Did Apple make a PR/marketing mistake with iPhone Launch?
January 18th, 2007 by Doug
Did Apple make a PR/marketing mistake the launch of the iPhone? At least one writer thinks so.
Mike Elgan of Computerworld has a story online today titled “How Steve Jobs Blew His iPhone Keynote.” I’ll let you go directly to the site to read the whole story, but Elgan’s main points of contention are (with my comments):
- Expectations are too high for the iPhone because it won’t be out for 6 months. Anything less than the best product in the history of the universe
- Jobs raised Wall St. expectations too high– for the same reason, I suppose
- Competitors have a six-month head start. I’m a little skeptical that anyone else will come up with something better in six months, but there is a chance at a lower-priced, lesser version on a different carrier (I think Verizon and Sprint are eager to compete with Cingualr, Apple’s carrier, here).
- Jobs undermined Apple TV hype: this other product, whatever you think of it, was totally buried by the iPhone announcement, left as an afterthought.
- Jobs puts iPod sales at risk. There are several reasons why the iPod will not become obsolete because of iPhone; small storage capacity, not everyone is readyfor etc all-in-one devices, .– but the fact that it can act as a small-capacity iPod does have a cannibalistic ring to it.
- Jobs wrecked Cisco talks. Cisco owns the iPhone trademark, and was talking to Apple about a settlement, but Apple went out and announced without an agreement. I’m not sure if this will last as an impediment, but Cisco is a more formidable trademark foe than most.
Did Steve Jobs really blow it? I don’t know, but these factors, along with the theory that Jobs may have wanted to distract from options backdating woes, are food for thought for any PR person planning a product launch.
(Disclosure: Computerworld is a Topaz client, though this writer is not a member of the account team).
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Marketing, PR, Predictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Interesting post. I am not an Apple guy whatsoever, but there is finally an Apple product I feel I “need” to have. (I really don’t and most likely come to my senses)
I believe your last bullet point is the most important – you really should have naming rights locked up before you publicly launch a product….
Overall though, he did an amazing job of drawing attention to Apple in a most difficult time. Based anecdotally on my reading of Websites and consuming mainstream coverage – that news made CES a sideshow…
January 19th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Who cares, they are apple. They can get away with screwing up. That is what happens when you have an almost religious fan base.
January 19th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I have to agree that Apple totally overshadowed CES with that announcement. I spoke with people on the floor of CES that morning (I was not there, alas) and while CES did not figuratively shut down for the keynote, it was unquestionably the #1 topic.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Did Apple screw up? Well, how many stock option backdating articles were written after the iPhone announcement? Did Apple do this on purpose to keep people’s minds off of that topic? Apple is pretty good about communications, I find it hard to believe that they would make these types of mistakes.