Amid the Hype, iPhone Backlash Building?
7:51 am, July 2nd, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Image via AppleInsider
By any measure of event marketing, Apple’s rollout of its next-gen iPhone 3G has already been a success, with stories having run in every major media outlet, from Time to Fortune to BusinessWeek, CNN, The New York Times as well as on Internet blog sites large and small, covering the phone’s worldwide debut on July 11.
Both Apple and AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive US wireless carrier and distribution partner, have posted videos hoping to get customers iReady for the big day and, according to a story in Fortune, reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt says their approaches couldn’t be more different.
The Apple video, shot in the company’s signature stark, simple style, calmly lays out all the feature-based reasons you should believe that owning anything less than an iPhone may leave you unprepared to face the challenges of living in the modern world. As Elmer-DeWitt writes, “It’s hard to watch it to the end and not harbor iPhone 3G lust.”
At&T’s video, on the other hand, calls to mind the chaos and frustration likely to attend your effort to get your hands on one of the new phones on launch day, recommending that you may well want to visit an AT&T store in advance of July 11 to get your papers in order and your background check, uh, credit check out of the way to minimize hassles and delay when you come back to get the phone and have it activated.
As the countdown to launch day nears, more and more people are likely to be liveblogging the event and the pent-up demand for the device will continue to build. Some, however, are thinking more along the lines of Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, like Dameon Welch-Abernathy at The PhoneBoy Blog, who says, “Get iReady to be iScrewed.”
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Retail Stores, iPhone | Comment on this article
When I read the headline I thought you were going to speak to the growing backlash among prospective buyers about the price of the monthly data plans, which you MUST purchase. You are effectively paying $40 MORE for the new phone, but you do it in $10 chunks over 2 years.
Or perhaps the backlash that is happening over current iPhone users not being able to easily upgrade to the new iphone.
I DO like the AT&T video though, just shows you the complete mismatch between those two organizations and how when people complain about the phone, they are actually complaining about the service. I personally think that by not allowing people to activate at home, they are IDIOTS! I mean really stupid, but I understand the business dynamics that exist there.
Aaron H, on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 am
It took me a while to figure why the link to Appple’s video redicted me to Amazon…
Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, on July 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
The link to the Apple video is broken. It links to http://www.appple.com/iphone/guidedtour instead of http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour.
Gijs, on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I still have no idea how I am going to get an iPhone 3G next Friday (in the UK). I really don’t want to go to an O2 store or Carophone Warehouse.
The marketing comms has been great. The actual info about current users need to do has been very poor.
Jon Moss, on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Link fixed. Thanks for the heads’ up, Gijs.
Lonnie Lazar, on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm