Apple releases $300 book containing 450 photos of Apple products

[GoodBytes]

Meh... I'll wait for the Pro model of the book... The pop-up book version

[bob345]

"Apple releases $300 metaphor about apple"

[You_are_a_cunt]

http://iconicbook.com/

this already existed. It's better by every metric and the "plus" edition is $99 (with the basic edition being even cheaper).

The pulsating power symbol makes it even better to Apple's cashgrab collection of images you can find on google images.

[Guest]

Can anyone with good knowledge of printing/paper and the knowledge of the materials used on this book calculate the rough production costs?

[KE2012]

The only way I can not shake my head at this is if any and all profits go to charity, but who the fuck am i kidding, of course apple is laughing all the way to the bank. 

[AkiraDaarkst]

8 hours ago, revsilverspine said:

http://iconicbook.com/

this already existed. It's better by every metric and the "plus" edition is $99 (with the basic edition being even cheaper).

The pulsating power symbol makes it even better to Apple's cashgrab collection of images you can find on google images.

Except that the photos in that book look amateurish compared to the photos in Apple's book.  Which is true, since the photographer Apple hired to produce the photos for their book is an award winning photographer who is consistently using the same style for every photo in the book.

 

The photos in the book are taken by Andrew Zuckerman.  And I can tell anyone from experience, because I've copied it before, that the style of photography in the book, while it may look simple and easy to do, is not quite easy at all.

Quote

 

Andrew Zuckerman (born 1977) is an American filmmaker and photographer. He is best known for creating hyper-real images set against stark white backgrounds. His subjects have included birds, endangered species of animals, politicians, humanitarians, artists, and entertainers.

 

Honors/Awards

2003 Art Directors Club, Young Guns

2005 Broadcast Design Award

2006 D&AD Yellow Pencil For Photography

2007 High Falls, Woodstock Film Festival, Best Short Film High Falls, Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection"

 

And I know and own photo books from even more famous photographers, books that had less content and more expensive.

[applebook]

Sooo...when does Samsung release its $275 version that explodes?

[Bsmith]

16 hours ago, coolkingler1 said:

Can anyone with good knowledge of printing/paper and the knowledge of the materials used on this book calculate the rough production costs?

pure book price (estimate through sale digital NL, no paper choice) can cost up to 203 euro for A3 size paper of 100 pages. A4 size goes up to 105 euro for 100 pages. both without any fancy cover or page option, excluding photo's.

For a mass produced book the cost would be lower, maybe 180 for A3 size and 70 for the A4 size. A thicker cover and high quality paper can add roughly 10 euro per book, setting is to 80 euro for 100 pages of A4 or 190 euro for 100 pages A3.
This is a very rough estimate since I don't have any acces to a photo service that uses the same scaling as given in OP, I might be off quite a bit on the prices, it wouldn't surprise me if the actual costs where closer to 120 euro for the A4 version and 220 euro for the A3 version. That would leave roughly 80 euro per book sold for profit and paying the photographer.

[VerticalDiscussions]

 

 

The book came outdated on launch day :l. No Iphone 6S, Iphone 7, Iphone SE or any reference to the Apple Watch Series 2 .-.?

 

Also, the book has blank pages in between and it honestly doesnt make much sense to be so well built and packed, only to lack intensively in content. It doesnt even add any informative texting, shows production process or design construction of all its devices. EAP even said Apple had to buy from 3rd party companies to aquire theyr aging products!? Apple doesnt have a warehouse of old or any sort of depository where they can re-access and re-view theyr previous constructs o-O?

 

This book is starting to look like something as the Iphone 5C, which was plain failure and Apple learned not to repeat that mistake. Great book, great images and great materials choice, but it lacks content and offers nothing special for its most fundamental followers. Apple certainly didnt do that great with this book, seriously.

[That Norwegian Guy]

They know full well this is stupid.

 

Calculating for enough idiots to buy it "ironically" to make bank.

 

It's distilled bait.

[Devin92]

The idea of a photo book whose content can be easily googled, the idea is stupid. there are books that is 300ish dollars but they contain copyrighted stuff and also author's knowledge and hard-working result, so the price is justifiable.

The strategy is smart tho. Apple know diehard fan will buy and there is A LOOOOT of them, so 'fk you' to all the sane ppl and ppl dont like apple, the company will make money out of it even tho its a whole other level of rip off.

i am not a mac book user but currently using a iphone gift from relative. iphone line up is good quality wise. (hate IOS btw) sumsung use to be able to compete, but now they just slowly turning into a military weapon company a.k.a smartGrenade. so theres no very good competitor anymore. damn i wish LG HTC SONY can make some good android phones but they cant. So ya, at the time when sunsung fked up big time, apple can be more greedy with their product and profit margin.

[VerticalDiscussions]

3 minutes ago, Devin92 said:

-snip-

Clean that filthy mouth with soap 1st :p. Well, i have a Starwars Posters artbook, which i can see a video of and google its images (such as wallpapers) and it costed 40€. The book is certainly high quality, no joke about that. It has about 180 pages, all of them filled with art and refoldable pages and i watched 3 or 4 times and i really liked what i saw. But, its a product that given its size, at least where i can keep it, doesnt really appeals me into digging it out and watching it again. It is an artbook, but rewatching it every week is just something i wouldnt do, with any type of artbook, which to be honest is really well made nonetheless. The Apple book seems to be really well made and displays photos in a nice way, but it lacks interesting content like how they got the aluminium blocks or rectangles sterelized and shaped to be fit into a Macbook or IMac for example, not to mention too much pink . Its certainly gonna be one of those items that grows over time in value, since its meant to be a rare piece of Apple's history, which we all know has a lot of fans xD. If this book was 40€, id certainly get one, maybe even 50€ at max. But yeah, it is what it is. Also, Samsung problem is not being a grenade, its out of the box usage and integration of its software, quality control alongside the plastic home button, with a small lifespan it would seem. Google Pixel says hello tough, to any IOS user wanting to change :l?

[Devin92]

2 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

-snip-

as i said, the idea is stupid. But there are other 300 dollar books out there, not art, not apple, but science. and those books price is justifiable.

[Tieox]

Apple is the 21st century version of the Emperors new robes.  

 

 

[Jake Dalay]

I read the post. I thought, it couldn't be real. It's too funny. It's like the fake story where the FBI supposedly ruined the iPhone they had just cracked without Apple's help by spilling some water on it amidst a lot of high-fiving.

 

I read some of the first responses.

I thought, wow, they must not have double checked this, no way it's legit.

 

I googled it.

 

It's real.

 

I don't even know what to do now.

 

But I know that if I ever go anywhere and see that book sitting on a table, I'm going to just back slowly and carefully out of the room.

 

Before things turn into an Apple themed Progressive commercial, and all the normal things around me start turning white with engraved apples on them, and everyone turns into Siri (who I presume would be Flow's equivalent).

 

I really thought it was a joke, especially because it comes in two sizes, with that oh-so-classic Apple price tiering.

 

Nope. It's all too real.

[abazigal]

The comments here show precisely why tech forums are exactly the wrong sort of people to comment, much less criticise such a product. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

11 minutes ago, abazigal said:

The comments here show precisely why tech forums are exactly the wrong sort of people to comment, much less criticise such a product. 

What's there to like? It's literally a book of the same pictures you can find on Google Images.

[NumLock21]

First mac it shows was the color imacs, They didn't even bother with, what they started at the very beginning.

[abazigal]

32 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

What's there to like? It's literally a book of the same pictures you can find on Google Images.

I would use the term "appreciate" more than "like". 

 

The book represents Apple's work, goals, values and preoccupations. That it covers 20 years of Apple's history, and begins with the coloured iMacs, is no coincidence. That was the year Steve returned to Apple and instituted a design-led engineering culture in Apple, and the rest as we know it is history. 

 

All these are consistently represented in Apple's products through their design process. It is this sense of design, this real sense of answering questions through a creative design process, which has not only kept Apple alive, but also help them grow, prosper, and garner a lot of loyal fans. 

 

More importantly, Apple has inspired many other companies to create something more than just "OK", and I feel that is something Apple doesn't get due recognition for. It used to be that computers came in crappy hardware and ran crappy software, resulting in, well, a crap user experience overall. Apple showed that good design mattered, especially in the mass consumer market, and that good design could be a critical product differentiator. If nothing else, then at least acknowledge that Apple has set the gold standard for design, craftsmanship, ease of use and durability for the entire industry

 

The end result in that more and more companies are now paying greater attention to detail and design today. Just look at the latest keynotes from companies such as Microsoft. You see Apple's influence throughout. For all the hate and criticism Apple receives, everyone sure as hell seems to be trying to mimic Apple's design process. 

 

This is the sort of deep reflection that glancing at a bunch of google images won't and can't teach you. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

31 minutes ago, abazigal said:

I would use the term "appreciate" more than "like". 

 

The book represents Apple's work, goals, values and preoccupations. That it covers 20 years of Apple's history, and begins with the coloured iMacs, is no coincidence. That was the year Steve returned to Apple and instituted a design-led engineering culture in Apple, and the rest as we know it is history. 

 

All these are consistently represented in Apple's products through their design process. It is this sense of design, this real sense of answering questions through a creative design process, which has not only kept Apple alive, but also help them grow, prosper, and garner a lot of loyal fans. 

 

More importantly, Apple has inspired many other companies to create something more than just "OK", and I feel that is something Apple doesn't get due recognition for. It used to be that computers came in crappy hardware and ran crappy software, resulting in, well, a crap user experience overall. Apple showed that good design mattered, especially in the mass consumer market, and that good design could be a critical product differentiator. If nothing else, then at least acknowledge that Apple has set the gold standard for design, craftsmanship, ease of use and durability for the entire industry

 

The end result in that more and more companies are now paying greater attention to detail and design today. Just look at the latest keynotes from companies such as Microsoft. You see Apple's influence throughout. For all the hate and criticism Apple receives, everyone sure as hell seems to be trying to mimic Apple's design process. 

 

This is the sort of deep reflection that glancing at a bunch of google images won't and can't teach you. 

I appreciate history, but it sure as shit should not cost 300 dollars.

[Miller1218]

When talking away one port wasn't enought

 

Apple was like, "You thought we were being courageous talking away the headphone jack, look how courageous we are taking away the lightning port... And the screen... And the speakers... And the computer itself ... And we raised the price by 4000%.

[abazigal]

17 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I appreciate history, but it sure as shit should not cost 300 dollars.

I am not qualified enough to give an accurate assessment of how much the book ought to cost. But give the materials used and man hours put into it, it certainly shouldn't cost just $50 as what some people are insinuating. 

 

This isn't a PC where you can shop for the cheapest parts using Newegg or Amazon, and it should not be evaluated as such. It would be evaluating the worth of a painting solely on the cost of the ink and canvas used. 

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, abazigal said:

I am not qualified enough to give an accurate assessment of how much the book ought to cost. But give the materials used and man hours put into it, it certainly shouldn't cost just $50 as what some people are insinuating. 

 

This isn't a PC where you can shop for the cheapest parts using Newegg or Amazon, and it should not be evaluated as such. It would be evaluating the worth of a painting solely on the cost of the ink and canvas used. 

All the images are 3D rendered images. All images for these marketing material (which are exactly that.. video bellow), are already done. All they do, is load up the model in wtv software they use, set the camera (of the software) angle and position, and hit the convert to image. Then they just put it in wtv software specialized for books, turn into PDF, and send that to the publisher. Yes, the paper, print quality, and book and packaging is of high quality. But so are other books that we have seen from other companies (and yes, I do mean the thick pages, and all that). And those are being sold for a fraction of the price. Heck, you can get this

https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Britannica-32-Book-Set/dp/0852299613

For 400$. 100$ more, and you have the same quality of book (I know, I had those), and it is a full encyclopedia from a trusted source, with countless of man hours put into it, not only explain a crap ton of things, but also have impeccable English. Apple.... 300$... picture book of already made marketing product images.

 

In addition, it isn't like Apple wrote long text for each product, giving a story, explaining the design, showing prototypes and all that... (say like the Nintendo Zelda book)... no... you have a small text from Jony Ive (which they did everything to try and reach 1 page and a half... I mean, if you do what they have done at school, you'll expelled for your retardation in cheating) and pictures. That is all.

 

Oh! and it is missing Apple recent products... so the book is already outdated. I guess they plan Volume 2 with a whole section dedicated to their many accessories that they have been releasing.