AirPods official website can engrave the Chinese zodiac, why iPhone can't have this treatment?

       The cost-conscious manufacturers have actually already calculated everything.

　　The New Year is coming soon. If you plan to give a gift to a friend and want it to look impressive and classy, ​​what should you give?

　　For some technology enthusiasts, buying an engraved Apple product as a gift may be a good choice. On Apple's official website, you can choose to engrave your thoughts on AirPods, Apple Pencil, iPad, iPod touch and other products. In particular, Apple recently officially opened up the engraving of zodiac signs and expressions on AirPods Pro, which has driven a strong sales growth.

　　However, for products like iPhone and MacBook, the official website does not support engraving. Why can some Apple products be engraved while others cannot? Why can't the iPhone, as Apple's mainstay product, enjoy the same treatment as AirPods? If you are also curious about this, then today you might as well take a look at the secrets behind it with GeekChoice (official account GeekChoice).

　　Careful calculation of process cost

　　Material and craftsmanship are two important issues to consider when engraving a product. If you try to open the official website and look at the official Apple digital products that can be engraved, you may find some special features, such as the shells of AirPods and AirPods Pro are made of plastic, while the shells of iPad and iPod touch are made of metal.

　　For both materials, laser engraving technology today is very easy to do, mature, fast, and virtually fail-proof, while barely adding to the cost if demand is high.

　　Turning our attention to the iPhone, from the first generation of iPhone to the current iPhone 11 Pro series, the back cover material has used a variety of materials such as plastic, metal, glass, etc., which changes every few years, and each change span is not small. This brings a lot of problems to the back cover engraving. That is, even if it can be engraved, Apple needs to think about new engraving technology every few years, which is not very cost-effective in terms of time and money cost.

　　In terms of time, Apple has to produce a large number of iPhones every day. The time it takes you to buy an engraved iPhone may be enough for Apple to produce ten iPhones in a row. This is not cost-effective for Apple. In terms of monetary cost, an iPhone that costs tens of thousands of yuan, whether engraved or not, will not have such a big impact on your purchasing decision. Therefore, Apple will make such considerations after doing the math.

　　Personalized back cover for MOTO X

　　An example about the MOTO X mobile phone may prove this point. After the release of MOTO X in 2013, people praised the personalized back cover of this mobile phone. In addition to the common plastic materials at that time, MOTO also provided various customizable back covers such as leather, bamboo, and wood. On this basis, Motorola also planned to launch a custom engraving service on its official website. However, after various tests, the official finally cancelled this service because the process of engraving on different back cover materials is very different, and it is also difficult to guarantee the strength of the back cover of the mobile phone. Therefore, for Apple, which has to change the material every few years, it is not so easy to engrave on the iPhone.

　　But you may ask, MacBook is made of metal, and the appearance design has not changed much, why is there no engraving option? Isn't it easy? What are the obstacles to product customization besides craftsmanship and cost? At this time, we have to distinguish the specific situation from the specific product.

　　Product category determines sales method

　　The first thing we need to think about is why does Apple provide engraving services on products such as AirPods, Apple Pencil, iPad, and iPod touch?

　　An obvious answer is to sell better. To be more precise, the above products are all high-profit digital products, but not everyone needs them. If you listen to music for sound quality, you may prefer headphones instead of AirPods. If you already have an iPhone, then iPod touch is not a necessity. Therefore, if engraving can further increase sales, then Apple will naturally provide such a service.

　　On the other hand, this type of product has a very good feature. Since they are not as expensive as iPhones and MacBooks and are not large in size, they can be given to relatives and friends in addition to being used by oneself. From a gift perspective, providing engraving services is naturally another way to attract customers to buy.

　　However, products like iPhone and MacBook are productivity tools that we use every day. It is not an exaggeration to call such products "urgent needs". Moreover, people experience various situations when using them every day, and their tool attributes are stronger. As an important product line of Apple, the people who choose to buy them are a fixed and loyal group of users. When making decisions, people are more concerned about performance upgrades and new functional points of such products. They will not give up buying them just because they cannot be engraved. Apple no longer promotes and sells such products to the purchasing population in the form of gifts.

　　New opportunities to express your individuality

　　When you give a gift to someone, you always want to express your feelings, so it is best to engrave a message to express your feelings, but there may be more problems than you think. No matter what product you engrave, it means more trouble when you want to sell it second-hand, which actually brings new opportunities to many manufacturers to some extent.

　　For example, in order to express their individuality, the favorite thing for iPhone users is to buy all kinds of interesting and novel phone cases for their phones. iPhone users are also the happiest group of people among all mobile phone brands. They can see all kinds of interesting ideas appearing on the back cover of the phone during the long life cycle of the phone. As the most popular brand in consumer electronics, countless third-party manufacturers have brought individuality needs to users who want individuality without the need for engraving.

　　MacBook actually has a similar situation, but in addition to protective cases, MacBook users prefer to use various stickers on their notebooks. There are many creative designs that also highlight the Apple brand. So it may not be a bad thing that Apple does not provide engraving services on these devices, because this not only provides many third-party organizations with an additional way to make money, but also brings the choice of "regret medicine" to many users.

　　Thinking back, it’s not so bad that Apple didn’t launch an engraving service for the iPhone. After all, even if the iPhone is engraved, you still have to use a phone case. There are many ways to pursue personalization nowadays. Whether it’s for yourself or as a gift, a case and stickers would be a good choice.