The language of Apple: the company’s word choice and why it matters

Words are important. They are, in fact, a big part of what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. In the tech industry, we often talk about things like visual design and user experience selling products, but words are just as crucial. There’s a reason that Apple announces all of its new products with a lengthy spoken presentation rather than just releasing a slick ad or letting users try the new gear right away. Words have the power to shape our perceptions.

In fact, words can convey a lot more than you might think. Take a sentence like this one Tim Cook said during his Apple Watch presentation on Monday: “The Apple Watch is the most personal device we’ve ever created.” The basic meaning is clear: Apple Watch is Apple’s first wearable product, its first entry into the realm of fashion. But Apple’s phrasing sounds much nicer than “this is our first wearable product,” doesn’t it? Those words were specifically chosen not just to convey a meaning but also to convey a mood.

For example: calling the watch personal makes it sound like something that’s built especially for you. It conveys the idea that the watch is a wearable product while avoiding the term wearable, which calls to mind a product category and reminds you that the Apple Watch has dozens of competitors. In fact, Cook did not use the term wearable even once during the hour-and-a-half-long presentation on Monday.

And that single sentence contains other meaningful word choices. Words like most and ever convey the idea that this product is the pinnacle of Apple’s achievements. And the choice of words like we and created implies a group of people you know crafting something by skill, rather than a massive multinational corporation cranking out watches in a Chinese factory (even though that is what’s actually happening).

With the assumption that Apple chooses its words very carefully in product presentations, I wanted to take a look at what Tim Cook might be saying when you strip away the specific context and focus purely on his word choices. Ignoring the sections of the presentation where other Apple employee’s spoke and the video segments, I transcribed everything Tim Cook said in his presentation on Monday and fed the results into a word cloud generator. After removing the most common words and references to product names like watch, pay, and iPhone, here’s what I got:

Tim Cook, Apple “Spring Forward” Event, 2015

Drilling down further, I also took a look at what Cook said when he was talking about the Apple Watch, cutting out the sections on Apple TV, the iPhone, and the new Mac:

Tim Cook, Apple “Spring Forward” Event, 2015 (Remarks on Apple Watch only)