It’s Not 1984 Anymore: and its never going to be again.

I was going to Tweet this but I was never going to get the message across is 140 characters. The Motorola Xoom commercial, which aired at Super Bowl XLV, has got me thinking.

I like the ad, its powerful, it works and it gets the message across.

But the concept it tries to convey just bares far too much resemblance to Apples  ‘1984’ advert.

I know I am not the first to point this out, but the irony is just too great to miss. Like many of their products, Apple were first to market with the ‘1984’ concept. There were first to market with the iPad. And today we see a list, that probably grows by the dozen each month, of new ‘iPad’ killers. Just like the ‘iPhone Killers’ of yesterday, they will fail, and they will fail for one (of many) reasons; you cannot beat a company which has created its position on being first to market.

The only way to compete is to choose another position and ensure that it is rooted at the core of your business. Apple did this with their ‘Think Different’ approach.

A good read here is Ries & Trout – Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind