Nintendo And Apple Are Super Similar, Here’s Why
CEOs for both Apple and Nintendo have notably taken pay cuts, both companies have a loyal customer base, and both consistently produce quality products.
Nintendo and Apple share a passion for great products and fantastic hardware in the support of incredible software. Although their market values are separated by approximately $2 trillion, they are the industry’s closest ideological peers. Additionally, both popular technology brands have acquired more than their share of detractors.
Nintendo’s first attempt at fusing a home console and handheld resulted in the ill-fated Wii U which failed spectacularly. And Apple took years to adapt while competitors rushed to develop bigger screens. But in the last four decades, both companies have generated massive profits for the products that appear on store shelves.
This is largely due to their software and the power of their family-friendly reputations. Apple would rather be seen as prudish, than permissive when it makes decisions about content on its app store or data tracking requests. And Nintendo traditionally limited violence in its games to Mario Kart collisions and Smash Bros. punches, Bloomberg, reports.
Additionally, Nintendo and Apple have both had design superstars on their staff. Shigeru Miyamoto is the brilliant mind behind Nintendo’s biggest games like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, and Pikmin. Jony Ive served as the principal designer of the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and several other successful Apple devices from 1997 to 2019.
While Miyamoto still calls Nintendo his home, the Apple design team got a pair of new leaders following Ive’s departure, Apple Insider reports. Another similarity between the American and Japanese giants is the willingness of their Chief Executive Officers to take a pay cut for the greater good. In 2014, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata reduces his salary by 50% for five months to atone for company losses.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and other Nintendo executives also dropped about 30% of their salaries. Apple CEO Tim Cook also took a voluntary 40% pay cut for 2023. The move was a response to shareholder feedback and a desire to create meaningful performance and retention incentives according to the company’s annual proxy statement via IOL.
But the important thing Nintendo and Apple have in common is a loyal customer base. Die-hard fans are dedicated to owning whatever new offerings these companies create. No matter how incremental the upgrade, these folks feel deep satisfaction about their purchases. People flocked to the iPhone maker’s S Editions even though their designs didn’t really offer anything new.
And Nintendo fans are drawn to game-themed Switch consoles even though the hardware features the specs of its predecessor. Although it might sound silly, this type of hard-core dedication is largely due to trust in these brands and their software. There’s a reason both have been at the top of their respective industries for several years.
Nintendo fans are confident that the 2023 Zelda sequel will be breathtaking. And Apple customers believe they’ll have access to the best apps, mobile phones, tablets, and computers. There are high expectations for the new Switch, while the much-anticipated mixed-reality headset, from the iPhone maker, is also making waves in the tech industry.
