Are you getting jazzed by the iPhone hype? How about all the coverage of people standing in lines since Monday for something that won’t go on sale before Friday night? Or the exposés on the front-liners who aren’t even there to buy an iPhone – they are just there for the notoriety of being first in line!
Never mind that the the iPhone doesn’t even allow you to replace its battery and forces you to sign up with their chosen carrier (full features here – missing features here), people will be shelling out $600 for a phone and probably even more once some of them get on eBay!
Steven Jobs officially announced the iPhone in his keynote this past winter and we can’t help but admire how this whole show unfolds; pure marketing genius. You can’t buy this kind of PR exposure. It’s not about the phone (well, OK, it is) but more about how it is all being rolled out, or not. There is no gigantic unveiling with hot air balloons or simultaneous worldwide openings. Simply a product being made available in stores starting tonight. All the hype is being consumer generated and consumer driven and thanks to the power of todays technology it is spreading farther and faster to more people than anything ever before.
Steven Jobs is smiling!
On a related note: check out his keynote address* if you haven’t already seen it . Not so much for the content but to observe his style and delivery. Notice that he is almost always on the move but stops when he requires impact. See the use of large and simple screen displays allowing for the whole message to be absorbed. And the dialog is in layman’s terms; no techno jargon that only geeks will get. No, this was addressed to everyone because he wants everyone to have an iPhone.
Of course there are arguments to be made against some or all of that, and we are aware of this, but for this exercise let’s look at the good in this and learn from it.
* iTunes requires a free subscription and the iTunes package to view the video. We are offering this link because it is the official source. Several other links exist as well.
I find it weird looking at the US launch of the iPhone – from here in the UK.
This device is SO far behind the curve, compared to a lot of handsets on sale and owned already in the UK.
The camera is quite low spec, and the absence of 3G is something of a joke imho.
BUT the iTunes connectivity is great – as is the look / design.
……..I don’t know. Apple’s Marketing pull is the 3rd wonder of the world when you consider the mind-share they get.
You know in the UK, its mainstream to have:
* Video Camera
* Camera
* Camera zoom
* Infra-red (IrDA)
* 3G
* Bluetooth
* GPRS
* Sat Nav
* Email access
* Instant Email
* Picture Messaging (MMS)
* Mobile TV
* FM Radio
* Audio player
* Games
* Video player
* Video calling
* Personal organiser
* Java enabled
…on a phone.
Small wonder that (an improved) iPhone won’t be launched in the UK until October.
…I’m damn jealous of the iTunes connectivity though. Did I mention that already ?
Chris @ rawstylus.wordpress.com
I hear you loud and clear Chris! I have an agent in Holland and this past summer he was among the first to hook up via UTMS HSDPA over there and actually used our application from his HTC Tytyn handset. All I could say was: “You’re doing what? With what? From where?”.
He is pushing us hard to put out a mobile version of ReLP and we want to be among the first but couldn’t even test it here locally if we wanted too! I’m lucky if I fall into a 3G zone when driving around Montreal. Not to mention our prehistoric data plans here in Canada which are the total opposite of the ‘unlimited access’ plans available in Europe and the USA. They cost a fortune when compared to our voice plans.
Thanks for dropping by. Don’t be a stranger!
Cheers!
Very nice finding chris! All these people at apple have proved again that its “not” the product that sells, its the “salesmanship”. They are going the mcdonalds way!
At the end of the day, anything bought satisfies human ego, and that is exactly these people are doing – looks, new stuff – even though everyone knows no one makes better “phones” compared to nokia.
Nice post chris! I think I’ll get hooked up to your blog now.