4. Scoring an iPhone: Why We Must Wait in Line

Wed, June 27th 8:10 AM

Who's Responsible For The Hype?

While checking out my nearest AT&T phone store, I ran into this guy who was doing the same thing. Both of us are expecting to score an iPhone or two this Friday evening. Both of us are planning to get to the store early in the morning to secure a place near the front of the line. Neither of us has any idea how many iPhones have been allotted to the store and, if you can trust an AT&T store employee, neither do the people running the store. I certainly hope the Apple people have figured it out.

So, this guy says to me, "Why does Apple create all this hype around their products?" I asked him, "What hype? Apple just announced the iPhone; showed enough pictures and movies of it to assure we pretty much know everything the gizmo can do; suffered through all the standard birth pains and supplier mishaps any manufacturer can expect; and waited until it was relatively sure the phone would be ready to ship before announcing an availability date."

Hype? With that teeny-tiny logo?

"I'm certainly no lover of that cocky Steve Jobs, but, you know, the company actually created very little hype. If Apple is responsible for anything, it is for encouraging a little drama that has all of us waiting to see a product almost no one has actually held in his or her hand; and that so many of us have been speculating about since the phone was announced back in early January."

"No," I said, "almost all of the hype wasn't created by Apple. It grew like a great monster from the livers of everyone from Apple's fan-boys and girls to the media."

At that point I stopped and thought, "Wow, the media. Hey, that's me. But what have I done to create all that iPhone hype? Nothing, right?"

"Sorry, Barry," I said to myself, "but take a look at that little 'Waiting for iPhone' box on the front page with a countdown timer clicking off the days, hours and minutes until the phone arrives. That creates more hype than anything Apple has done or will do."

"That's true," I respond to myself (am I a schizophrenic?)."But, who cares? It's all in fun, and who knows, we may actually get to see something that takes technology a step or two further down the roads of greater functionality and greater user friendliness. And, even if we don't, writing about Apple is always an exciting adventure." (See the next paragraph.)

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