Benedict Evans: Apple wants to be the Disney of computers (in a good way)

April 6, 2019 by Steven M. Peters

A post-Showtime tweetstorm from one of venture capital‘s most insightful analysts.

The old Apple promise was that you don’t have to worry if the tech works. The new promise is you don’t have to worry if the tech is scamming you.

I think this runs across all of the stuff they announced last week. Curated magazine articles with no fake news, scammy ads or data gathering. Curated games for you/your kid with no loot boxes or pay-to-win. A credit card that’s secure, with no hidden fees and weird points…

And though the TV announcement seemed really vague from a news/analysis perspective, it was pretty clear for brand messaging. Spielberg and Oprah, not Tarantino.

The old computer problems were about how it functions, and Apple removed (or hid) complexity. It all just worked. But (some of) the new computer problems are several levels further up in abstraction—privacy, trust, harmful content, weird charges and scams. So just as Apple hid complexity in how your computer worked, now they want to solve complexity in how software/services/internet stuff works.

Another way to put it: they want to be the Disney of computers (in a good way). Disney stands for something—it has a clear brand promise. Apple was showing ambition to do that for News/games/credit cards, and TV.

My take: Only 131 retweets? A mind like Evans’ is a terrible thing to waste on Twitter.

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