aim for the "masterpiece", the "Beauty", being familiar with the "essence of creation"?

In a 1997 interview, Steve Jobs pronounced the magical words: Apple's products must be "gems", "incredibly nice", "simple", "essential".

A the same time, he launches the advertising campain showing "genious" who's "passion changes the world for the better".

That's maybe the reason why Apple's first logotype showed Sir Isaac Newton...
We will easily understand that, saying Apple's Why is "Thinking differently" is an important step to understand the brand, but going into a broader reflection can spark other lights...

What is Apple's "How", the philosophy that guides its actions?

If Apple's ideal is to "be familiar with Beauty", how does the brand choose to do this?

Here again, it is necessary to explore, to deepen, to "philosophize".

When we make things, we create difference "by default" because no object will be perfectly identical.
Even an industrial process will give objects which in the end will not be "in the same place in space and time". Identical twins do not exist.

We saw that creating difference for itself is not what interests Apple.
On the surface, the incessant release of new iPhones could be understood as aimless creation... It could be a danger for the firm, but we hope that's not the point.

So what is a difference that would have "much more added value"?

Apple is innovative and meets efficiency criteria yes, but is this a sufficient condition to achieve brand's ideal? No.
Nor does Apple seek innovation solely for "technical" benefits.
There is still something else "beyond": beyond technique...

Art?
We could also call this "Design", but it is not only here the adequacy of form and functions.
Apple goes further: the shape of its objects, of its interfaces, is not always the expression of functional needs. Sometimes even Apple's objects have "fewer functions" or are less efficient than those of its competitors.
So, what words to express Apple's How? Art? Harmony?... the marriage of the genius of Hephaistos and the Beauty of Aphrodite (or Charis, the muse of Grace )?

Jobs said "Man, as a toolmaker, have the ability to amplify the abilities they have, and that's exactly what we are doing here".

But just before saying this, his exemple whas how a "bike" is the most energy-efficient way to move...

Amplifying yes, but with harmony.

By searching, we become impregnated with the part of the "meaning" that completes them and the word "Art" also lights up.

What is the "What" of Apple, the spirit of the benefits the brand wishes to bring to the world?

It will necessarily be linked to the Why and the How.
By wanting to participate in the fundamental creativity of Life which tryes to produce Beauty, does Apple, thanks to Art, want to bring fulfillment, the possibility of fulfilling ourselves in our differences?

When we buy an Apple computer, we equip ourselves with a means that goes, beyond the useful, to contribute to our achievement... because the Why "wants" that our difference flourishes... in a beautiful way!

A whole other energy than just "Think different" isn't it ?

Eric Van de Valle
3/04/22