BBC Three - Secrets of the Superbrands (Technology)

Alex Riley thinks he's immune to brands. When it comes to fashion, technology and food brands he just goes for the cheapest and what works for him. He's convinced he's not seduced by the advertising, celebrity endorsements and hype which surrounds the big global brands. So how did that pair of Adidas trainers get in his wardrobe? And how did that can of Heinz Baked Beans make it into his shopping trolley? And why does he have a Nokia mobile phone in his pocket rather than any other make?
With the help of marketeers, brain scientists and exclusive access to the world of the superbrands Alex sets out to find out why we buy them, trust them, even idolise them. Programme created by the BBC

Now, when it comes to mobile
phones... I've got one.

I have two. Samsung touchscreen,
but it's like an LG because
it's touch and you can...

'Everyone seems to know so much
about technology these days'.

BlackBerry is good. So's Apple.

Why are they called fruits?

BlackBerry and Apple.
What's a bad phone to get?

Old Nokia, they're bad.
'Sometimes too much'.

This is a Nokia. What's wrong
with that? That is bad.

That is bad. These are cool.
My grandma has one of those.

She's getting a new phone,
and it's an iPhone.

So beat that. That's my grandma.

I think that is totally rubbish.
Look... You need to get a new phone.

You need a really good camera.

Get a new style.
'How can I be so out of date?

'I only got this 18 months ago.'

What's going on with the world,
when people whip themselves up
into a religious frenzy over

the latest must-have gadgets I can't
even see the point of?'

It's a shop. Come in
and buy some computers.

Why are they so excited?

'And websites are
starting revolutions.'

'Facebook and Twitter
mean it won't go unseen'.

The world seems to have been
taken over by a bunch
of technology megabrands

who are in everybody's pockets
and living rooms, except mine.

I might be looking to sell it on.
Yeah, I'll give you 50p.

'That's it.'

I'm going to drag myself
out of the dark ages.

I'm going to knock on the doors
of the big boys, the rocket-powered
megabrands we all know.

This is where it all happens,
the whole Facebook thing.

'I'm going to find
out what's going on.

'Where did they come from?'
Nokia started off being
famous for toilet paper.

How did they get us
to want all this stuff?

What we found out about the
PlayStation 3 was, it cost more to
build than they were selling it for.

And how much money are they
really making out of us?

I want to know who's driving all
this, and I'm going to look
everywhere to find out.

Does that mean that technology
is the new religion?

'And I mean everywhere'.

You could say that the porn industry
is the weathercock of technology.

Whooo! Mobile phones...and that.

Yeah, can I stop doing it now,
please? Feels very embarrassing.

What's wrong with my phone?

It's a Nokia 6330 classic with a
stainless steel effect finish on the
back. It's a beautiful piece of kit.

And everybody tells me that my new
Windows netbook isn't cool either.

I should be getting an Apple
MacBook, I should be getting an
iPad, I should be going on Facebook.

How have the brands managed to
persuade so many people that

these things are cool
and worth hundreds of pounds
more than anything else?

That's cool, that is!
Look at it, look at me!

Apple this, iPad that.

It's got a lovely keyboard
that's very easy to use, although
the shift key is in a slightly

unintuitive position.

Xbox 360 Kinect, apps.

Am I missing out?

What is the point
of all these things?

Am I on the outside? Are they having
more fun than I could ever imagine?

Let's find out.

I'm going to start off
by looking at Apple, the brand
I have the most arguments about.

People gets so worked up about it.

What is it about Apple
that makes people so emotional?

If Apple was a person? Young, hip.

A trendy East London design type
with glasses similar to yours.

Spoilt, kind of snobby.

I think they would
wear white clothing.

The sort of person that might invite
you to their birthday party,

but when you got there,

you'd be doing everything
that they wanted to.

# If there's a cure for this
I don't want it, I don't want it... #

Apple seems to inspire
feelings in its users which
other technology brands

just can't reach, especially
when they're opening a new shop.

These Apple Store openings
are absolutely bizarre.

It's like mass hysteria, like some
sort of religious cult or something.

I want to see what goes on
at an Apple Store opening,
and it seems I might be in luck...

'Thanks for calling Apple...'
..because there are rumours
all over the internet

that a brand new flagship store
is opening in London soon.

Hi, there. I'm after
some information on, er,
Apple Store openings.

I've heard that there might
be one opening in London.

'But I'm told that Apple don't
comment on rumours and speculation.'

But there are goings-on
in London's Covent Garden.

First of all this, curtain appears.
Then half an apple pokes out.
What could that mean?

I've bumped into an Apple Store
opening veteran who might be able
to shed some light on things'.

So how many shop
openings have you been to?

Roughly 30, I'd say.

Some around the world,
most of them in the UK.

But although he runs a successful
Apple blog, he doesn't seem
to know any more than I do.

It's a common thing with
Apple and their stores.

They just keep this mystique
about them for as long
as they possibly can.

And then maybe a week beforehand,
they'll give you a location and
a date and a time, and that's it.

I'm wondering if all this secrecy
is normal for technology brands.

I think what's really clever
is the way they play the press.

Microsoft has a folder
on every journalist.

They basically keep tabs
on all the journalists
and what they're interested in.

How do you get journalists to write
favourable things about you?

Apple doesn't.
Apple won't even talk to us.

There's this incredible air of
mystery, everyone's trying to
work out what's going on.

There are all these rumour sites, you
know, and it's brilliant marketing,
because you just write anything

about Apple, and everyone
wants to know what it is.

At last, Apple announced that there
will be a store opening here,

but don't confirm the date
until five days before.

No cheap-rate advance tickets
for Apple fanatics.

It's 5.55 on Friday evening.

It opens at ten o'clock tomorrow
morning, but already, there's
some people sitting on the floor

over there, waiting to be the first
in the queue for when it opens.

I come from Turkey. Turkey? Yes.

From Russia?

I have missed two times in China,
so I don't want to miss this one.

I flew from California to
stand out here all night and
see what the store looks like.

So you came all the way here just
to queue up to go into a shop? Yes.

I've been here since about
ten o'clock this morning.

So that's about 24 hours before
the shop actually opens? Yeah.

Why was it important to
you to get here so early?

Normally when you see the first
person in line, it's normally a guy.

So I kind of wanted to be one of
the first girls who's first in line.
Do you work here then, or what?

I do, yes.
I have the pleasure of working here.

So what's going to happen
at ten am tomorrow then?

Er, an immense amount of
pandemonium and energy.

It's going to be amazing. Is it
like, you know, a grand opening...

Sorry, guys, just one second.

I was just chatting to him,
asking him what's going to
happen tomorrow,

when somebody came up to him,
took him to one side,
whispered in his ear

and then he disappeared completely.

So I'm thinking they want to
keep everything on message.

They're very suspicious of
anybody asking questions.

These are the enforcers

of the party line.

It's Saturday morning now, and the
shop opens in a little over an hour.

The queue has got
absolutely gigantic.

It's now snaking out in front of
the shop and it goes over there

past the walkway and round
the corner of the courtyard.

You can hear a lot of noise
coming now from inside the shop.

All the staff are being
whipped up into

some sort of crazy, evangelical
frenzy, clapping and cheering
and jumping up and down.

As I'm not allowed to go in
and see what's going on,
I think I'll have a go myself.

iPhones, iPads and stuff,
and 3Gs and that!

'Then the staff come out
and make me look like an amateur'.

They've all got
sort of like glassy eyes,

like as if they've been sort of
whipped into a state of hysteria
and they're at some kind of

prayer meeting where somebody's
going to get healed or something.

Finally, they're
ready to open the doors.

Unfortunately, my friend who's first
in the queue is a little overexcited
and runs in before the countdown.

Undeterred, the Apple preachers
count down anyway.

Seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one! Whoo!

I can honestly say I've never seen
anything like this at PC World.

Time to be initiated.

It's amazing, amazing.
In a way, it's...

I suppose the best way I could
describe it is...a big shop.

It's definitely worth it.
I'd do it again.

What's going on here?
Sure, Apple make computers,
phones and MP3 players

that people really like,
but this devotion to the brand, it
goes beyond anything I've ever seen.

These people need their heads
examining, they really do.

Wouldn't that be great,
if you could take an Apple fan...
let's say Alex, for example.

He's got a lot of Apple stuff.

You could say he's obsessed.

Definitely 24 hours a day
thinking about Apple.

You could put him in a
head-examining machine

which would look inside his brain
while he was thinking of Apple
and see what's going on.

Well, guess what? I've found
a group of brain scientists

who can do exactly that, and Alex
has agreed to provide his head.

This fancy bit of kit
is an MRI scanner.

Basically, there's a massive
electromagnet in there, and if
I was holding some metal things,

it would fly through the air
and smash everyone's face off.
That's why I can only come this far.

I've had to take my ring off,
my watch off, my belt off.

When Alex has feelings, his brain
gives off tiny electrical impulses.

The scanner will be able to measure
any electrical impulses stimulated
by the pictures

we're going to show him -
pictures of Apple gizmos,

pictures of non-Apple gizmos,
so we can compare the difference.

You know when you're doing these
experiments and that, is there

ever a moment where you suddenly go
"Ooh, it's a brain, it's horrible"?

No. We're about to start.

The Neurosense group have analysed
hundreds of people's responses
to all kinds of different things.

Hopefully, they can give me
a clue as to what kind of
feelings Alex is having.

So is Alex quite a fan of Apple,
then? Yes, he is, definitely.

Well, it's kind of interesting,
because we see quite an amount of

changes in the brain when he's
actually looking at Apple products,
which are quite fascinating.

Let me show you something here.
So there's much more activity in

the visual cortex, an enhanced
sort of visual attention, if
you like, to the Apple products.

So he's looking more
intently at that, like,

his eyes are sort of drinking
it all in? Well, that's right.

We often see this when people
are very loyal to a brand.

Not much surprise so far,
but Neurosense have done

this kind of comparison on
different groups of people.

One group was very religious.

When we've also then looked at
a different group of subjects,
looking at religious

versus non-religious images,
we can see a very similar
pattern of activity.

Well, it's interesting that when
we went down to the opening

of the Apple Store in Covent Garden,
it was almost like
a religious meeting.

It was like an evangelical thing
with people whooped up into
almost a sort of hysteria.

Well, we think one way to interpret
this data is to suggest that these

big technology brands have harnessed
or exploit the brain areas that
have evolved to process religion.

So the brain scan shows that
the Apple products are triggering

the same bits of Alex's brain
as religious imagery triggers
in a person of faith.

'And I'm not the first
to see a parallel.'

What have you got there,
The Economist?

This is a cover article I did
earlier in the year.

"The Book Of Jobs".

Yes, the holy iPad
was announced that week,

so this was our take on it.

How does a brand become a religion?

The Bishop of Buckingham
reads his Bible on an iPad.

This is a standard Hebrew text
of the Book of Judges.

He's offered to tell me how
Apple has been sanctified.

I think there are various ways
that a religion, if you like,
works, um, in human terms.

You need a story, don't you?

Appleism, Chapter One. The Story.

In 1976, Steve Jobs and two other
California geeks started

a computer company for
enthusiasts in their garage.

They called it Apple.

It was boom time for personal
computers, and within six years
they were multimillionaires.

A huge, multinational corporation
like Apple could not be further

from two kids building a thing in a
garage, but you need a strand of the
DNA that feels like that to people.

Appleism, Chapter Two.
The Antichrist.

Apple's main competition was
the giant corporation IBM,

who teamed up with Bill Gates'
Microsoft to make computers into
boring business machines.

Meanwhile, Apple invented things
like icons and mice to liberate
us...

We shall prevail.

..as they showed us in
this legendary advert.

You'll see why 1984

won't be like 1984.

In the Bible you have these great
stories of dragons and, you know,
13-headed beasts and things.

With Apple, you've got IBM, haven't
you, and the great sort of
apocalyptic battle

against the sort of
anti sort of figure.

Appleism, Chapter Three.

The Place of Worship.

Even I noticed that the
Apple stores looked like churches,

with their stone floors
and arches and little altars.

They are extraordinary temples.

I always go up the glass staircase,

which has this extraordinary
different texture of
light coming through it.

Appleism, Chapter Four. The Messiah.

In 1985, an evil traitor
within Apple fired Steve
Jobs from his own company.

Without him, they were lost.
Within a few years, they
were in dire straits.

It's sitting on 2 billion
worth of unsold computers.

So they repented and
begged Steve to return.

He then created the iMac,

the first of a
series of hit products

which propelled Apple back
to the top,

overtaking Microsoft
in value last year.

I think that everything that Steve
Jobs has ever done has been for
the benefit of everyone.

The new white iPod.

And yes, it does videos.

When Steve Jobs talks, people listen
to him because he's telling us,

"This is what you're really going to
want to do".

With Christianity, you have to
wait for the Second Coming.

With Apple, that happened in 1997
or whenever!

What's going on?

Hello.

This is an iPhone 4.

I haven't bought it myself.

It's very expensive.
I've borrowed it.

I wanted to see if any of
these things are worth the money.

There you go, that's it.

It's quite nice, quite glossy.

And, er...you know, Apple seem to
be very, very clever at marketing,
very, very clever at design,

and by combining these things,
they've managed to
tap into a part of our brain

which creates this kind of
religious-style hysteria.

'But there are other
megabrands we all still use.'

My netbook has got
Microsoft Windows on it.

How come Microsoft are so big?

They don't have to rely on making
people believe that it's some sort
of religious experience,

buying one of their computers,
so what are their secrets?

If Microsoft were a person,
they'd be old.

They would work at Tesco.

Constantly making mistakes,
maybe tripping up a lot.

I can see them coming with one look
this week, and another next week.

Someone who has
been divorced recently,

someone who's kind of settled
and dull and in their nook,

and then they've been
thrust out into the world

and have to try and
pretend to be young again.

93% of the world's computers run
on Microsoft Windows software,

and last year, they made a video to
launch the latest version
which has now reached cult status.

Hey! Welcome to the party.

The four of us, along with hosts
worldwide and you

are launching Windows 7
Ultimate Software.

You know what? Let's take a minute or
so to tell you about how great it is
to host a launch party.

You can use house party tools
to build your guest list,

upload your pictures, which
is his favourite, right?

And you can even get a party pack.

Apparently, one commentator
said that if Microsoft were in
charge of PR for sex,

the human race would be extinct.

I show my guests things from two of
the Windows 7 orientation videos,

and it took, like, ten minutes.
You know what was great?
It was totally informal.

Everyone just crowded around
the computer in the kitchen.

This is even more bizarre
than the Apple Store opening.

What were they thinking?!

This really is our launch.
Yeah, you're right.

So it ought to be a party.
Have fun out there!

Cheers! Have a good one, guys. Oh,
my gosh, I'm so hungry. Let's eat.

How come a company this
uncool could be on all of our
computers and making so much money?

In stark contrast to Apple,
Microsoft have agreed to talk to me,

so I'm heading across the pond to
their headquarters outside Seattle.

This is what I know so far.

When businesses started using
computers in the early-'80s,

they turned to the massive
corporate IBM to supply them.

IBM could make the computers,
but they didn't understand this
new-fangled software stuff.

So THEY turned to a bunch
of college drop-out super geeks
called Microsoft,

the world's first software company,
headed by little Bill Gates.

Unfortunately, being a bit new
to all this, IBM let Microsoft

keep most of the rights to the
software they'd written. Doh!

With hindsight, you'd wonder,

why would IBM, that
huge, great corporation,

50 billion corporation,

why would they strike such
a stupid deal with this kid?

But they did.

And they went,
"Oops, what have we done now?"

Bill Gates will never sneak up
on anybody again like that.

Keeping the rights meant that as
PCs took over the world,

Bill Gates became the
richest man in the world.

GENTLE HUM
Can you hear that noise?

It's the sound of computers,
massive, gigantic computers

processing things, coming up
with ideas, developing new products,

doing PowerPoint presentations.

'My tour of the 350-acre
headquarters begins immediately,

'and they're very keen
to show me everything.

'I've already found out where a
chunk of that massive profit goes.

'Microsoft spends £5.5 billion every
year on research and development.'

This is the front yard
of the future,

and behind these doors
is the home of the future.

AUTOMATED VOICE:
'Someone is at the front door.'

Hello. Hello. Are you a robot?

I am not a robot, guaranteed.

'In the future, fingerprints
open doors...

'..eventually.

'In the future, statues of the
Eiffel Tower automatically
bring up photos of Paris.

'In the future, you can pause
documentaries like this one
to buy things'.

Did you know that
this is a Contoso backpack?

So imagine, an advertiser might
be able to plug their gear in here.

'In the future. wallpaper moves'.

If I walk in and I point to the wall
here, we will bring up a menu

of different, um...

'Ah, they've got a few
years to get it working.

'It is the future, after all.

'Well worth £5 billion,
if you ask me.'

OK, let's move on.

There's a hint of desperation here,
and I think I might know why.

Microsoft grew so big because
of the stranglehold they had
on any software for the PC.

But since the '90s, they've
been prosecuted three times for
running an illegal monopoly.

One of the things that happened
in the Microsoft trial

which really didn't help them was the
video testimony given by Bill Gates.

He really ought to have had a bit
of media coaching there, I think.

And that sort of dealt a very
severe blow to the sort of "we are
the geeks, we are the cleverest"

culture that the company had.

And since then, it has tried to
reinvent itself in various ways.

Ten years later, Bill Gates has
retired from Microsoft to become
the world's biggest charity donor.

And as more and more of us
are doing our computing online,

the days of running Windows
on PCs could be numbered.

So Microsoft are using their
dwindling, but still massive income

to try and invent other
things we're all going to want.

But it's not been going well.

In the smartphone wars,
Microsoft has been left
trailing in recent years.

So imagine my surprise when
I found an excited queue
for a Microsoft product.

This is a queue of Microsoft
employees going into the staff shop.

They've had an e-mail to say
that a new batch have come in,

and they've all come from their
offices and started queuing.

How long have you been queuing for?
About an hour. An hour?

'The person responsible for
this gadget is in the building.

'Time to meet with Microsoft's
cool alter-ego, the hopeful
saviour of their nerdy image'.

Hello. You're Alex? I am Alex.
You're Alex. I'm Alex as well, yes.
I love your name.

Yeah, it's good, isn't it? We're
going to be good friends. OK.

MUSIC PLAYS
Yeah!

'This is the new XBox
hands-free controller, Kinect.'

Couldn't we have one where it was
a bloke doing it rather than...?

'They've shifted 8 million units in
the first two months since launch.

'This isn't house of the future,
this is house of now,
and it works pretty well.'

Here it comes, here it comes.

'If you're jumping up and down
in your living room
to control your XBox,

'it's a small army of people
like Alex who you have to thank.

'He actually started programming
at the age of five.'

I did.

That's weird. Were you, er...

you know, abused by your parents?

No. Is it something they made you do,
they forced you to do it
and it was your only refuge?

No, it's the only thing...
I would run away and do it.

If anything, they'd want me outside,
playing sports.

What is your actual
job at Microsoft?

My job, um, is to invent the future.

While everybody else is putting
gadgets and gizmos in people's hands,

my objective is to
make technology disappear.

It's to create simpler ways for
people to be able to interact

with this art form that I'm so in
love with, interactive entertainment.

'And it seems to be working, because
Kinect is now the fastest-selling
electronic device of all time.

'As I head back to the UK,
I wonder how XBox users

'feel about their cool games console
being made by the uncool,
monopolising giant?'

Now, you're all familiar with XBox,
but do you know who makes the XBox?

Ooh!

Er...

Anybody know what it is, anybody?
Is it Mr XBox? Mr Freddie XBox?

Yes, that's his name. Seriously? No.

'I've found a lot of people
don't really associate
Microsoft with XBox.

'When I look for their logo
on the box, I can see why.'

There's a very small one there.

You'd need quite good eyesight
to see that.

On the back, there's another
small logo saying Microsoft.

So here's a mega-company living off
past glory desperately
trying to reinvent themselves,

but they've become so uncool, they
don't even dare put their name on
their own products. Whatever next?

MUSIC: "Pump It"
by Black Eyed Peas.

# Ha ha haaaaa!

# Pump it... #

'Now, a games console is a bit of
technology I can relate to,
and it's big business.

'There are over 40 million
PlayStation 3s, over 50 million
XBox 360s and over 80 million Wiis.

So I've assembled a crack team
to help me decide
what the big questions are.'

Did I just get...killed?

'Vincent is something of
a kindred spirit,
as he's almost as stingy as I am.

'He's just got a very good deal
on a second-hand games console.'

So why did you buy it second-hand?

Because I wasn't going to
buy it brand new at all.

I'm not spending that much
on a computer console.

'We keep coming back to
the subject of price.'

How much Ps do they make a year?
How much Ps? Yeah. Profits?

Yeah, like, how much do they
actually make out of this?

Well, I think that's a very good
question. How much do you think
it costs to make a PlayStation 3?

I think it'd cost about £100.

'So how much profit are they making?

'The PlayStation 3 is
the most expensive console.

'It's at least £240.
How much are Sony getting?'

If Sony were a person, I think
they'd be kind of middle-class.

They're the same as 100
other anonymous bank workers.

They'd have a BMW.

Reliable elder statesman.

When Sony started life just after
the Second World War in Tokyo,

their first product was
an electric rice cooker.

But they made their name with tape
recorders and transistor radios.

By the beginning of
the 21st century,

they were making
all kinds of consumer
and professional electronics,

as well as owning
Columbia Studios and Sony Records.

PlayStation was first introduced
in 1994.

Not surprisingly,
I can't get them to tell me

how much it costs to make,
but I've found someone who will.

I'm really sorry about this...

but you're going to die.

'So, with a plan in my head

'and a kamikaze PS3 in my hand, I'm
clocking up the Air Miles again.'

I'm in Los Angeles, Californ-I-A,

and I'm just about to go
and meet a chap who, for a living,

takes apart pieces of technology
to their components and works out
how much they cost to make.

Let's have a look at the PlayStation.

'It was hard to see her lying
there on the operating table,

'but it would be a worthy end.'

OK, start.

My PlayStation is being completely
stripped to its fundamentals,

so that every chip, plate, diode,
fan or screw can be added up

and complete manufacturing
costs calculated.

Well, that's ruined, I mean,
look at the state of it.

This is ruined.
So, what did you find out about it?

Well, what we found out about
the PlayStation 3 was, in fact,

that it cost more to build than
they were selling it for.

'That wasn't what
I was expecting to hear.'

One would expect that,
if you're building something,

you're going to sell it for
more than you build it for.

A profit, in effect? Exactly.

And, by the way,
we looked at it several times
because we were in disbelief.

We thought this surely is not
possible, let's go back,

let's make sure
we've done our research,
our calculations correctly.

And, sure enough,
here was one where there was

a significant number of dollars
that they were basically

wrapping around each PlayStation
and shipping it out the door with.

Whoo-hoo!

There's over 4,000 individual bits,

and iSuppli have worked out
the cost of every single piece.

They estimate that the cost of all
these pieces put together is 805.

Now, when this was sold in the shops

when it first came out in 2006,
the price was 499.

Now, since it was launched
they've been trying to make it

cheaper to make, but they're still
losing 37 on each machine.

Now, they've sold 41 million
PlayStation 3s,

and if you work out all
the losses they've made,

it comes up at 3 billion losses
on 41 million consoles.

How on earth can they make that pay?

This Blu-ray drive alone
accounted for 107 of cost,

and actually you don't need
a Blu-ray player to play games.

'Blu-ray is just
the high-definition version of DVD.

'It shouldn't make
much difference to gaming

'except add a chunk of change to the
price, so what's it doing in a PS3?'

More research connected the PS3
to an old story about Sony,

a bloody battle which left them
bruised and humiliated.

The real video war isn't fought
against invaders from outer space,

it's battled out
on the high streets of Britain.

At stake,
a multi-million-pound industry.

The weapons?
Well, it's all a matter of format.

Once upon a time, when home video
was new, there were two

totally incompatible formats.

Betamax from Sony and VHS from JVC.

Video rental shops were a nightmare,

one side of the shop
for each rival format.

Two copies of each movie.

During the 1980s, the format war
raged, but two things happened.

JVC let other people make
VHS machines, making it cheaper,

and they found
a very lucrative market

which Sony wouldn't allow
onto Betamax.

Porn.

Home video had created
an explosion in the pants of
the adult video market.

Suddenly you could watch filth
in the privacy of your own home.

By the '90s, it was all over
for Sony's Betamax.

Flash forward 16 years,
and we've all got to get
new high-def DVD players. Whoopee!

But, hang on,
it's happened again,

there's two totally
incompatible formats.

Blu-ray from Sony
and HD DVD from Toshiba.

This time, Sony aren't
taking any chances,

so they smuggle a Blu-ray
player into our living rooms,

at great expense to themselves,
inside every PlayStation 3.

That's a start,
but just how many compromises
are Sony willing to make?

This is Los Angeles, Californ-i-ay.

It should be beautiful hot sunshine
and we should all be in bikinis
and trunks,

and look at it.

Luckily we're filming the next bit,
er, indoors.

'I'm going to ask the real
experts...' ..at a porn shoot.

Digital Playground have been
spearheading technology in smut

since 1993.

Their biggest indecent offering
had a budget of £7 million.

Faithful crew of the Sea Stallion,

I am about to lead you on
a perilous journey.

We're going to hunt down
and kill the most notorious and
dangerous of all pirates.

They should be able to tell me if
Sony have stuck to their principles

or if they've finally
cuddled up to the porn industry.

Lick it.

Hello. Hi, hello.

You must be Samantha? I am.
How are you?

Very well thank you, how are you?
What are we shooting today, then?

We're shooting our first
really girl-girl line

that we're just starting
with a new director. OK.

We're excited.

'I've just found out
I've got something in common

'with the star of tonight's action.'

The infamous superstar,
this is Riley Steele.

Hello. Hello, Riley. How are you?
My second name's Riley. Oh, really?

Yes.

'But I'm not here to make
small talk, I'm a professional,

'there are questions to be asked.'

Just how important do you think

the adult industry latching
onto something is... Sorry, I'm...
It's OK.

So, how important are the sex...
Sex, you see, I'm so...

Could you get sex off the brain? Stop
it, where do you think you're at?

Oh, geez, I'm just...
That's why I can't concentrate,

cos I know what's going on behind
me and... You're losing focus.

This is making you nervous. Your
palms, are you sweat...? Oh, geez.

'Oh, what the hell,
I'll just let her talk.'

Cos Sony would not allow adult
content to be put on Blu-ray,

so we were forced to go to HD
for a very short period,

I think just a few months.

Oh, right, so originally you...
you were on HD DVD? Absolutely.

In this battle between Blu-ray
and HD DVD... Huge battle.

First of all your company went
onto HD DVD because Sony wouldn't
let porn go onto Blu-ray?

Exactly, we couldn't get a licence,

we had to get permission from Sony,
they denied us, and then

as all the other adult studios
started following suit, doing HD,

Sony came around a few months later
and said, "You have our blessing."

And we jumped on it. Really?

It's all about content,
whether it's porn content,

whether it's, you know, content
from, let's say, Universal Studios,

if you don't have them on board,
it doesn't matter what

your format is, it doesn't matter
if it's technically superior -

if there's no content,
there's nothing to watch on it

because you don't have
an agreement with the studios,
you're not going to win that war.

They realised the mass markets
that they're going to miss out in

and how much money that could
be made by giving us the licence

and being paid, because, you know,
adult DVD is huge, you know.

Over 11... What do they say...
an 11 billion industry.

You know, if you're so pivotal
to the success,

do the manufacturers court you,
do they come and speak to you

and ask you to,
you know, adopt their formats?

Absolutely, absolutely.

You know, I can't... We've worked,
you know, kind of undercover

with some computer companies
that I really cannot tell,

state their names, but they'll do
a lot of testing with our products.

Without being public about it?
Without public knowledge.

Totally under the radar?
Yes, absolutely.

So, Sony, determined not to lose
another format war,

have dropped their principles on
the one hand to embrace pornography,

and, on the other, they've used
the PlayStation like a Trojan horse

to get a Blu-ray player
into 41 million houses.

It might have cost them
3 billion to do,

about £2 billion, but that's
the kind of money you have to be

prepared to gamble in the technology
game, and it really is a gamble.

Now they've won this war,
lots of other people are making

Blu-ray hardware
but they still have to pay Sony.

One cent on every blank disc sold,
9 for each Blu-ray player sold,

12 for each recorder, plus a cut
of all games and movies sold.

But, as we start downloading
stuff like movies more and more

and using DVDs less, no-one knows

if they'll get their money back
before Blu-ray is obsolete.

So now I know how much money
they're making out of these things,

um, it's amazing, isn't it?
To think that they, er,

they're actually giving
something away for free that you

probably wouldn't have normally
bought. So it just makes you think,

what is hiding in the other
pieces of technology that I own?

It's time to find out
about my phone.

Three things I wouldn't leave
the house without are my phone,

my wallet and some shoes on my feet.

The three things I take with me when
I leave my house are my phone...

And definitely my mobile. My phone.
Mobile phone.

Phone. Phone. Phone. Phone.
Mobile phone, definitely.

I'm excited to be
looking into mobile phones.

I think it's the most
important piece of technology
for virtually all of us.

The numbers of mobile phones
sold are staggering.

Nokia is the biggest, they sell well
over a million phones a day.

So, imagine my surprise
when I read this in the newspaper.

Nokia boss warns staff they're
standing on burning platform.

I've just found out that Nokia, the
number one phone brand in the world,

are in serious difficulties,
and so I feel that, as a user

of the very good 6330 classic,
I owe it to my phone and

to myself and to other
people like me to get to
the bottom of the problems.

If Nokia was a person,
he'd be quite old,

like, 90, or something.

Just doesn't have the best stuff.

Used to be cool when I was 14.

So, I guess it's kind of like...

Eminem.

Back in 1865, Nokia weren't
making mobile phones.

They started life making
rubber shoes and toilet paper.

By the late '60s,
they'd diversified from bog roll

into electrics. Why not?

And then this little thing
came along.

A new system goes under the rather
prosaic name of cellular radio.

What it provides is this -
a phone you can take anywhere.

One study suggests that between
three and four million of us

in Britain will have these
by the end of the century.

But it wasn't three or four million,
it was 30 million, and rocketing.

No one saw how fast it would grow.

The networks thought
one in 12 of us might like to
have a mobile eventually.

Which of the following best
describes how interested

you would be in the idea of having
this new personal telephone?

Quite interested.

But someone thought
they could do better.

HE HUMS RINGTONE

So they started churning out phones
for every type of person.

5110, which was the first phone,
was used with exchangeable covers.

7650, which was
our first camera phone.

5140, which is an example
of the robust phone.

3110... 5800...

As the number of mobile phones

exploded around the world,
Nokia held the number one spot.

So, how can a company which sells
over a million phones a day

be in trouble?

I'm heading for Nokia's biggest
factory to see what I can learn.

This is an example of just how fast
the pace of change is.

We're about ten minutes away
from the biggest mobile phone

factory in India, the second
biggest mobile phone factory

in the entire world,
and this is just...

you couldn't be more rural,
could you?

I'm amazed we got in, actually,
the security is incredible.

They check the serial numbers of
all our mobile phones to make sure

that we don't swap them for a
newer one while we're walking round.

The plant goes for 24 hours a day,
seven days a week,

and there's three shifts
with over 2,000 people on a shift.

Since 2006 they've produced
400 million - 400 MILLION -
mobile phones.

We can only show you here.

We can't film the next process,
whatever it might be.

I didn't get any clues as to why
Nokia are in trouble until

after I left the factory.

My inquiries lead me
to Delhi Central Market, where
I find an impostor.

So this one...
this one looks like mine.

This is obviously a Nokia style one.

Yeah. That is a copy of your phone,
exact copy.

Well, actually, it's a better model,
it's the higher model than mine.

It's a better model!
I can't believe it.

'These are shanzhai,
or bandit, phones,
made in small factories in China.

'These are lookalike copies, which
can be churned out so quickly that

'sometimes they're
in the shops before the real
thing is even released.'

Let's see what the features are.

It takes two SIM cards,
does yours take two SIM cards? No.

Do you have an MP4 player? No.

Does it have an... 'It might be
plastic, have no warranty,

'be prone to the battery exploding,

'but it's got more features
than mine

'and it's a quarter of the price.'

And so what kind of a Nokia
could you get for 1,800 rupees?

You wouldn't get one. Really? Yeah.

'But all the brands are here.'

So, what would you have,
the official BlackBerry,

or five BlackBerry-style phones
for the same price?

'So, why is Nokia the one
in such trouble?

'I remembered what a ten-year-old
girl had once told me.'

My grandma has one of those,
and she's getting a new phone,

and it's an iPhone.
Beat that, it's my grandma.

'The cause of Nokia's problems
is right under my nose.'

'And ever since the iPhone
came out in 2007 that really

'revolutionised, er, kind of
the way we look at phones.'

The iPhone isn't necessarily
the best phone ever,

but what it is
is a computer in your pocket.

Now, you're not just
connected to people,

you're connected to everything,
including loads of apps.

Want to check snow conditions?

The iPhone ad didn't even
mention making phone calls -

it went big on telling us
all about the apps.

There's an app for that.
What really made the iPhone
a big success wasn't just

that the hardware was very
elegant and easy to use,

it was this app store which had come
along and revolutionised the way
you looked at a cell phone,

because now
you had this ability for one, two,

three dollars, or free, to run...
games, er, any number of things.

All these apps are brilliant fun
for the user

and an absolute cash cow for Apple,
because every time you buy an app,

Apple takes 30 percent, plus they
get money from any advertising on
the apps.

The iPhone. It's the gift that
keeps giving - to Apple, that is.

It's no longer about spending
300 on the equipment once

and then it's done.

So, that's why Nokia are in trouble,

they've been left behind in
the smartphone revolution.

But I've still got some unanswered
questions. This is the most

popular app on the iPhone -
Facebook - yet it's free,

and there isn't even
any advertising on it.

So if they're giving it away
for nothing,

how come the brand is worth £30
billion? What's their secret?

'I've been avoiding this for years.
Oh, well.'

As you know, I think Facebook
is a waste of time,

it's just a stupid thing for people
who've got nothing better to do.

However, I know you're on it
and so I would like to set up

my own page to see what it's like.

What is it, facebook.com or
something? Yeah, it should come up.

Oh, so it's one of your favourites.

It's actually gone onto
my profile. So...

"Currently hates DHL more
than anything in the world."

HE SNORTS

# It's like gold dust... #

Facebook as a person? Annoying.

It would probably be getting
bought drinks.

It's someone that everyone
you know knows,

so you have to associate with them.

But really, left to yourself, you'd
probably not hang out with them.

Secondary school, university,
employer. What's all this?

This is really... You know, why do
they need to know about that?

So you can find your friends.

Philosophy... Religion.

You see, the idea of putting all
this personal information in...

it just makes me feel
really nervous.

'As I'm uploading my profile,
I can see little ads on
the right-hand side.

'Surely they're not enough to
bring in this vast amount of dosh?'

'There's only one thing for it.

'I'm going to have to
hit the road and ask them
how come they're so rich.

'Here's what I know so far.'

In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg
was a student at Harvard University.

One drunken evening, he created
an application called Facemash,

by hacking into
the university database.

Originally, he wanted to compare
students' ID photos

to farm animals so the students
could vote on who was hotter.

He soon dropped the animals and
compared one student to another.

Although humiliating and elitist,
it was a smash hit.

So, after fighting off various
lawsuits brought against him

for security breaches
and plagiarism,

Zuckerberg released Facebook.

Four years later,
he became the world's youngest
self-made billionaire.

In some ways, this has been
the Facebook revolution.

These days, Facebook is connecting
600 million people around the world,

and rising.

Just travelling south out
of San Francisco at the moment.

So, this is it -
Facebook headquarters.

Looks a bit like some
sort of college campus

somewhere in the leafy boondocks.

'I'm meeting Chris Cox,
Zuckerberg's right-hand man.

'He's been out of nappies for
over a week now!'

So this the entrance to Facebook,

this is our headquarters.

People walk in and then
our visitors can write on the wall,

which is a throwback to
the original wall on the profile,

where you could write
whatever you wanted. Oh, right.

Al Gore. Al Gore. Kanye West
was here. People want to come see
what's going on here.

'I'm actually really close to
the richest person I've never met.'

In the meeting room there
is actually Mark Zuckerberg.

'I wasn't allowed to actually
talk to him, but I could gaze
through the window.'

Man of the Year 2010,
Mark Zuckerberg, simple as that.

What would you say is the secret
of the success of Facebook?

I think the secret is that
the product we're building

is about people. It's connectedness.

So it's creating a company,
a product, a brand,

that keys into a sort of human need.
Yeah.

So how does Facebook make money?

What we've created is
a really simple way

for marketers to put stuff
in front of people

according to some really
basic information,

like where they live and what
they've listed they care about.

So Facebook can sort through all
that personal information

I'd typed in to deliver me
to just the right person

who wants to flog me something.

That's why it's worth so much money
- because if you advertise

in a magazine and you want to
reach classic car fans

who are into Arctic Monkeys, it's
a pretty hit-and-miss business.

But on Facebook... Bingo!
So if that's how it works online,

how come there's no advertising
on Facebook's iPhone app?

At the moment, there's no
advertising. What's going on there?

It's not about making money.

We're trying to build
this platform where everyone can
share stuff with people.

Eventually, surely,
it'll be too tempting.

Someday... Million and tens
of hundreds of millions
of new customers

on their phones all the time,
in India and China and Africa

and South America. Come on, people
will be beating a path to your door

saying, "Come on, we want to do
a massive advertising campaign

"in India, can we use
your platform?"

You're going to say yes. I think
one day there will probably

be some advertising experience
on the mobile phone.

But at the end of the day,
that's not what most people are
asking for right now.

I guess nothing's really free
in this weird world of
technology brands.

You get the software, but they get
your details to target ads at you.

It's the new way of making
gazillions,

and these guys are the new
gazillionaires.

I mean, in a way, they are like
rock stars.

They're young,
they've got pots of money,

they're doing something that
people around the world

are completely fascinated by.

The next morning,
I've had a thought.

There's another young company
just half an hour
down the road from here.

They invented the idea
of making money by doing stuff
for me for free.

But they don't ask me for any
personal information,

and yet they make
22 times the amount of money
from advertising that Facebook do.

Young, like, 20.

He would own a Ferrari.

Someone cool and trustworthy.

And generally...nice to you.

But with the vague sense

that they might be, you know,

stealing your money.

LAUGHTER

If you put a search into Google,

is it basically a load of people
with encyclopaedias and stuff

and telephone pages, and they just
go through and find numbers

and websites, and type them
very, very quickly?

Yeah, probably not. This is what
I know about Google so far.

In the mid '90s, young eggheads
Larry Page and Sergey Brin

met at Stanford University.

This was still the early days
of the internet.

There were only around 40 million
people online worldwide.

There were already a couple
of search sites,

but they were reading and hand
indexing everything on the internet.

Larry and Sergei developed
a way for the computer

to automatically search and
organise the information.

If you printed out the information,
it would be over 70 miles high.

And we can search that for you
in half a second

and give you back exactly
what you wanted.

The only problem was,
they hadn't figured out how
to make money out of it.

We were always confident we would
find a way to make money.

Even though we didn't know
exactly what it was.

In 12 years, Google has become
the most visited website on Earth.

Their mission statement is to
organise all the world's information

and make it accessible to everyone.

'They're quite keen
to organise me, as well.'

This is one of the...wa-hey!
Hang on.

'But I am allowed to be filmed
riding one of the Google bikes

'through the Google umbrellas,

'and I'm allowed to see all the
sculptures and volleyball courts.

'I'm due to interview Google's
first lady, Marissa Mayer,

'one of Fortune's 50 most
powerful women in the world.

'I want to ask how they can
make such vast sums.

'But ten minutes before
the interview,
she drops out, due to illness.

'None of the other 20,000
employees of Google

'are available to give me
any juicy secrets,

'so the PR guy volunteers himself.'

Are you a Googler? I am a Googler.

And new people are Nooglers.

New people are... Nooglers.
With an N.

What about if you've
left the company?

Then you're an Exoogler.

'But I don't really think this is
the secret of Google's wealth.

'So I'm heading home.

'I use Google's Chrome browser
to Google the airport,

'print out a map from Google Maps,
and then I Google "Google UK".

'I check out the managing director
on Google's YouTube,

'write some notes about him
on Google Docs,

'I could Gmail him from
an Android phone if I had one

'to ask for an interview, but I
haven't. So I use the Nokia to call,

'and all the time I'm thinking
Google are everywhere.'

We're not really outside,
we're inside,

that's just how crazy they are,
these...Googlists.

'So at last I can ask how
Google have earned

'so much more than Facebook without
asking for any personal info.'

So when you search for something
on Google you will sometimes see,

on some of the results pages, ads.

Yeah. And, erm, we make money
when advertisers

get clicked on when they're
advertising to a user.

The amounts that they pay

for each click-through are... What
kind of amounts are we talking?

Er, it's usually pennies,

but we have billions of searches
across the world every day,

so those pennies mount up over time
as we reach lots of businesses.

So what information do you need
about me when I'm doing that search?

Sometimes I think
people believe that, er,

Google and companies like us
need tons of information about you

personally, and that's actually
not the case at all.

When you type "plumber" in
Birmingham, we know somebody typed

plumber in Birmingham,
we know what time they typed it

and we know where that person is,
so that's all we know,

and we know also what
was clicked on at the end
of that search result.

But they are storing that search
along with all the world's

Google searches and analysing it,
and not just searches -

information from all those
other websites they own.

The big Google boss has said...

"This information could
be used to minutely analyse

"and predict human behaviour."

How powerful does this make them?

I know just who to ask.
A bloke down the pub.

My own view, my analysis of Google
is it's an adolescent.

We've yet to see the giant
emerge from Google.

So, what makes Google so powerful?

Well, Google has a natural,
well, almost monopoly, over

the channels between people
and the internet

and all of the commercial
organisations

and government organisations
that use the internet.

So it's the doorway,

it's the portal into these vast
informational resources.

Now, Google controls that,
and the person,

the organisation that controls
that doorway controls everything.

'It seems to me that
I've finally found the secret

'of the technology superbrand. It's
all about controlling the doorway.

'Google controls my doorway
to the internet

'so they can analyse what
I search for and how I react
to what comes back.'

What is in our heads has
incredible commercial value.

You can imagine. We know what
a billion people are thinking.

Sony's doorway is
the PlayStation - games, movies,

music, everything which goes in
or out means ker-ching for Sony.

That's why they
can afford to sell it for less
than it costs them to make it.

Same thing with the XBox.

The iPhone. Facebook.

Nokia are in trouble because
they're mostly making gizmos,

and that's not where
the smart money is.

But Google,
Google dwarfs the others.

I can see why their phone platform,
Android, is so important to them.

You need to be able to know not just
what people are looking for, but

where they are, what their movements
are, where they're visiting,

what their interrelationships
and associations are.

The only way you can do that is
by having a phone platform.

So, Google can bring all of that
together with other sources to

create a sort of
unprecedented snapshot of you

as an individual as you go about
your daily business, where you go,

depending on what services
you've switched on.

I've got to admit that this iPhone
is an amazing piece of kit,

and Facebook and Google
and the rest of it,

but now I know that they're more
than just phones and games consoles,

social networks and search engines,
they're little electronic shops

connecting me not just to
my friends and family, but to anyone

who wants to sell me things, I'll be
sticking to the 63-03 Classic.

After all, it's a classic.

Well, at least
until me next upgrade.

Next time I'll be swapping my
jumpers for the fashion megabrands.

I want to know how they get us
to fork out so much money.

It's about £100 to hire it.
To hire it? Yeah.

How do they get us to pay extra
for knackered jeans?

So I'll dive into the frenzy
of fashion, from Adidas

to Abercrombie and Fitch.

I'll attend the A-list events
to ask why we wear

the fashion superbrands.

So, basically, we're doing it to get
a shag? Yeah.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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