What happened on the week of June 26, 2007?
Apple released its iPhone and Boeing rolled out its 787.
This is not the first time the fortunes of Boeing and Apple have overlapped. Their respective design and global supply chain philosophies draw from the same inspiration.
Both the iPhone and
787 would carry their company’s branding on the side, though under the skin is an
integrated piece of technology brought together by a myriad of global
suppliers guided by the OEM’s design philosophy.
“Apple invented the iPod, markets it, sells it, supports it, and
integrated the whole concept. But they don’t care about building it,”
Aboulafia wrote in a letter to clients. “With the 787, Boeing is moving
in Apple’s direction.”
Though, as history as shown, that
model has worked better for Apple than it did for Boeing.
The similarities go even deeper with the foundational technologies that
drive these products. Apple built scalable technologies like multi-touch and iOS starting with the iPhone. For Boeing, the 787’s
more-electric architecture and common core computing system are cut
from the same cloth; technologies intended to scale up or down to a 737
or 777 replacement. For Apple we see this today in the iPods Nano and Touch and
iPad. Just think of the Dreamliner Gallery as Boeing’s version of the App Store.
Today, Boeing released a new 787 video advertisement on its newairplane.com site today incorporating air to air footage shot during flight test along with a group of very pleased business class passengers. The ad was part of a new campaign by Boeing to publicize the Dreamliner, which is also appearing in print form in the pages of Flight International and Aviation Week at the moment.
When I first watched the ad, what immediately stuck out was not the visuals, but the music. It seemed very familiar. Where had I heard something similar before? And it hit me, Boeing’s 787 was channeling the Apple’s iPhone once again. Listen for yourself:
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.