We ’re right in the midriff of simultaneous Apple and Star Wars Cartesian product orgy , and it ’s suddenly become clear to me why Apple and Star Wars are pretty much the same stigma , only in unlike industry .
They Were Born in the Geek Grassroots
Before the solar day of Star Wars passion and Apple obsessives , enterpriser calculate to attract armies of consumer droids . But George Lucas and Steve Jobs did n’t need a flat mass of consumer ; they want fans . Apple ’s first user came out of homebrew computer night club , full of passionate grind who could smack you down with a UNIX bid . And Star Wars : A New Hope was one of the first movies to court attendees at Comic - Con and other fan conventions . From the beginning , Apple and Star Wars were marketed as cult brands , direct at create fanatics who will trend you for misunderstanding how INSANELY GREAT their toys are .
They Grew Up in the Countercultural 1970s
Apple is the quintessential child of the 70s , full of high - tech Leslie Townes Hope and imbued with groovy plan sensibilities . Like Apple , Star Wars grew up in an era when people were excited about the hereafter , and believed that scrappy rebels could save up the earth . Both brands were , in fact , the brain children of flower child nouveau-riche who came out of leftover field to originate revolution in their industries . They body forth the dreams of their childhood geological era .
They Blur the Line Between Tech and Entertainment
Lucas pioneered the mind that a filmmaker could become a special consequence technical school wizard in his spare metre . He founded special impression studio Industrial Light and Magic , and now this musical theme has become the average , with Peter Jackson founding Weta Digital and James Cameron innovating motility gaining control and 3D motion picture technical school . Apple went the other direction , with Jobs turning his technical school caller into a shiny but slightly malign amusement empire with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes . Star Wars and Apple were the first successful tech / entertainment mashup brands .
Nobody Is Sure If They’re Science Fiction or Fantasy
If you are a dweeb , as I am , you have been break at least once to somebody who darkly intoned that Star Wars is not science fable , it ’s phantasy , because of hooey like the Force and psychical powers and the overall fairy tale feeling of the series . Similar arguments come apart out among Apple fans . Is the new MacBook based on solid scientific discipline or just fantasy ? Same go for the Apple Watch , which is currently the midichlorian of the Apple product line .
They Now Have Awkward Relationships with Disney
After being the kickass fag narration that was n’t a Disney thing for three decades , Star Wars is now owned by Disney . Well , Lucasfilm is possess by Disney , which means basically all Star Wars things are Disney things ( though really , it ’s not like Disney could mess up Star Wars up any more than George Lucas already did ) . The upstart , countercultural Star Wars is now a fully corporate ware .
Apple ’s relationship with Disney is a trivial more collateral . Apple shared a primogenitor , Steve Jobs , with Pixar . Pixar was the cool animation studio that was n’t Disney , until Disney bought it from Jobs and made all the vitalizer scream by forcing them to do cable car 12 : Racing the Alberta Tar Sands . fundamentally , Apple is like the kid who did n’t get sell by his pop to some creepy-crawly , princess - ghost dude down in LA . So that ’s cumbersome .
But even though Apple has never been buy out by an radical - mainstream pudding stone like Disney , it has still blend incorporated in ways that none of those homebrew club nerd could have imagined back in 1975 . One of the wealthiest companies in the world , Apple ponce luxury items enrobed in gold and machines you ca n’t tinker with ( unless you ’re an authorised “ genius ” ) — plus , the society jealously guard its treasure trove of IP in the iTunes store . Apple has also created a giant wall around its app store , blocking products from the very kinds of garage tinkerer who were the company ’s original fans .
Star Wars and Apple arise up and went incarnate , andyet somehow their fan cults have stay on truehearted . Which is why …
Everybody Blames Them for Destroying Their Childhoods
What is this newfangled gold MacBook ? Blasphemy ! When I was a kid , we had an Apple II and if we wanted to do something with it we just crack receptive the damn case and jammed it full of peripheral cards and we were well-chosen ! And these incremental update on beautiful gimmick like the iPod that once enchanted my teenaged self ? Now they ’re just shining nugget of soon - to - be - ewaste . And do n’t even get me started on how George Lucas destroyed those wonderful other Star Wars movies with his horrible CGI - ified editions ( Han fritter first ! ) — and then wrecked thing even further with bullshit like Jar Jar and awkward bullshit scenes between Anakin and Padme . ONCE I WAS AN INNOCENT CHILD WITH MY HACKED APPLE II AND MY EMPIRE STRIKES BACK toy AND NOW YOU’VE ruin ALL THAT screw YOU APPLE AND STAR WARS .
A Special Note About Doctor Who and Star Trek
So if Apple is Star Wars , does that mean Microsoft is Star Trek and Google is Doctor Who ? That ’s a really beneficial enquiry , and worth pondering .
For old age , nerd intelligence internet site Slashdot used an double of Borg Gates for its Microsoft - touch on stories . Which suggests that the Star Trek / Microsoft connexion has virtue .
And Google is exactly the sort of company that would essay to invent a sonic screwdriver , most in all probability powered by the wisdom of crowds . So there ’s that too .
But then again , we take to consider Facebook . Where do they fit in ? Plus , what company is the Babylon 5 of Silicon Valley ? Is Skype the Battlestar Galactica of technical school , start out out with child , getting bad , and then decease full - on inexplicable ? There are so many question , young Padawan . I leave it to you to resolve them .
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