Bring on the iPhone!!
January 11, 2007
My BlackBerry.
Apple's introduction of the iPhone is an interesting one for many reasons, but one facet of yesterday's Key Note Address sticks out; Apple has always pushed the reigning "latest and greatest" back a place in line to make room for whatever the newest incarnation of their product is, and released that product within weeks of announcing it. In the case of computers, the switch happens almost overnight, which eliminates the sales slow-down that would take place should word get out there was a more powerful machine looming over the horizon. (The "wait a month" syndrome that has heretofore only been communicated by the head-cocked, under-the-breath subtlety of those in the know...)
The announcement of the iPhone six months out of its scheduled release is a bit of a departure; the iPod now somehow seems a bit "last year", but the 80 gig (think of it as the "non widescreen") video iPod is still the best you can buy, and may stay that way for months. What's even more impacting, however, is the cell phone market... Anyone privy to the release of the iPhone is going to hold on to their current device as long as they possibly can, all but Scotch taping their devices together so that they can crawl over the finish line and into the loving arms of a shiny new iPhone. (Oh, you know the box is gonna be sexy.)
I wasn't just trying to be funny at MacWorld when I said that Steve Jobs and Apple Inc, make life more fun and that it's kind of the opposite of terrorism... The iPhone's introduction brought people together in a unified state of "I want that!" that was actually pretty damn cozy, don't you think?
