When I was in grad school a professor made an off color remark that spoke volumes. While discussing technology she said (and this is a paraphrase) “For you poor, inferior souls who don’t use Apple let me explain…” This statement, although clearly meant in jest, reveals an element of modern American life. This has become even more relevant in recent days with the passing of Steve Jobs. Apple, and its loyal customers, represents a utopian thought that has been present in North America since the beginning of the European experience in the Americas. With the untimely death of its founder and central utopian leader, it will be interesting to see if Apple will go the way of many other American utopias.
Apple is a utopian cult. Not a utopia in the sense of the isolated, religiously inspired communities that have dotted the American landscape over the centuries and not a cult as it is understood in post-Branch Davidian popular media, but instead a utopian cult for this modern consumer driven American life. Much like George Rapp’s commerce inspired rivertown in the early 19th century, Brigham Young’s western utopia in the mid to late 19th century, and Jim Jones’ counterculture inspired community in the 1970’s, the Apple utopia is one that reflects modern American life while concurrently claiming to be an escape from the doldrums of everyday life.
Apple promotes a culture of insiders and outsiders that has been present throughout utopian experiments. Apple has a market share that usually hovers around 10% of the total personal computer market, which is successful by any business model although it is a distant third behind HP and Dell.[i] Through its own use of technology and marketing, Apple has taken itself out of the usual PC definition that sees their 10% as outside the usual PC market. Much of this attitude can be found in the memorable “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” of the previous decade. The advertising campaign ran for a number of years taking various forms (many of the commercials can still be found on YouTube) and spawned a number of parodies (many of which can also be seen on YouTube). The long running advertising campaign’s unifying message was simple: Macs were more usable, more versatile, and especially more hip whereas PCs were presented as bumbling and awkward. Apple has presented an image of a company that is outside of the PC market even though its primary focus is PCs. Customers have bought into this image. Macs are now spoken of as differing from personal computers. Many Apple customers speak of only buying Apple products and some have even taken to putting Apple stickers on their vehicles. The number of fan sites for Apple dwarfs that of any other PC manufacturer and perhaps any other electronics company. Indeed, Apple’s marketing efforts have been successful in perpetuating the utopian image of misguided insiders and “in the know” outsiders.
Any utopian experiment needs a central figure, and Steve Jobs fit that role while concurrently becoming the next in a long line of utopian leaders who reflect modern society. Much of the coverage in response to his death concentrated on the fact that he was a College dropout who went on to co-found a multinational multibillion dollar corporation[ii] which would seem to perpetuate that Jobs was from humble beginnings but went on to become an American success story. This story, of course, is common in western Messianic narratives. The company Jobs co-founded along with Steve Wozniak was, in fact, a modern utopia in modern American society. Apple was able to exploit two streams that have dominated American culture over the last three decades. First and foremost is the rise of technology. Second is consumers’ desire for new personalized products, which drove not only much of Apple’s success in focusing on personal computers, MP3 players, and smartphones but also saw unprecedented growth in housing construction over the last decade.
Jobs and Apple were able to exploit this desire for newness and personalized products, once again doing so in utopian fashion. Apple’s product rollouts, which came to be known as “Stevenotes,” took on all the flair and structure of evangelical sermon. Jobs would create a need then produce the solution for this need: a new product by Apple. Always dressed in the same clothing of jeans and a black turtleneck and using the same model, often Jobs became just as much of the focus as the new product. Job’s products often also promised to deem obsolete one or more products that a consumer often owned, even if it were an Apple product. Therefore Jobs created a disposable religion that saw him deliver thinly veiled sermons about why the customer’s products must be disposed of.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Apple will function now with the death of its most public figure. Most utopian experiments do not expand far beyond the leadership of its founder and, if not already gone, will often wither away with the death of its founder. There are some exceptions, however, (the most notable being the Mormons) of utopian experiments expanding and thriving long after its founder’s death. As a modern utopia, Apple now finds itself in a position where they need to recreate themselves without their founder and leader. Not necessarily their businesses model but instead its public near religious model which has led to a loyal following of customers. Now, just to be clear, I am not accusing Apple customers of being cult members and certainly not in the modern sense. The customers do, however, show a loyal following that has been shown in the outpouring after Steve Jobs’ death. Will Apple continue to be a thriving corporation or will it become another example of disposable religion after the loss of its leader? That is left to be seen.
[i] Eric Slivka, “Apple Soars to Third Place in US with 10.7% Market Share,” http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/13/apple-soars-to-third-place-in-u-s-pc-market-with-10-7-share/ retrieved October 9, 2011
[ii] Allen Deutschman, “Thanks for the Future: How a College Dropout trusted his gut, defied corporate America, and carried us into tomorrow,” http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/09/thanks-for-the-future.html retrieved October 9, 2011
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