Perhaps the auto industry can learn something from Steve Jobs, in addition to building pieces of technology that attract admiration and premium prices.
David Carr discusses in the New York Times this morning Apple’s ability to build suspense before one of its launches, typified by the commotion over the unveiling of its tablet on Wednesday.
One of the reasons this works is that Apple used to have a strict rule that it only revealed new products on the day they were ready to be sold. More recently, it has let that rule slip a little, with the tablet reportedly only going on sale in March.
Still, it is a lot better than car companies, which routinely unveil “concept cars” at auto shows that are very far from being built, and sometimes never are.
At the Detroit auto show earlier this month, Toyota unveiled its FT CH concept car, intended to be part of a Prius family, but warned photographers not to get too close or try to open the doors.
Carr quotes John Gruber of Daring Fireball on this subject:
“When I was younger, I used to love to go to the Philly car show, but I learned after a while that the coolest cars at the show — the prototypes — never get built,” he said. “Apple builds and unveils actual products. They don’t do prototypes.”
In fact, some people in the auto industry are coming round to that view, including Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler.
Interviewed by the FT in Detroit, he too complained about the shift towards concept cars, the car equivalent of “vapourware” in the technology industry:
“This is a biz that wants novelty all the time, what’s new. We showed the [Jeep] Grand Cherokee in New York last year two years before its launch and that is bound to hurt you because by the time it launches, people say now ‘So what?’ We have taken the novelty out of the business.’”
Steve Jobs’ example is clearly having an effect.
