If you ever want to see what a slow news day looks like just look at page 23-26 of today’s Metro:
P.23 – 118118 Survey revealing people are “discomgoogolated”
P.23 – New Samsung mobile phone that detects when people are smiling
P.23 – Vauxhall reveals best place to watch a sunset
P.25 – Hiscox Insurance reveals car engines turn women on
P.26 – Grazia announces its “cool list”
Great coup for the brands and the PRs involved but it does feel like the newsroom got to page 22 and ran out of stories. With Gustav, the Presidential election, the credit crunch etc – is there really not enough real news to fill the paper?
So as I mentioned earlier I wanted to touch on the recent iPhone 3G launch which many are dubbing iPocalypse. I’ve gone with iPhocalypse (see what I did there).
So Friday, the much hyped (rightly?) iPhone 3G hit UK shores and saw the inevitable queues outside O2 stores across the country. So far so good but remarkably Apple failed to deliver on the day, the problem was not so much stock (although they ran out within hours of stores opening) but the fact that those that did manage to get hold of them couldn’t activate them due to a glitch on the iPhone website. This has largely been fixed now and the iPhone 3G can now be seen attached to ears near you.
But what damage has this done to Apple and specifically the halo sitting above the iPhone?
Well the immediate affect is very little, the iPhone is still being hailed a revolution in communication and those that have one are reaching new levels of smugness. Those without (me included) having to deal with the inevitable
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jealousy. However longer term, Apple may feel the backlash. The new must-have gadget has launched in a much more competitive market than last year and competitors such as Samsung and HTC have much stronger products that can match and beat the iPhone in the functionality department. Already many consumers are questioning whether an iPhone is the right option for them and the bad publicity will do nothing to quell their concerns.
Apple has done the right thing by getting the problem fixed as quickly as possible and then addressing the PR fall-out, but competitors will now doubt see this as an opportunity to kick Apple while their down and ensure the way back up is as hard and as long as possible.
