It’s been three weeks since the iPhone was released in the biggest media blitz for a single product ever. Let’s take a look back and a look forward at this historic media event. Historic even for Apple. First a look back....
• The actual tally of iPhone media stories is hard to fully gauge, but it sucked up much of the media landscape for the month surrounding the launch. As lines formed to buy the product, TV news jumped on the story. When reporters include other media as part of a story, you know the hype has gone into the stratosphere.
• A Google News search of iPhone headlines during launch week showed 17,126 news stories on iPhone (aggregated from Google’s 4500 media sources).
• AppleInvestorNews.com’s database of stories with iPhone in the headline almost tripled for launch week (actually 2.8 times) from the week before.
• Most reviews from influential media agreed the iPhone is a breakthrough product that sets a new standard for smartphones. Most said it is elegant to use, hold and look at. Most don’t like AT&T’s slow EDGE network, and some don’t like the non-user replaceable battery. Some quibble about the keyboard, mail program and AT&T call reception too. But my assessment is that most reviews have just about, well almost, equaled the hype. This is extraordinary. Apple can enchant the press, but they can’t really control them. If the product didn’t shine, the reviews would have said so.
• The iPhone blanketed network TV on launch week with coverage on every network morning show and evening newscast. Jay Leno joked about it and David Letterman's Friday Top 10 List was “Top Ten Things Overheard In Line To Buy The iPhone.”
• According to the iPhone Buzz Index at Blackfriars' Marketing, iPhone media coverage peaked at 22,000 stories on July 8.
Now that the blitz is behind us, let’s look forward. Because in some ways, media coverage over the next month can be more telling than that of the launch itself, and may have more of an impact on the long term, sustained success of this product.
Will there be a media backlash? Will the follow-through product reviews be as glowing as the initial ones? Will there be a correction in AAPL’s lofty stock price after earnings on July 25? And what are the first iPhone owners, who’ve now lived with their product for weeks, telling their friends? Some initial observations:
• It’s interesting that Friday morning’s (July 20) Google News “last day” tally of stories with the word “iPhone” is at 17,600, not too far from Blackfriars' reported peak of 22,000. That’s a full three weeks after launch.
• The content of media coverage speaks to a highly successful launch, with initial sales estimates, and therefore future projections, beyond even Apple’s initial sales goals.
• The media historically likes the chance to knock something down after raising it on a pedestal, but the media landscape has been mostly devoid of negative stories. Oh sure, there have been a few articles on the iPhone’s expensive and cumbersome battery replacement scenario and a few stray stories on how it could be virus-prone. But largely the general media and financial media are discussing rising sales projections and the next iPhone models. Today analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray (who was the first analyst to really understand what was going on at Apple, even before iPod became a cultural phenomenon) upped his price target to $205 and projected a staggering 45 million iPhones could be sold in 2009.
Apple took a PR risk orchestrating such an enormous media frenzy. The iPhone marketing machine was riding the good will of the iPod’s cultural impact. If the product was not as well received as it has been, Apple might have squandered much of its golden image. The risk paid off.
Apple is in rare air right now, even for Apple.
