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New Apple ads gently chide people for not having an iPhone

Apple's new TV ads for the iPhone move away from the catchphrase, "There's an app for that," to chide people that, "If you don't have an iPhone, well, you don't have an iPhone."

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David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
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David Carnoy

Apple's TV ads for the iPhone typically play up all its capabilities by showing off all the cool apps it can run. The message that "you're missing out on something great" hasn't really changed with the company's new set of ads, but it's moved away from the catchphrase, "There's an app for that," and has gone to something more akin to, "There's a phone for that."

The first ad plays up the App Store in general, the second iBooks, and third iTunes and the iPhone as an iPod. Once again, the ads show the iPhone using apps to display the phone's wonderful capabilities, but the ads start with the narrator saying, "If you don't have the iPhone, you don't have..." and end with him telling the audience, "If you don't have an iPhone, well, you don't have an iPhone."

You can probably read that a few ways but I heard echoes of Joel Goodson in "Risky Business" saying, "iPhone, there is no substitute." Oh, wait, that was a Porsche.

(Via 9to5Mac)

Update: Originally, this post had a different version of the new TV ad embedded into it (the general App Store version). It's unclear what happened, but that video has since been marked "private" on YouTube. Apple is listed as the entity that uploaded the video. We'll see if this one stays up.

Update #2 (4:40 p.m., March 17): The "App Store" version has returned to YouTube. We have re-posted it.