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New Apple Ads Explain Why You Should Get an iPhone

A new series of 15-second clips depicts the iPhone's strengths over Android. They're eerily familiar to anyone who remembers the Get a Mac campaign.

By Tom Brant
May 22, 2017
Get an iPhone Ad

If you happened to be browsing Apple's YouTube channel on Monday afternoon, you'd be forgiven for checking your calendar to make sure it wasn't May 2006, the month that Apple released the first TV spots in its Get a Mac ad campaign starring John Hodgman and Justin Long.

The videos Apple uploaded on Monday have little to do with Macs and PCs, nor do they feature edgy comedians, but their theme is eerily familiar: Android devices are slow, insecure, and bad at doing common tasks like taking photos or playing music, so you should Get an iPhone.

In one of the 15-second clips, a man on the left-hand side of the frame is seen struggling to play a grand piano under a "your phone" banner. After someone comes up behind him to push the piano to the right-hand side of the frame, beneath an iPhone banner, he suddenly becomes a virtuoso.

In another clip, a man reading some important-looking documents walks over to the iPhone banner to escape the prying eyes of the person reading over his shoulder beneath the "your phone" banner, suggesting that other phones leave your personal information at risk. In yet another, a man is stuck running in slow motion until he reaches the iPhone banner, where he's able to sprint. You get the idea.

For smartphone early adopters or Apple fans, watching the videos brings back memories not only of the Get a Mac campaign, but also of Apple's epic court battle with Samsung over whether or not Android-powered phones stole intellectual property from Apple. That battle is still ongoing, but just like in the PC world, where macOS plays second fiddle to Windows, Apple's iOS is far behind Google's open-source Android smartphone operating system in terms of users.

That's not to say that the iPhone 7 ($288.00 at Visible) isn't still an extremely coveted handset, but Apple's new Get an iPhone clips show that the company is trying to convince Android users of the errors of their ways. Good luck with that: just 11 percent of Android users who bought a new device last year switched to an iPhone.

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About Tom Brant

Deputy Managing Editor

I’m the deputy managing editor of the hardware team at PCMag.com. Reading this during the day? Then you've caught me testing gear and editing reviews of laptops, desktop PCs, and tons of other personal tech. (Reading this at night? Then I’m probably dreaming about all those cool products.) I’ve covered the consumer tech world as an editor, reporter, and analyst since 2015.

I’ve evaluated the performance, value, and features of hundreds of personal tech devices and services, from laptops to Wi-Fi hotspots and everything in between. I’ve also covered the launches of dozens of groundbreaking technologies, from hyperloop test tracks in the desert to the latest silicon from Apple and Intel.

I've appeared on CBS News, in USA Today, and at many other outlets to offer analysis on breaking technology news.

Before I joined the tech-journalism ranks, I wrote on topics as diverse as Borneo's rain forests, Middle Eastern airlines, and Big Data's role in presidential elections. A graduate of Middlebury College, I also have a master's degree in journalism and French Studies from New York University.

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