Sure, the phone is what it is. And Cisco is suing. But what struck me on the day of El Jobso’s announcement was the massive shift away from the traditional tech press as a communications vehicle to the gadget blogs.
The Apple phone was to Engadget and Gizmodo what the explosion of TWA Flight 800 was to MSNBC.com in the mid-90s. The moment when the world abandoned one medium — the so-called mainstream press’s online presence — for blogged news.
Engadget and Gizmodo owned the week between the phone and CES. And I watched as lots of colleagues watched the play-by-play unfold in a blog format — no one was hitting refresh on the homepage of media outlets that ten years ago would have been, reflexively, the go-to source for a new product announcement.
Check the link I sent you on delicious – GM is trying to do the same thing with the Detroit Auto Show that just wrapped up. Online media have an inherent advantage with shows like this, particularly in the car industry. Traditionally print media have dominated automobile news, but they’re just too slow to keep up with real-time events like this, CES, MacWorld, etc.
nice succinct observation… love how you see the big picture while the rest of the world drools over the iPhone!
The bottom line is speed of access.
Consumers of information are demanding real-time information. Where access is limited, live blogging becomes the first choice.
El Jobso puts on a good show and that so many people demand live tidbits on Apple products just reinforces the aura of Steve and his ability to create buzz from the deafening silence he tries so hard to enforce prior to launch.
While a TV political debate has the same blogging phenom, the access to the raw information — the debate — is widely available so it’s the commentary the masses want on blogs. In an election, most of the data on TV is too filtered and broad so it’s the specifics that folks turn to the big blogs for.
I’ve tuned into macrumorslive.com for years for up to the minute live updates on the newest Wonky bar out of Cupertino. It’s nothing new. Jobs has just made it a bigger event. Even local news reported on the iPhone.
When was the last time Lenovo or Dell or HP got a product introduction on local news all over the country? You’ve got to give it to him. It’s a beautiful frenzy he creates, hyperbole be damned.
PT Barnum had nothing on Jobs.
And yeah, I want one.