A recent article by Yahoo tech writer Christopher Null titled “Memo to Apple: Enough with the “special events,” reveals one man’s struggle to deal with Apple’s media consuming, hype inducing “special events” when releasing a new product.
Apparently Null is under the impression that members of the media, acolytes, and VIPs had been forced to attend Apple’s recent “Let’s Rock” event, as he refers to the audience as being “sequestered for an hour.” It must be tough to listen to one of the greatest visionaries and inventors of our time speak live.
While San Francisco had been host to two simultaneous tech shows, Null indicates that the word around the water cooler was irreverent . “No surprises.” “Big snooze.” “Boring.” he mentions, yet never takes into account the people that are allegedly saying these things. Not everyone’s life revolves in or around the tech industry. Sure pundits and Apple fanboys alike, knew what to expect, yet I would bet my buck that your average consumer interested in buying an new yellow iPod nano was not previously aware of such an offering.
So aside from the average consumer that strolls in to an Apple Store or reseller and is surprised to see the new iPod line, where are the average consumers going to be notified? Ahhhh… through the media. The same media that had been “sequestered” to sit through the devastatingly ‘jejune’ event in which the majority already knew what to expect.
Null’s questioning of the importance of holding events, that for some, may seem meaningless leads him to ask, “is there any other company that so regularly rolls out its products in such a highfalutin fashion? Even Microsoft reserves big events for its most anticipated products. Seriously, is a curvy iPod screen and a point-one iPhone software update worth all this hubbub?”
No Chris there isn’t another company that rolls out their products in such highfalutin fashion. This is exactly what separates Apple from their competitors. Sure each event may not be earth shattering but you cannot disagree that the hype that precedes the event as well as what lingers after it is done displays just how important events are to this company.
Yes, people were and have been clamoring about Steve Jobs’ health since the WWDC last June, and may have even out-shadowed what he was even presenting this time around, but let’s think about why that be? It is because Wall-street thinks he is not only the face of Apple but the only force behind it. A Stevenote is just as important as the product itself. It’s just how Apple does things. It would be impossible to bedazzle onlookers at every event with world changing products.
Sometimes just letting people know that the Apple machine is still rolling, is plenty good enough.
