Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] ❤️

TV Commercials Yup · 31.5K views · 2019-07-27 · 0:31

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Overview

A 2017 Apple TV commercial for the iPad Pro in which a kid asks "What's a computer?" while using the tablet. It pitches the all-screen iPad Pro as something that goes beyond what people think of as a computer.

On Hacker News

Cited as a concise example of Apple and the wider tech industry framing devices as anything but a personal computer.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2021–2025

Topics

Arts & entertainment (other)Consumer devices & gadgets Product, marketing & sales

What people said

nkrisc · 2025-04 · Reference
I think Apple captured this very concisely (for better or worse) in one of their ads: [VIDEO] "What's a computer?"
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sudosysgen · 2024-05 · Reference
> I'm saying this would not be an average user. The average user would not be comparing AI capabilities, they open an app that uses AI, with a high chance of not even being aware of it What is the point here? If the average user doesn't care about comparing AI capabilities, then clearly Apple wasn't targeting that user in their AI capability comparison. > What should they have compared it to? There's only one other tablet on the market, with an old chipset and a fraction of the performance, that just received its first real video editor late last year [1]. It's very clear that Apple is trying to make the case that the iPad Pro is a replacement for a laptop. In fact, that was their core marketing claim when it came out : "What's a computer?" [1], and arguably that's the point of their latest ads where they market it as a general purpose computer. Given the price point and the marketing, yes, they should be comparing it with a computer when making the case it's a good replacement for a computer. And when they do, they should not be misleading to the point of falsehood. [1]: [VIDEO]
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smoldesu · 2023-05 · Criticism
Apple is obsessed with their lifestyle designation: [VIDEO] They publish ads and write all their copy with the intention of framing their products as anything other than a computer.
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Sources

Video by TV Commercials Yup, played through YouTube.

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