Apple has achieved something I never did

6 June 2011

Says Dieter Rams. As someone who rarely speaks on the effect of his influence on the design of Apple products, to mark a new book celebrating Rams, he’s spoken with the Telegraph about it. 

I am always fascinated when I see the latest Apple products. Apple has managed to achieve what I never achieved: using the power of their products to persuade people to queue to buy them. For me, I had to queue to receive food at the end of World War II. That’s quite a change.

Someone validly points out in the comments of the Telegraph post that it’s not really Rams who’s influenced Apple though, it’s the personal taste and design of Jonathan Ive who influences Apple, he just happens to be a Braun era Dieter Rams fan.

But the Apple cult is becoming frustrating in the same way Arcade Fire did when everyone started liking them after The Suburbs. Apple fans are becoming increasingly self-righteous, using Apple products as a ticket to signifying that they have good taste and respect good ‘design’. I’m a firm believer that it’s all about context, so this guy ruined everything the day he covered his £1500 MacBook Pro with a £1.50 bright red clip-on case and took it to McDonald’s.

I’ve also been reading the same quote a lot over the past week taken from Bill Gates in 1998.

What I can’t figure out is why he [Steve Jobs] is even trying? He knows he can’t win.

Thirteen years ago, Microsoft’s market cap was something like 48 times larger than Apple’s, which doesn’t say to me ‘Bill Gates was wrong and my team, Apple, won’, instead it says ‘A lot can change in thirteen years’.