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CNET Accuses Apple of Over-Hyping Launch
An anonymous reader writes "A columnist at CNET is questioning whether Apple over-hyped last week's launch. From the article: 'Jobs' announcement of a new leather case for the iPod was especially ridiculous. Like the queen announcing a new toaster in Buckingham Palace. It seemed odd that Jobs was troubling himself to introduce fashion accessories to Apple's products.' Is Apple a victim of its own success? Can it hold a low-profile product launch anymore -- or do we inevitably expect too much?"
So now let's over-hype the over-hype!
Jesus... let it go.
We, inevitably, expect too much.
It was my understanding that the press event was rather small by most standards. Perhaps it was the press and the rumor sites that over-hyped things - not Apple. I know that I had no idea the event was even going on until others pointed it out to me and were tracking the rumor sites looking for the next big announcement. If anything, perhaps the fact that nothing overly major was announced was intentional and designed to throw people off so as to better keep public expectations in check. I wouldn't put it past them.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Overhyped? Of course it was overhyped. Goodness, that's what companies do - it's called advertising, marketing, PR, or whatever you want to call it. If you don't take everything that companies trying to sell you something tell you about the products they're trying to sell with a large grain of salt, then it's your own fault really.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Wow. Kettle and soot and all. CNet complaining about HYPE? CNet IS the definition of hype. They are one of the preferred corporate hype tools... Apple must not have greased the story's author with enough free shit.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
His biggest objections seems to be that the Mac Mini is not a PVR. Of course, if it had included everything necessary for a PVR--ATSC HD tuner, analog tuner, cable card capacity, huge hard drive--it would have been considerably more expensive, and analysts would be criticizing Apple for releasing an $1000 computer to duplicate the functionality of a device that your cable company will rent you for $10/month.
What were they expecting?
Apple said they were going to announce some "fun new products". Forget the pouch, jeez. They introduced an Intel-based Mac mini with amazing features inside of the same form factor as the old mini, and a nifty set of iPod speakers that has unseated the previous leader in this category in the opinion of most reviewers (Bose).
Apple stopped always putting all of its eggs in the Macworld/WWDC basket, and introducing products when they became available. The Intel-based Mac mini is a pretty damned good product, and a huge hint at Apple's admittedly tentative and cautious steps toward the living room.
So what's wrong with that?
What were we supposed to get?
An Apple cell phone?
An Apple tablet?
A touchsheen video iPod?
Anyone expecting those things at every single introduction is expecting too much.
It was only overhyped by Slashdot. This happens every time.
What's funny though, is that this is a dramatically different situation than it was in 1998, when I got my first Mac. I dare say Apple has done so well in the last few years that the long standing
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
Hey, it's better than Dupes. Though there has already been one today.
Seriously though, CNet and others need to get a grip. The Mini Mac was a great announcement. It wasn't the PDA or iPhone everyone keeps rumoring about, but it was a good, though small, announcement.
If you want over hype, check out Microsoft and it's Origami Project. There isn't even a product yet, and yet they have launched a website, and had a media day the same day as Apple. At least Apple is shipping a real product.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
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--
I accuse CNET and slashdot for over-hyping Apple's over-hyping.
It's a fashion thing. The iPod is cool, it's stylish, but with all the fluff stripped, it's an MP3 player. Now, when people have an MP3 player, they got one. It's not like you need one again after 6 months (unless it's badly made and it falls apart, but then I would kinda doubt people would get the same model again).
Sooner or later, the market is saturated. What now? Sure, you can release a new model (and Apple did). Only works once or twice as well, there's only so much room for improvement. You can make it smaller, you can make it hold larger armounts of music, but when it's small enough to be no longer visible (don't forget, fashion is also about showing what you got) and when it can hold the equivalent to 100 CDs, people don't want it any smaller or bigger.
So accessories come into play. And besides selling those MP3s for 99 cent, that's where the money comes from. Because the players are sold. You will probably sell a few more, but that's no longer the big market.
Now, it's incredibly hard to patent sizes. Sure, you can patent a design, you can patent the brand, but there's no way to keep third party vendors from selling gadgets that "just happen to" fit the iPod perfectly. How should you patent the earplugs? It uses a standard socket, any earplug would do. How do you make your customer buy your add-ons instead of others, which are probably cheaper?
You start hyping. You have to make sure that your customers know that YOUR, and only YOUR accessories offer the value they're looking for. You NEED those earplugs, because they're original and without, the iPod is no longer cool. You NEED our case because only with it, you show the world that you have the original and only then you are part of the family.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The question you need to ask is: Where is the hype coming from?
Did Apple claim that their press conference would herald fantastically interesting products that would reshape the industry? As I recall, they merely announced a press conference and said they would have some "fun stuff". That's it.
This wasn't Steve walking on stage at MacWorld - which is a hypefest by design, where only the biggest products are released - this was Apple introducing another Intel-based Mac to show its partners and investors that it was committed to, and proceeding with the transition from PPC. The fact they had some other, far less interesting products ready at the same time, and decided to show them off as well seems to be more of a logical exploitation of the press conference. Would it have made sense for Apple to simply make no mention of their other new products while the media's attention was focused squarely on them? I don't think so.
People are so used to Apple throwing them curveballs that they build up entirely unrealistic expectations of the company, and get angry at Apple when they fail to live up to these fantasies. You can criticize Apple for borking the video chipset in the new Minis, but you can't really get mad at them for not releasing a product that may only exist in your mind.
This has got to be the biggest conspiracy over nothing that I have every seen. First, Slashdot posts a sensational post about how the new products at Apple are overhyped and links an article that doesn't over hype anything! Then Cnet comes out with an article saying it's over hyped which slashdot posts as well! Ten out of Ten points for getting lots of hits and comments but -1000000 points for lack of intelligence. I say what everyone else is saying... what hype?
For a product to be overhyped I have to see it somewhere other than slashdot which does get a high bandwidth of users but does not have mainstream penetration.
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Apple is all about fashion, image and looking cool. Hype is part of what makes the whole image.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Yeah, a private event in the company cafeteria is not exactly hype. However, when the CEO uses that event to promote a leather iPod case you have to wonder whether he's excessively fond of hearing himself talk!
The touchscreen iPod was a Photoshopped hoax. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPNgzz870F4
Didn't we already have this conversation for a very similar article? The C|Net columnist is probably just a Slashdot reader who paraphrased everything that was said on the forum last time around and handed it to his editor.
Those features are ten a penny on every PC these days.
You could say that the Mac Mini was underpowered in it's original incarnation. It's not like they COULDN'T have had these features (HD movie playback is a chipset support issue; Core Duo can't do it on it's own, either) on a PowerPC Mac Mini that size, they certainly had the Northbridge for it in the G4 Macs and PowerBooks.
Saying that the "Mac Mini has amazing features for it's size" is really just totally underestimating what you can do with technology these days. If you get rid of the PCI slots on your average PC board and solder the CPU down, you can get all those features in a board that size. Nano ITX is stark proof of this kind of miniaturisation.
Perhaps working for a company that designs solutions like that, I am jaded and cynical and simply unamazed at these obviously life-changing things Apple have put into this new box?
Or maybe in actual fact.. they just aren't amazing. I rest my case.
By "anyone with even a moderate appreciation for sound quality" I think he means "the vaccuum tubes and $3000 speaker cables demographic"...
Overhyped? Hmmm. The press invitations specifically mentioned that Apple would be introducing some "fun new products". Fun new products. Roll that phrase around in your mind for a little bit. Fun new products.
Does that sound like an earthshaking announcement to you? Like Apple was going to introduce OS XI or make a "fuck Intel; we're using Cell processors now" kind of announcement?
If so, you're nuts. I was expecting some iPod-related announcements, perhaps the fabled "Video iPod" (yawn) at most and some capacity bumps at the least. I'd say their product announcements fell right in the middle of that modest spectrum.
It's true that Apple created some hype by not issuing any hints about the products they'd be introducing. Most of those journalists would have stayed at home if you told them in advance that they'd be introducing a new Mini, a leather slipcover, and a boombox. But hey, I can't really blame a company for wanting to create excitement about their products. That's called capitalism, folks. What Apple really did was capitalize on the press and public's fascination with Apple. They simply allowed the press and public to create the hype for them.
So was Apple cannily trying to promote and sell some product? Sure. Did Apple themselves overhype the event? I would say absolutely not.
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Apple overhyped this "launch" because they launched them with a CEO-hosted press event.
What company needs a CEO-hosted press event to announce a boom box?
Or leather case? Or computer upgrade?
Seriously, when's the last time a company held a press event to announce a boom box?
Apple has themselves to blame. They could've introduced these products without the fanfare, just like any other company.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
I'll say it again. IT is very much like the fashion industry ("XML! It's so modern! It's so now! It's so you!"). Or the US auto industry of the 50's which sold crap but had cool tail fins. Though I must add that most Apple products, while not perfect, are not crap. But they do understand how design and fashion drive consumer retail and technology much better than any other player out there right now.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
The media's job in two steps:
1) Create false expectations
2) Pounce on those who fail to live up to its created expectations
I guess Apple's just getting what governments have enjoyed for all these years...
The invite list was really small. The event was held in Apple's cafeteria! There was no over-hype here. Just having the CEO announce it doesn't hype anything--Steve Jobs isn't just an ordinary CEO, he's Apple's main orator, and of course he'll announce these things. This small press event was held to get the new products into the news, but that's not hype.
Apple DID announce these without their usual fanfare. These goofy press people were buying into Thinksecret and Appleinsider's rumors.
When will people realize these rumors sites are hurting Apple? This isn't the first time in the last six months that all the rumor sites said one thing, and Apple fell short (dual-core G5s, which ended up coming out much later).
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