Remember the iPod? The missing link between the Sony Walkman and the Apple iPhone that changed how we experienced music forever.
Back in 2006, a viral video imagined what would happen if early-2000s Microsoft, not Apple, had designed the iPod’s packaging.
We all know the original Apple design – clean, simple, and sexy. Microsoft’s (theoretical) version on the other hand was a cluttered mess of specs.
They say good storytelling isn’t just about what is said, but what is unsaid. Apple lived by this. As Steve Jobs put it, “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” They weren’t selling a 5GB MP3 player with a scroll wheel, they were selling possibility. Freedom. The ability to carry “1000 songs in your pocket.”
Microsoft (at least in this parody) was stuck listing features. Apple was creating desire. Through what they said, what they left unsaid, and how everything looked and felt.
Yes, all this was nearly two decades ago, but the video makes an important point that is still just as relevant today: Great organizations don’t win by having better specs or processes, they win by speaking a language that moves people.
The question isn’t whether your product works. It’s whether it makes people feel something.
Specs and data don’t create desire. Or change. Stories do.
