Apple might be sending you a holiday gift this year!
The best release Apple ever had for Christmas was its iconic 2013 ad for the holidays. You remember that one, right? The kids and their parents are driving to the country to meet up with the grandparents but the teen boy seemed to be glued to his iPhone. You can see the dad getting upset when his son calls everyone to the living room. Is he going to announce that he just got his 14-year old girlfriend pregnant? Did he flunk out of school?
Actually, the devil spawn wasn't evil at all. He had been using his iPhone to produce a touching film about the family. At the end of the ad, dad and son share a warm embrace as the Apple logo appears perfectly on cue. If you're not at least a little damp in the eyes after viewing it, you have no heart or soul. Some have called it not only the best ad Apple has ever made, but the best advertisement ever! Keep in mind that this spot was produced around the time smartphone addiction started to become a concern.
Apple repeated the formula with last year's holiday ad "The Surprise" as a family with two pre-teen daughters was making the journey to visit Grandpa. The parents had the annoying habit of using their iPad as an electronic pacifier/babysitter. Every time the girls acted up, out came the tablet with some downloaded movies vetted by the parents. The iPad always quieted the kids down.
So they all arrive at Grandpa's house and once again the girls are acting up. They are sent away to another room with the iPad. But this time there is a change. Instead of watching a movie, the girls put together a scrapbook thanks to the old photo albums and videos that they find. By this time, we discover that Grandma passed which explains why Grandpa is such a grouch and is mean to his granddaughters. On Christmas morning, the girls surprise Grandpa with the video scrapbook and the sight of his late wife in the video warms up his heart. Cue the water works, the tagline ("Make Someone's Holiday") and a gift wrapped Apple logo.
Speaking of surprises, according to Twitter tipster "@L0vetodream," Apple is planning one for this coming holiday season. In his tweet, the tipster writes, "You'll get a Christmas surprise from Apple (PS: Winter exclusive, good for winter"). In a follow-up tweet, the tipster adds that trying to figure out what this gift could be is just a "riddle game" for Apple's followers to play. We'd be amazed if the surprise has to do with rumored unreleased products like the AirTags tracking system or the over-ear AirPods Studio headsets; it wouldn't be like Apple to wait until the actual holiday season is nearly over to unveil new products. At that point, many consumers have already done their shopping and are pretty much tapped out, especially since there are still quite a few people still out of work.
Twitter tipster says that Apple plans on disseminating a Christmas gift to fans this year
You can pretty much stop daydreaming about Apple giving away free hardware but we shouldn't rule out the reboot of Apple's "12 Days of Gifts" promotion (known as "12 Days of Christmas" outside of the states). Starting in 2008 and running until 2014, Apple would give away a different freebie for 12 days (thus the name of the promotion). These "gifts" included free apps, television shows and movies, digital music, and more. As an example of what might be considered a nice gift, on the last day of the 2013-2014 promotion Apple gave away a free live Rolling Stones mini-album that brought satisfaction to many Apple fans.
Perhaps to celebrate Apple reaching its goal of doubling its Services revenue to $50 billion by fiscal 2020 (the actual figure for fiscal 2020 was $53.77 billion), we could see the company offer free limited-time subscriptions to Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, or Apple TV+.
So what is this surprise Apple is planning for the upcoming holidays? We will have to wait to find out, but if you had to venture a guess, what do you think it could be? Just remember, you can't always get what you want.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: