[LemonOne]

So many HATERS on this board lately.

BMW designers once said they get inspired by Apple products (from MSNBC documentary)

[username604]

aren't like 80% of mac products silver now

(i think apple has great design, and that bmw products are a lot like apple products)

[RazBimmer]

Originally Posted by Robin@Alpine

I agree with ^^ cars nowadays have more curves and more of a sporty design to it. White showcases those designs and curves more, whereas black hides a lot of it.

Agree.. New car designs get well dressed in white.
I don't see the correlation between Apple and white cars though!

[xDrive35i]

You're not supposed to see or sense the connection at all. We have market researchers who study trends and make calculated assumptions about consumer responsiveness. It may not be directly related, but you've followed trends that happen to be related to trends that are related to Apple's redefinition of the color white on premium products.

[1230vani]

Originally Posted by citg0

Tread carefully, Sandy... Apple might have a patent on the color white.

Haha

[1230vani]

Originally Posted by W///

Um... no. Cars before the stupid iPhone (go Team Android)




Just my opinion

White NSX looks so good

[Ivan Ho]

Originally Posted by Robin@Alpine

I agree with ^^ cars nowadays have more curves and more of a sporty design to it. White showcases those designs and curves more, whereas black hides a lot of it.

+1. Its bullshit that its iPhone shaping the colour trend of cars.

[RON1X]

I'm surprised at such astonishment by so many members on here. Apple's design and marketing campaigns (often in a subliminal way) are quite interesting. Indeed, I remember reading an interesting marketing research paper that discussed how the white earbuds were, in fact, Apple's way of physically differentiating its product from everyone elses. There were hardly any manufacturers making the white earbuds at the time, so it was a way of showing everyone you had an apple iPod without having to physically display see it. It was a form of free advertising that was "cool." Along with their white iPod, the color white itself became a brand identification.

Apple, love them or hate them, takes a lot of time prior to launching a product (obviously). It completely follows that BMW, a company founded on passion of design and performance, would be inspired by their products.

If anything, I wouldn't think that BMW designers saying that "Apple's white" made white cars cool is that much of an understatement...

[and I'm on a Windows computer typing this]

[arkitectonix]

I'd rather believe that hip-hop culture made a better influence on white cars as a color preference, vis-a-vis 'fresh' white AF1s, white tees, white cadillacs, etc...

[Wolf]

Funny I used to hate white before 2005 I think, apple has nothing to do with why I love white now. On the other hand, I never liked silver and never will .

[JJFESQ]

I call my AW X5 the ice cream truck.
I guess we could shorten that to the iTRUCK. Oh uh wait...

[Cgm9999]

Originally Posted by RON1X

I'm surprised at such astonishment by so many members on here. Apple's design and marketing campaigns (often in a subliminal way) are quite interesting. Indeed, I remember reading an interesting marketing research paper that discussed how the white earbuds were, in fact, Apple's way of physically differentiating its product from everyone elses. There were hardly any manufacturers making the white earbuds at the time, so it was a way of showing everyone you had an apple iPod without having to physically display see it. It was a form of free advertising that was "cool." Along with their white iPod, the color white itself became a brand identification.

Apple, love them or hate them, takes a lot of time prior to launching a product (obviously). It completely follows that BMW, a company founded on passion of design and performance, would be inspired by their products.

If anything, I wouldn't think that BMW designers saying that "Apple's white" made white cars cool is that much of an understatement...

[and I'm on a Windows computer typing this]

Thanks for submitting the first thoughtful post in this entire thread.

Listen, no is saying that white never existed before Apple, nor is anyone saying that any one product by Apple ("Its bullshit that its iPhone shaping the colour trend of cars") is responsible for influencing the color of cars. What is being said is that Apple's industrial design has influenced other industrial design, cars included, and for the most part, this is true. In design culture, white was typically not a color that was used often to show off the lines of a car. Historically, it was a color that was popular with fleet sales and work trucks. Sales statistics readily show this. Recently however, the take rate for cars that weren't traditionally popular in white are seeing a more favorable shift towards white. Not only does this correlate with the introduction of Apple's recent design themes of the last decade, but with designers themselves admitting that they were influenced by Apple's minimalist design.

Another example is the color brown. Until very recently, dark browns were associated with car designs from the 1970s, and thus, were seen as woefully outdated and unfashionable. This is no longer true since the proliferation of stylish coffee houses (made popular by Starbucks, no doubt), and dark premium woods and leathers used in modern home furnishings. Where once having brown in a color lineup was a sure way corner the geriatric market, it now is seen as a modern, trendy color associated with luxury, comfort and high-qualilty. Hence, "Cognac Metallic" by Porsche, "Teak Brown Metallic" by Audi and "Cuprite Brown Metallic" by Mercedes. Hell, Bentley offers many different shades of brown. Ford offers "Kodiak Brown" on the new Taurus and Escape. The point is, car designers reference all kinds of things when they decide on what colors to apply to their most modern designs, and often times, they reference what's popular and cherished in the home. Thus, it isn't at all surprising that the "color value" of white has gone up considerably since Apple has used white to differentiate their products from those of its competitors.

[dreamspeed]

I don't know if apple made white popular for cars but it undoubtably made the minimalistic design (in white), popular for all sorts of things.

[ArcticRik]

I can see the whole BMW designers being somewhat inspired by apple, to me the new interior of the 3 series looks like they placed an iPad on the dashboard. But as for the color white and apple, I'm not so sure that is true, but who knows?

[m balla]

E92 M3 is the one car I think looks in its element in AW. Caveat, I think spacegrau is the all-around best choice and very lust worthy. I think silver defines German cars and titansilber and SS show curves more than AW. My heart belongs to dark blue blacks and dark black blues.

I agree there is a direct connection for certain individuals to buy white cars from the psychology that they have class in the sense that they went for the white iPhone. I think most others would get white because it's what they want or desire or they live in a desert. Now of you live in Dubai 24K gold is the must have. I personally like the black. I wish Apple would make a carbon black color. My wife loves everything white and is an Apple fangirl. It is pure and clean. A colleague of mine went for a white merc because her iPhone.turned her on to the color.

I would like to see frozen Sakhir and I really like that green on the Alpina B5.

[tony20009]

Oh, Jesus. Is what you learned in 6th grade art class, if not before, get forgotten? The three primary colors, black and white will look good everywhere and all the time; they go with everything. However, while white materials show up more dirt and black ones less, it's the opposite with white painted and black painted cars. I can't say for sure, but I think it's the shine in the paint that makes for this reversal.

Growing up, I recall Father only every bought black cars and I wished he would buy a grey one, but alas, they didn't offer grey very much if memory serves. Then in the '70s, he finally bought a white car with a baby blue interior. I loved it. After that, it was back to black. My first BMW was white, my second is grey and my third is black. The ones I bought for my daughter and son are black. My SUV (not a BMW) is brown.

[Fugly M3]

I knew I had stumbled on something when I started to want Mojave/Havana. Now that article confirms it!

[rigel-xvi]

Originally Posted by 1230vani

White NSX looks so good

I actually think the NSX styling is an abomination in any color! BFU.

[gtron]

apple has taken the color white from envelopes. they realized the success of mail, after all millions of people send and receive billions of envelopes weekly. by using this same color they have leveraged this same success. it's only natural people also gravitate to this as it's embedded into their psyche via seeing so many daily. steve deserves all the credit for noticing and leveraging this method.

[sids911]

Big time Apple product design fan.

BUT correlation is not causality.

Almost everything correlates positively (or negatively) with something else (rare for perfectly 0, -1 or +1 correlation it's usually in between). I could show statistically significant correlations between MANY thing - its just statistics. Proving causality is real science and that's missing in this ...