Thursday, June 28, 2007

Another 30 hours to go.

Tomorrow, June 29th, at 6pm, the much hyped iPhone goes on sale at hundreds (thousands) Apple and ATT stores in the US.

In the last 20 years or so, when we had similar occasions with a number of immensely hyped products moving to commercial availability, likewise behavioral patterns were observed. Reporters fill page long articles in the days, weeks and months ahead of D-day, taking positions that vary from pro to against in all shades of gray (it's a free market afterall) and thousands of internauts, bloggers and alike amplify and spread the frenzy in viral fashion throughout the cyberspace. We've seen similar scenes taking place time and again during the launch of Playstation, X-Box, Windows 95, iPod and so many other IT gadgets, with prospective buyers piling up and camping in front of closed stores for days before the launch. The case study will be analysed and disected millions of times in all scientific approaches possible within marketing faculties and business schools worldwide for years to come. Of all the launches that we had before, tomorrow's iPhone launch however, promises to break all past records in terms of coverage and hype. I am sure there will be far less suicide bombs tomorrow as prospective terrorists and their leaders know that even if they blew up the entire city of Bagdad the news coverage (incl. CNN) will be marginal in comparison, as most reporters and crews will be rushing to the ATT and Apple shops, I bet you.

The AAPL stock will be traded on Nasdaq in tens of millions shares in terms of volume and we shall see its rate swing at least five to six dollars without the shadow of a doubt... (I personally expect some upward trend initially but it may soon be heading south following massive speculative short selling... it happened so often in the past).

In the last few days via its homepage Apple has extensively launched audiovisual material that is well built, straightforward and shows to prospective buyers in the simplest possible way how to use their soon to be theirs little marvels. I can bet you that we'll see the following events happening tomorrow:

1. Live TV coverage on multiple networks of the morons queueing up in front of stores to spend 500 bucks on the brand new love of their lives...

2. Few retards among early iPhone buyers with mostly double digit IQ, plenty of Dad's money to waste and an ego larger than life will publicly smash into pieces with sledgehammers their brand new devices.

3. We'll see an increased number of theft assaults in public places, busses, subways upon numerous new owners of iPhone. In some neigborhoods they may even turn into sad cases of homicide as well, have no doubt.

4. Millions of words will be written in hundreds of languages and thousands of reporters' articles around the world, in the form of printed and online frontpage material, talking about early experiences of the first 21st Century technological miracle among many to come in the future...

Would I buy one, myself? Eventually when they come to Europe I might... I believe I'd first buy them for my kids should they wish it and eventually, when the devices undergo a couple of upgrades and revisions (2nd or 3rd gen) with GPS and all, I might spoil myself too. I am not much of a cellphone user, so I am watching all this from the margins... I enjoy their hype though. I rather have news about the iPhone than about teenage Muslim suicide bombers blowing themselves into pieces.

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