The early days when the iPhone was new were special. 15 years ago, Steve Jobs and Apple designed what could be described as a fashion beast at a product launch.
Jobs first introduced the iPhone at Macworld in January 2007, but it would be months before the iPhone was officially launched. Whether by design or necessity, this delay turned out to be the best possible way to launch what would become a technological and cultural touchstone.
Anticipation of availability details and official release date built and built until Apple announced it and naturally the tech media reported it.
Central Hype turned out to be Apple's flagship store for a year on Fifth Avenue. Although I remember the day of the launch, I don't remember going or missing it. However, reports at the time described a line literally running down the steps of the store and winding around the block. There were media outlets and third-party companies that tried to ride this wave of enthusiasm. It was pandemonium.
the old way
Apple created all of this without the benefit of social media. Facebook was only a few years old and mostly only students used it. Twitter had not caught up with the general public. There was no Instagram.
All of this was based on traditional hype and word of mouth.
Apple leaned into him, hard. There were store employees acting as cheerleaders, leading the crowd by singing "When I say 'me', you say 'iPhone'."
Scenes of people waiting all night (opens in a new tab) (sometimes for days) outside Apple Stores have been repeated across the country.
Why?
Apple and Jobs have spent the last eight years developing a devotion to the brand that some say has outpaced the quality of its products. I don't see it that way. There has never been a company, technological or otherwise, that has managed to combine exquisite design and industry-leading quality and utility with a brand affinity that has become anything close to a cult following.
As one guy told The New York Times in 2007 (opens in a new tab) while waiting in line outside an Apple Store in Chicago for the first iPhone: "If Apple made sliced bread, yes, I would buy it.
The devotion grew out of products like the iMac, the iBook, and the iPod. Steve Jobs was the glue that held everything together. It was hard to find an Apple fan who wasn't as devoted to Jobs as he was to his iPod.
devotion and repetition
After that first release, I became a regular at the annual release events, eventually moving from summer to September or October. For a time, the publicity machine continued unabated. When the iPhone 6s was released, I remember meeting one of the first enthusiastic recipients of the iPhone (opens in a new tab), a young woman who traveled from Lithuania to get a pink device that she couldn't buy at home yet. country.
However, by then the tenor of events had changed. Yes, there were still lines, but they were often full of professional line servers who bought the phones for other people and bought them for resale. Preorders, home delivery, and home activation have become commonplace and easier than waiting outside an Apple store.
The lines were starting to narrow, but Apple's hyperactive team grew bigger and bolder.
After the Lithuanian woman brought her new still-wrapped phone outside, she was required to unpack it for the crowd. She complied and seemed excited, but I thought it was a bit forced.
never the same
There are occasional throwbacks to the excitement of the past, like when Apple introduced the iPhone X in 2017. Its radically new look and notch created a stir not seen since the days of Jobs. I thought the line at the Fifth Avenue store was among the longest I had seen in years (opens in a new tab). I got the phone early and when I waved it in front of some future iPhone X owners, they visibly swooned.
Obviously, the pandemic evaporated this phenomenon for a few years, but even before that, I'm not sure the lines of iPhone customers were as large as the groups of professional cheerleaders on the world's Apple team that created a glove for the new iPhone owners.
15 years later, Apple's iPhone is still a great smartphone, clearly a leader in its field, but the media bubble that Apple and Steve Jobs nurtured and developed is visibly deflated. We still love gadgets and buy them by the millions, but that cultural moment is long gone.
I look forward to the next product that can generate this kind of excitement.