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today we get to see what Apple’s got up it’s sleeves. the tech world braces and readys their feeds to watch the great event unfold. Apple cult members check their bank accounts to make sure they’ve got at least $2-3k so they can purchase the latest system or however many new ipods they can get their clean hands on.
so what will we see today? will it be a new ipod? a new Movie download store? that certainly is what the tagline “It’s Showtime!” is pointing to. And it sure is what all the buzz is about. i wonder if today will be another of those disappointing events where there’s nothing really new except for some osx gadgets and more things to buy from iTunes. ah well, Mr. Jobs has played us well and we’ll eat whatever he’s got in his marketing paws.
marketing to me has always had a tinge of evil to eat. you look at these clever ad campaigns and marketing thrusts and some are just so brilliant. but when you think about it , marketing is really manipulation of peoples minds. making them think something about an object or experience. guiding the intelligent mind to come to seemingly self-derived decisions, when really, you just played into some pretty graphics and shining copy. yes, i believe marketing to be evil in it’s most elite form. think about the brilliance of Apple. they’re the only electronic hardware company that unveils and releases their new products the same day. we’ve known about PS3 for like 4 years. we won’t know if Apple’s got a gaming platform till the day we can drop our cash on it. looking at it like that, Apple is stupid. they’re not letting buzz generate about their product to drive demand when the product releases. but oh no, it’s far from stupid. instead they can generate buzz out of that negative space by having these little events. pack a few hundred of your biggest fans in a room and let them rumble. now, let’s pretend there is no event today, Apple will just release their product like everyone else and continue with their day. if you followed all of the would-be attendees through the day, how many do you think would buy the new product. sure, they’re excited about the new product, but they’re at work, or washing their car or doing normal day stuff. sure a few of them will plan to spend their day in line at the Apple store but how many of them really? now get them all together, let them sit in a dark room, while Steve-o does his song and dance and watch the excitement build. with all the other fanatics sitting around them the excitement begins to build. and at the end there’s no other option to them than to go buy 2 or 3 of the new thing. crazy. then the buzz spills over the blogosphere and the buzz get’s regenerated. crazier even still. yes, this is brilliant, so brilliant i think it may be evil. there are days when i think Steve Jobs is the antichrist.
so do i buy into the frenzy? ok, yeah, maybe a little. i wouldn’t think it was so brilliant if it didn’t work on me. am i excited about having a full touch screen ipod with Frontrow on it? well, yes, i am. will i spend $500 on it? mmm, no, alas. it will take a bit more for than $5 movie downloads for me to get a Video iPod. it seems Apple’s going to need to step it up a notch to keep this going. more things to buy in iTunes isn’t going to cut it. we need another revolution Apple. let’s see it!
i know prepare my tab with the Apple store for constant refreshing. waiting for the store to come down, Apple’s way of turning down the lights for the blogosphere. here we go…
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