Was the lost iPhone 4G a publicity stunt?
Wow, how much information did we get from Gizmodo posting about the iPhone 4th generation? How much publicity did Apple get from this one guy accidentally leaving his iPhone in a bar?
Before I begin this article, I would like to make a side note and say I do not believe it was a publicity stunt on Apples part, but I do believe anything is possible, and this was the best way to get free advertising.
So, Gray Powell left his iPhone 4g in a bar and is now the cause for everybody knowing what to expect from Apple. Think about it this way- This one software engineer left his iPhone in a bar, and instead of just Apple geeks (much like myself) possibly knowing what to expect from Apple.....most of the world knows. Its in the papers, on the news, all over the internet, and everybody talked about it. An average person doesn't know the rumors, whats flying, whats going around. But after this scenario, everybody knows. An 80 year old knows, a 10 year old knows, and evrybody wants to know what to expect after this thing is released.
Do you realize how much hype this thing has gotten? Probably 80% more than what would have been hyped about it by average people. By it being on the news and in the papers, everybody knows Apple is releasing this "new amazing iPhone" and a lot more people are going to buy it because a lot more people heard about it.
So how could this have been a publicity stunt. Well lets think about it- Whats the best way to build up hype for a product? Get a sneak peek of it before it comes out. If it doesnt have this hype, average people don't know about it, and then average people don't end up buying it simply because of a commercial on TV- they buy it because everybody is talking about it and everybody knows about it.
So what was Apples plan exactly? Give it to a "software engineer" and make him forget it on a bench in a bar after being drunk on his birthday. You must say, its pretty convincing. After exchanging it between a few hands, they knew eventually it was going to get into the wrong hands. Well it did- into Gizmodos hands. After that, it was ALL OVER THE PLACE. Facebook, twitter, MySpace, blogs, rumors sites, AOL.com, Yahoo.com and many others. It was the first thing that popped in the suggestion box of Google when you typed in "iPh......iPhone 4g, iPhone 4th gen, iPhone left in a bar, new iPhone leaked images....." and more. Think about it, one person tweets it, averagely 200 people got that tweet, then they tweet about it. People make it their FaceBook status', post pictures and comments about it, and the whole world see's it for free. The News stations think its a good story and they talk about it. It gets talked about on the radio, it gets articles written in the papers and in magazines.
Would it get that much hype if it was just simply released at WWDC? No. I have my own way of possibly thinking why it was a publicity stunt. Well my sister is 19, and an average consumer who doesnt know much about Apple or technology in general. She doesn't know the difference between the first generation iPhone and the current iPhone 3Gs. Im pretty sure she doesn't even know that the 3Gs exists. She doesn't know much about Apple, doesn't care much about Apple, but she knows about this new leaked iPhone, what it looks like, what people are expecting from it and more. Would she know about it if it wasn't all over the place? I understand Apple gets enough hype when its just simply released like usual, but thats mostly by geeks. Not by this many people- especially people that don't keep up with Apple.
So Apple gets all this publicity, absolutely FREE. I know that Apple would never typically do something like that because of how secretive they are- but thats exactly why something like this would be such a big deal. BECAUSE of how secretive and to-themselves they are. Like I said before, I personally do not believe it was a publicity stunt, but its possible. Think about it- free advertising.
Sally May 31, 2010 at 12:12 AM
Reader Comments (2)
Honestly, that would be sickening if they did. Simply because of what they ended up doing to Gizmodo. That could justify the opposite though, seeing as that would be a pretty horrible thing to do. I wouldn't put it past them though.
I honestly don't believe that it was a publicity stunt. It is going to be difficult to sell the current iphone because of the leak. Apple is going to loose a lot in iphone sales until the new one is released.