Let's talk iPhone

The Apple iPhone. A symbol of today's society. A social phenomenon. Just as the iPod was the symbol of music players, the iPhone has become the symbol of phones, that all others strive to become. Or merely a simple marketing exercise?

Tuesday, October 4 (4am Wednesday Sydney time) marks the official announcement regarding the next iPhone, be it the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone Super Mega Hyper phone or whatever else the fruit company wish to call it.

So, that led me to think, why is this announcement such a big deal? When Samsung announces their latest Galaxy S device, HTC launches their new Sensation device, there isnt such a big hoorah. Why is this the case? It is the pure marketing machine that is Apple. The Apple brand itself has been associated with classiness, style and people use it with pride.

As a Telstra shop employee myself, I am amazed at the types of people coming in to the shop and asking "When is the iTouch 5 coming in?", "When is the iP5 coming?" and "When is the iPhone 5 being launched?". The people range from tech savvy teenagers to 70 year old grandmothers. Many of these people have no idea what the proper name for the iPhone is, what it does and how to use it, and half of them wouldn't even need most of the functions from an iPhone.

They assume that because its Apple, they MUST have the latest product. Their brother/sister, girlfriend/boyfriend, aunty/uncle all have one, so they must too. From my observations, at least 1 in 3 phones which I sell are iPhones, and half of those sold, probably wont be used to their full potential.

The below video highlights the "ignorance" of todays consumer.



Source: Youtube

So, for now, we will await the announcement, and reserve our own judgement about the iPhone 4S, 5 or whatever Apple want to announce until tommorow.

I will also compare the iPhone to Android based smartphones (yes its been done 388372848792 times), but it needs to be done in a way which is relevant to the consumer.

Sid.