White.

Apple owns white. It is the one company that can honestly say it owns a colour; think about it. When you first saw the XBox 360 (I can only assume the “X” stands for “eXtreme), I’m sure one of your first thoughts was ”ppphhhhtttt ... they ripped off Apple“. In some respects, you’d be right. Electronics have always typically been plagued with dark grey-tones, save obvious colourful highlights and Nintendo consoles. It wasn’t until the iPod became mass-market that companies realized that electronics didn’t have to be black or grey to be taken seriously.

Ever since then, you can watch as companies slowly and stealthily add white to their palette. Even Apple ditched a lot of grey and colour to focus primarily on white; the original iMacs where VERY colourful and later became known as the eMac (bottom left-hand corner of image), clocked entirely in white (they have since been discontinued). You will also notice that Dell’s new line of Inspiron laptops (top right-hand corner of image) feature a white bevel around the screen. Obviously, not just computer manufacturers have adopted the ”white way of life“; many electronics manufacturers have released white MP3 players and cellphones. Take a look at the recently released Creative Zen Vision M (lower left side of image); I don’t have to say anything, we’re all thinking the same thing.

You may have also noticed that Nintendo, the underdog of the home console arena, has adopted the colour white for their recently-released (and purchased by yours truly) DS Lite (middle of right side of image) and up-coming GameCube-successor, Wii (top left-hand corner of image).

But can Apple really own a colour? Well, legally and realistically, no, but as far as our society is considered, they pretty much do. If I were to show you my DS Lite, the first thing out of your mouth would be ”Is that the new iPod?“. It’s unfair for other electronics manufacturers, but it’s true; Apple owns white.