Apple’s Product Pages for iPhone 13, iOS 15, and iPad Prove No One’s Perfect
Yesterday Apple held their #AppleEvent to debut their updated products. This 80 minute commercial — I mean, conference — was full of the slick, overproduced material and product managers with varying levels of hand gesture proficiency we’ve come to expect from Apple.
After the conference, they debuted new website pages for each new product, so we thought it was only fair that we give the same scrutiny to Apple that we give to dbrand and stupid marketing tweets.
Let’s take a look at three different Apple product pages and the different strengths and weaknesses you can use to inform your product pages.
iPhone13 Pro
Let’s first look at the product page specifically for the iPhone 13 Pro. If you listened into the event, you heard that this phone is “more pro than ever before.” This year it seems Apple is really leaning into the “pro.” Maybe they’re out of ideas?
Apple is full of talented people; I imagine their content teams are powerhouses. But “Oh. So. Pro.” is the best they could manage? Leaning on the “Pro” part of the iPhone pro feels … uninspired. Sort of like the color choices.
It really doesn’t matter what Apple says; people will buy the phones anyway. But for the rest of us mortal businesses, make sure your hero headlines say something about the value of your product.
(And don’t use as many periods as Apple always uses; this hero really goes overboard.)
This section sort of addresses value, but it’s more a fancy description of features than an elucidation of value. They talk about a camera system, display, chip, battery. Things people care about, sure, but not value.
Again, Apple can do this because they’re Apple and their phones will sell. But discussing value looks more like:
Richer, more vibrant photos to capture every memory
A display so responsive your phone feels like an extension of your brain
Unprecedented speed and innovation allow you to do more with just one tool
Built to endure as your companion of the future
A leap in battery life so you can do more
Obviously these aren’t refined, website-ready bullets, but that’s the idea of benefits versus features. We strongly encourage non-Apple clients not to focus solely on features, and we would provide many more suggestions to improve a page like this.
iOS 15
Since almost every iOS user will upgrade to iOS 15, this page speaks to a wider audience, and that shows in the hero and subtitle copy, as well as the conventional product page format.
Here Apple has their snappy hero; it doesn’t tell us much but often, heroes are there to be clever, catch attention, or evoke an emotion. Here it’s the subtitle that follows more of the traditional path. It explicitly states its value: connect with others, be more present, explore the world, do more with iPhone.
The sections below tell and show you exactly how the new features do that. Here’s the FaceTime section:
This copy is great because it tells you exactly what users can now do with FaceTime. Plus, it isn’t loaded with jargon — which means it's easily understandable, and when people understand what your product does, they’re more likely to buy it.
The whole page is like this, and in the Edify product page book, it’s a win. (And yes, we realize the irony that people don’t actually purchase iOS 15, unlike iPhone or iPad.
iPad
The iPad page demonstrates that even Apple falls prey to jargon-laden web copy.
“The A13 Bionic chip” — I’ve already lost interest — makes everything more responsive…” Who aside from tech nerds care what kind of chip it is, or that it’s the chip that makes everything more responsive? Why not just say, “Messaging, web browsing, and using multiple apps at once is faster than ever.”
“A more powerful Neural Engine drives machine learning-based features like Live Text in iPadOS 15.”
SIGH.
You know what most Apple consumers will take away from that sentence? That’s right: Nothing. If you’ve got “Machine learning” and “Neural Engine” in the same sentence, you’d better be writing for data scientist or developers or tech people who care about this.
Something tells me that the primary purchasers of iPads are not that group.
I tried this feature. What even is it? Why do I want to see an iPad in augmented reality? I assume it looks pretty much like the other iPads that have come before it.
As Anthony put it, it’s almost like Apple is trying to remind people that they are a computer company.
Even Apple isn’t perfect at its product pages. Their proclivity for flash and lukewarm puns or rhymes can sink some pages. But when they get down to a good balance of features and benefits, they create product pages that make great blueprints for other businesses.
Need help with your product pages? Don’t want to make Oh-so-pro mistakes? Edify makes product pages that move your audience to action.
