After the most excruciatingly PR managed hype in recent years the iPhone launched to huge critical acclaim and well... reasonable sales.I like Apple. I like their attitude and products, and their focus on customer first. But with iPhone they just haven't got it right. Yes its usable, yes its brilliantly functional, but it has no 3G, apparently can't send picture messages, and is only available on the 'hopeless outside of a major city'* O2 network.
Seriously, its a good move for O2 to have it first, but I know plenty of people for whom the ONLY reason they aren't getting an iPhone is because they don't want to be stuck on O2.
A big question for me though, is just how much was the PR directly influenced by Apple/O2? All the hyperbole being written in every publication around was SO positive and SO uncritical that it felt totally fake. Rather like when the Playstation 3 launched to a reception of "Its like the 360 only with an High definition DVD player no one wants yet at nearly double the cost?" after a period of stupidly inaccurate hype that suggested a new apocalypse for all before it.
Did any of you feel the hype was too stage managed? Or did it match what you thought of the product?
Source: The Register
Image from infoworld
*This is from the experience of my family and friends.
2 comments:
I've found that after all the positive build up, I'm now only hearing negative things.
I think people have come to assume we know it's got a lot of good stuff in it, from all the hype before hand, so what we're now seeing is wall of negativity.
I don't know if this is just my experience, but it does seem to be facing a (possibly unfair) backlash, which makes it just as hard to analyse if it's worth the money than when all the press was suspiciously positive.
Absolutely.
I think thats a natural reaction when something is only praised; much like when something is only slagged off we look for the positive.
Its a human thing, and one of the reasons why uncritical fake PR can be dangerous; as it makes us look for the flaws instead of trusting what we read.
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