Sometimes the old ways are the best

What Hi-Fi?'s content director Joe Cox explains why Apple co-founder Steve Jobs knew the score when it came to modern tech's Achilles' heel

- Joe Cox

“It just works." This was the mantra that Steve Jobs used to repeat with alarming regularity, from his NXT days to when he was CEO of Apple. Whether he was launching iMacs or the first iPods, explaining iTunes or digital downloads, the promise was that this potentially confusing - maybe even scary - new technology could easily and seamlessly be enjoyed by everyone. It just works.

And this made a lot of sense. It tackled head-on many people's fears, conscious or otherwise, about new technology. It will be complicated; it's hard to set up; you'll need to be an IT expert to get it to work. "It just works", then, aimed to remove that seed of worry and doubt before it even got the chance to become planted in your head.

Helpfully, Apple also had a habit of making excellent products that by and large did work pretty seamlessly, meaning "it just works" became part of our collective psyche when we think of the company's products. This no doubt helped Apple win the war with Android when it came to delivering what was perceived to be the ultimate and smoothest smartphone experience. Sure, that battle rages on and is arguably now pretty close in terms of performance, but Apple products are undoubtedly known for their seamless ease of use, thanks in part to this marketing.

A lingering curse

I have been thinking about this in recent weeks every time I have been annoyed by a product just... not working. It's an issue that seems never quite to have gone away ever since the first consumer electronics products with wireless chipsets started arriving in our homes.