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Apple teams up with MLB

D

Don Dingee

Moderator
Several recent commenters have asked about Apple's iPad strategy and aiming more for business. Apple has a deal with IBM for enterprise apps. This just crossed my desk and could really raise Apple's profile with baseball fans:

MLB, Apple bring iPad Pro into dugout | MLB.com

I'm wondering if we'll see a feature about this technology on MLB Network. They always point out that Statcast is driven by Amazon AWS. In days gone by, MLB's web site was powered by Sun Microsystems. Apple joining in on the corporate sponsorship for baseball is noteworthy - we know Microsoft Surface is heavily used in the NFL.

I don't know about you folks, but I'm ready for baseball season!
 
My opinion about this is quite negative. I view this as a waste of resources for society at large. Bringing iPads (or any tablets to that matter) to dugouts will add nothing to the entertainment value of the baseball. This is obviously a marketing twist: MLB will get money from Apple. In this sense it is not more wasteful than advertising in general but still... Would not it be nice if these resources (hardware and software) were spent for something better (education?).
 
I agree with the sentiment on societal value-add, but this is where we are with consumer marketing these days. I didn't mention that Samsung has sponsored the MLB replay review for the last couple years. It is keeping-up-with-the-Joneses marketing, and the impressions obtained are apparently worth the cost. Does it make me wanna run out and buy an iPad Pro, even as a closet sabermetrician? No. But Apple can't afford to not be seen while Microsoft continues to increase its tablet efforts.
 
Don, as a boy I played baseball which made it fun and competitive, however as an adult I was invited to watch a baseball game in person and was totally bored before the first inning ended because of the slow pace. On TV of course they have a dozen camera angles that are switching every few seconds, and commentators to fill in all of the dead time, waiting for the ball to be hit and the runners advance.

Apple is quite shrewd in growing and keeping their marketing awareness, so this play makes sense.

In the NFL the announcers kept calling the tablets used by caches an iPad, until their management reinforced that, "No, they're from Microsoft and called the Surface. Our corporate sponsor."
 
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