[evansolomon]

Coke is the biggest soft drink. Apple is the biggest consumer electronics company. Both advertise like it's the freaking antidote. No need to paint every company with the same brush. Different tasks, different tools.

The "we don't do marketing" thing is both unnecessarily extremist and usually a lie. See Square for a very recent example.

[rbanffy]

I think Apple has to spend lots on marketing because its main competitors (Microsoft and every PC maker on PCs and every other phone maker - Nokia excepted because of its recent suicide - in the smartphone space), taken together, outspend them by a huge margin (quite possible by orders of magnitude)

So, marketing is also something you need when your competitors spend more on that than in product development. Because if they spent in developing better products, you'd have to relocate your marketing resources into building some real value.

Also, Apple is expanding its business with its two app stores and pay for content revenue streams, so, we should expect large marketing expenditures to increase market awareness.

Oh. And before I forget, deciding whether you'll make a great product or a crappy-but-adequate one (or even one so crappy people are embarrassed to admit they bought it) is also part - and an important one - of your marketing strategy.