Did Apple really over-hype the iPhone?

[Lips2000]

IMHO: No.

Reasoning:

Think about what Apple actually did to promote the iPhone.

Steve Jobs gave a keynote address and introduced the iPhone in January to a group of techies and journalists at Mac World. To be expected. I mean, where should of he introduced it?

Then there was a single commercial (Hello ad) that ran for about a week during the Superbowl. I think I actually saw the commercial one time on TV.

Nothing from Apple for the next 3 months until the iPhone commercials (a grand total of 4 spots) started showing up in late May and early June. And, to my knowledge, that is all the marketing Apple has done for the iPhone. Now, before you jump up and down and shout: "What about the "Intro" video and the "10 things" video?" keep in mind what they actually were and who they were intended for and how you watched them. Marketing, absolutely! But "hype"? I don't think demonstrating a set of features in real-time on a video qualifies as "hype".

Now I grant you, Steve did a few press interviews (very rare for him BTW) during the week of Mac World but that was mostly due to the demand from the press for more info re: iPhone.

The rest of the "hype" has been generated by the press, geeks, bloggers and forums like this one. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but Apple, as a company, has done little promotion considering the buzz this product has generated.

Just getting tired of everyone blaming Apple for the hype when Apple has done very little to promote the iPhone themselves.

Mark

P.S. - For the record: I do not drink the Apple Kool-Aid. I am an MCSE from way back and have an iPod (but not for long).

 

[wjp09]

I don't think so at all. The media hyped the iPhone.

 

[ps49556n]

IMHO: No.

Reasoning:

Think about what Apple actually did to promote the iPhone.

Steve Jobs gave a keynote address and introduced the iPhone in January to a group of techies and journalists at Mac World. To be expected. I mean, where should of he introduced it?

Then there was a single commercial (Hello ad) that ran for about a week during the Superbowl. I think I actually saw the commercial one time on TV.

Nothing from Apple for the next 3 months until the iPhone commercials (a grand total of 4 spots) started showing up in late May and early June. And, to my knowledge, that is all the marketing Apple has done for the iPhone. Now, before you jump up and down and shout: "What about the "Intro" video and the "10 things" video?" keep in mind what they actually were and who they were intended for and how you watched them. Marketing, absolutely! But "hype"? I don't think demonstrating a set of features in real-time on a video qualifies as "hype".

Now I grant you, Steve did a few press interviews (very rare for him BTW) during the week of Mac World but that was mostly due to the demand from the press for more info re: iPhone.

The rest of the "hype" has been generated by the press, geeks, bloggers and forums like this one. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but Apple, as a company, has done little promotion considering the buzz this product has generated.

Just getting tired of everyone blaming Apple for the hype when Apple has done very little to promote the iPhone themselves.

Mark

P.S. - For the record: I do not drink the Apple Kool-Aid. I am an MCSE from way back and have an iPod (but not for long).

I agree with you....one thing that I think was genius was the "Hello" ad, in my opinion one of the greatest tv ads of all time. I think it was very smart to run it very sparingly in the winter but I think they should use that commercial now....The current iPhone commercials are pretty tired...

 

[Jeremiah]

I don't think they did. I think that everyone who hated/wanted it and the media made it so popular. In my opinion its worth the hype.

 

[mrmacbook]

The media hyped it more than Apple did.

Regarding the 6 PM release time. The guy in from of me said it right, "free advertising". I was there in the morning. Our Apple store is at a mall. In the morning we had old mall walkers gawking at us. Most thought we were just loitering with our laptops. Then as the day went on, more and more questions, "What are you waiting for?" and "They will be cheaper next year". There was maybe 50 people not in line looking on as we did the countdown when it was almost 6 PM.

 

[Alexander]

I agree with everything here. Apple almost used a minimalistic approach.

 

[gcvt]

I don't think they over-hyped it either.

Apple, Inc. presented me with a product, told me (and showed me) what it would do, told me what I had to do to buy one, and told me what I had to do to activate it.

I saw the product, it does what I was told/showed it would do, I bought one, and I activated it.

That's about all The news media was a different story though.

 

[jbaraga]

Of course they over-hyped it. There has never been a marketing campaign for a similar product that comes anywhere close to what Apple did for the iPhone. I don't think I've turned on my TV once within the last three weeks without seeing at least a couple iPhone commercials. And I don't even watch that much TV.

To say that the media overhyped rather than Apple is silly. Apple built the fireworks, struck the match and lit the fuse. To say they aren't responsible for the big explosion isn't giving them near enough credit. What Apple has going for them is that in addition to having excellent products, they're an absolute marketing machine. In the tech world, nobody works the media to their advantage like Apple.

 

[yyoo]

Of course they over-hyped it. There has never been a marketing campaign for a similar product that comes anywhere close to what Apple did for the iPhone. I don't think I've turned on my TV once within the last three weeks without seeing at least a couple iPhone commercials. And I don't even watch that much TV.

To say that the media overhyped rather than Apple is silly. Apple built the fireworks, struck the match and lit the fuse. To say they aren't responsible for the big explosion isn't giving them near enough credit. What Apple has going for them is that in addition to having excellent products, they're an absolute marketing machine. In the tech world, nobody works the media to their advantage like Apple.

The media hype began well before those commercials started airing (which was about 3-4 weeks ahead of launch).

I credit Apple for building great products in the past that have raised expectations for the next big thing. The hype is a direct result of Apple well-earned reputation as an innovator ,and much of the excitement around Apple products can be attributed to word of mouth by happy customers, many of whom happen to be members of the media. Apple gets more bang for its advertisement buck than the rest of the industry because Apple understands better than anyone that, above all, great products create big and lasting hype.

 

[iphoniac46]

totaly agree, the media hyped the iPhone in to heaven..
Apple want to sell a good product, with a styleful [theAppleway] campagne..

 

[joe]

Of course they over-hyped it. There has never been a marketing campaign for a similar product that comes anywhere close to what Apple did for the iPhone. I don't think I've turned on my TV once within the last three weeks without seeing at least a couple iPhone commercials. And I don't even watch that much TV.

To say that the media overhyped rather than Apple is silly. Apple built the fireworks, struck the match and lit the fuse. To say they aren't responsible for the big explosion isn't giving them near enough credit. What Apple has going for them is that in addition to having excellent products, they're an absolute marketing machine. In the tech world, nobody works the media to their advantage like Apple.

Yeah, Apple hyped it, got the ball rolling, and all that. Tremendous buzz has led to a lot of hype outside of Apple.

But "over" hype and the original implication is that Apple has not delivered on its hype. I don't think this is the case.

 

[stiphone]

interestingly, i've never seen any of the iPhone commercials. I was only paying attention to it 1 week before the launch when my colleague mentioned it. That was when i started researching on the iPhone and i'm glad i did.

 

[spacerog]

The media did do most of the hyping but Apple planned it that way. They knew that by releaseing few details until just before launch the media would go nuts with speculation and that the blogosphere rumour mill would run at full speed.

So when Steve was doing interviews before launch and asked about specifically about iPhone and then not showing it off or not answering the questions his lack of information fueled the fire.

Then AT&T added to the hype, "We have over a million iquires to iPhone." and then the head AT&T dude was showing his phone off at every opportunity.

So yeah, the hype was due to the media but it was definitely a planned responce by Apple.

- SR