Anybody who thinks Apple can’t innovate should look in awe at the fecal hurricane whipped up by the company’s unorthodox iPhone X marketing plan.
By giving popular YouTubers early access to the next-gen iPhone, and allowing them to “scoop” the old-school journalists traditionally granted such preferential treatment, Cupertino upended the typical review cycle.
Apple apparently bruised a few fragile egos in the process. Frankly, it’s hilarious watching the ensuing media meltdown.
Typically, Apple hands out review units to big-name publications and tech bloggers, setting a review embargo date and time. At the appointed hour, everyone launches their reviews simultaneously in a fusillade of finely tuned criticism, like so many archers in a Game of Thrones battle.
Everybody plays by the rules. Everybody stays happy.
Apple breaks the rules with iPhone X reviews
This time, however, Apple had the temerity to show off the iPhone X to a handful of video bloggers — and apparently gave them permission to upload their first impressions Monday, prior to the lifting of the review embargo on Tuesday.
Some old-school journos — including Backchannel’s Steven Levy, one of the precious few to get his hands on the original iPhone back in 2007 — also got a pass around the traditional review embargo.
The immediate result? The YouTubers’ mostly uncritical hands-on impressions got the jump on journalists at The New York Times and other publications. And they racked up hundreds of thousands of views in the process.
Meanwhile, outlets including The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post got just a day to quickly crank out crash reviews (or not) before the embargo lifted. Other publications such as TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, Mashable and iMore got the phone for a week.
The vloggers also beat perennial Apple watchers like Daring Fireball to the punch.
The delayed result? Daring Fireball’s John Gruber got sarcastic about it, dissing High Snobeity’s iPhone X video. “Thank god Apple seeded these insightful critics with a review unit,” Gruber wrote.
Then he took aim at Fashion magazine’s video. And then at Axios’ Animoji-centered impressions.
“Thank god Apple seeded Mike Allen with an iPhone X review unit,” Gruber wrote. “Such great insight from his fucking nephew, the emoji expert.”
Next thing you know, Gruber himself was getting trolled for posting a photo of the iPhone X.
“Thank god Apple seeded this talented product photographer with a review unit,” tweeted Scary Equality.
Thank god Apple seeded this talented product photographer with a review unit.
— Philipp (@phppco) October 31, 2017
Lighting a media firestorm
The repercussions of Apple’s new rules for iPhone X reviews spread from there.
Recode wondered about Apple’s moves, calling this “a curious new launch strategy.”
“These videos, published by channels including Booredatwork.com, UrAvgConsumer, Soldier Knows Best, and sneaker/streetwear blog HighSnobiety, are a little braggy, mostly positive (“man, it’s pretty good!”) and don’t feel like gadget reviews at all,” Recode wrote. “For many of us, they won’t replace the utility of more sophisticated reviews, which are supposed to tell us whether the iPhone X is worth our $1,000. They’re not great videos, frankly.”
Then YouTuber Juan Carlos Bagnell took issue with Recode’s tone and called out “institutionalized racism.” (You can watch Bagnell’s nearly 10-minute rant below.)
Apple PR: A sneaky new strategy
The most cynical explanation for Apple’s iPhone X review strategy would be to liken it to a Hollywood studio hoping to blunt criticism of a turkey about to land in theaters. Movie studios demand that reviewers hold their poison pens until the release date of certain cinematic turds. Or they simply decline to screen movies for critics in advance, hoping to salvage an opening weekend rather than face bad box office receipts due to withering reviews.
I don’t think that’s what’s going on here, though. I think Apple is just showing how savvy it is when it comes to managing media in the 21st century — by borrowing another Hollywood trick.
These days, movie studios love to give excitable fans sneak peeks at certain genre films, encouraging them to tweet early and often, and otherwise spread the love via social networks. It’s a proven method for generating precious word-of-mouth buzz.
Apple aped this routine by giving YouTube stars, who are undoubtedly less jaundiced than tech journalists, an early look at the iPhone X. Once again, Cupertino is all about disruption.
Apple is more than tech — it’s a lifestyle
Apple tilted in this direction with the unveiling of the Apple Watch. The company invited tons of fashion bloggers to the event, making it a little less tech and a little more lifestyle.
With the iPhone X reviews, Apple doubled down on this approach. The goal certainly is to grab the attention of consumers who don’t necessarily read geeky blogs like TechCrunch and Daring Fireball (or Cult of Mac, for that matter).
Now, some of those jaundiced journalists now plan to withhold their own iPhone X reviews. They call the 24-hour window between getting their demo units and the lifting of Apple’s review embargo inadequate.
“Yes, I have the iPhone X, but I’m spending more time with it before publishing a review. Stay tuned,” wrote The New York Times’ Brian X. Chen.
https://twitter.com/bxchen/status/925367853666091008
Time will tell if disgruntled reviewers who take a few extra days to form their opinions (and hone their words) will unleash passive-aggressive hell on Apple for leaving them out of the loop, at least momentarily.
Given the strong reviews so far, even the ones rushed out by traditional reviewers, that seems unlikely. (Certainly my former Wired colleague Chen will play it straight.)
More Apple innovation
Ultimately, Apple’s iPhone X reviews strategy looks brilliant — a cunning subversion of the tech media machine. It’s also the latest proof that Apple is a nerdy tech company stuffed inside a massive corporation wrapped inside an invincible fashion and lifestyle brand. It’s a multi-billion-dollar Turducken.
Right now, the iPhone X’s $1,000 price tag and limited supply mean not everyone can have the “smartphone of the future.” That means it can’t be a truly ubiquitous device. Not yet, anyway.
But with its marketing scheme, Apple is venturing far beyond the fanboy with iPhone X. It’s wooing a new generation of users, who don’t care about traditional news cycles or even traditional tech news publications.
And if the social media strategy doesn’t hook them, the animated poo Animoji will.
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender.
He’s a San Francisco-based writer and editor specializing in technology and culture. He loves his iPhone, hates Siri, and appreciates any hardware that combines form and function.
Prior to Cult of Mac, he juggled words and ideas as culture editor at Wired.com, homepage editor at TechTV, news product manager at NBCi, copy editor at PC World, reporter at The (Hayward) Daily Review and editor in chief of EveryBody’s News in Cincinnati.
He earned a bachelor of general studies degree with a journalism certificate from the University of Cincinnati. While in school, he worked as the entertainment editor of The News Record and as editor in chief of Clifton Magazine.
He’s also a bass player, who’s recorded and performed around the United States with Those Darn Accordions, The Electric Boogie Dawgz and The Mad Maggies. When not writing, editing or laying down bass lines, he plays darts and serves on the board of the San Francisco Darts League.
19 responses to “Why Apple short-circuited the media machine for iPhone X reviews”
Could it be because these blogs are aimed at the people that Apple are going after. The Social Media entrenched consumers who have a quick 5 minutes to watch fun-cool “ad” type review, rather than an in-depth technical review. Apple ain’t dumb ya know!
Absolutely.
Calculator failure says otherwise
Fixed in iOS 11.2…
not fixed in 3 previous released bad testing indicates lack of attention to critical stuff..hence massive leaks
Stop trolling. I’ll just block you.
block then
Happily, d**chebag.
Notice how they didn’t do with with the 8’s, they know exactly what they’re doing. This is a sure fire way to sell more units making the X look like the better phone.
“But with its marketing scheme, Apple is venturing far beyond the fanboy with iPhone X. It’s wooing a new generation of users”
No it’s not. All of the YouTube “reviews” I watched were existing iPhone users. I’d much rather see what a respected tech site thinks of a product than some vlogger who will say anything for some free swag.
Yup iPhone marching toward single digit market share, higher prices will speed that march up
All the while, Apple is marching toward triple digit profit share.
As anyone in economics: Market Share always trumps profit share
So, how does that explain how Apple became the most valuable company in human history?
Apple always has a small but relevant market share, controlling the high end of each market they play in, and skimming of most of the profits.
They haven’t . MSFT alone had a market cap of 620B in1999 add in Inflation and that is 925B and less liabilities than Apple in 2017
Very nice article. I have a theory, Apple did that because of despair.
And I Have a theory about why you posted that comment
It stands to reason that Apple would want to make an end run around tech media websites when sites like The Verge have become such blatant anti-Apple trolls.
(sic) Right now, the iPhone X’s $1,000 price tag and limited supply mean not everyone can have the “smartphone of the future, ehh! exactly what is futuristic about it? that is what Apple want to put in folks heads, the only thing futuristic is the price there is nothing this phone does that others can’t.