How Steve Jobs blew his iPhone keynote

[MacBytes]

http://www.macbytes.com/images/bytessig.gif (http://www.macbytes.com)

Category: Opinion/Interviews
Link: How Steve Jobs blew his iPhone keynote (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20070122220333)
Description:: none

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[swingerofbirch]

Yikes, I feel sorry for the author of that. He will have some egg on his face regarding his elaborate theorizing over why the iPhone was announced before shipping (that it required FCC approval).

[Cassie]

By comparison, you could easily fit every stoner comedy, inane chick flick and bus-oriented action movie Keanu Reeves has ever starred in on an iPod G5. But you probably couldn't squeeze even the Matrix trilogy on the 8GB iPhone and no more than one Matrix movie on the 4GB iPhone.

:D

[iMeowbot]

Yikes, I feel sorry for the author of that. He will have some egg on his face regarding his elaborate theorizing over why the iPhone was announced before shipping (that it required FCC approval).
They announced the phone at the vaporware stage only because they wanted to do that, there was no regulatory reason. FCC approval was not an issue, confidential equipment applications are routine (Details, as PDF (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-1705A1.pdf)). Apple most recently used this to keep BCGA1143, the AirPort Extreme base station, out of the public eye before MWSF.

[jessica.]

I kind of don't really agree fully with him, but I also think jobs may have felt he needed to announce before life was in order with the FCC. I personally think he should have waited unless it was a situation where he felt there was a threat.

[Analog Kid]

He makes a few good points here and there (not 6 of them, mind you), but then he loses all credibility by not even mentioning the FCC point that Jobs specifically made in his keynote. You can agree or disagree with it, but at least act like you listened.

And I have to disagree with the comments on the LG phone (http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/15/the-lg-ke850-touchable-chocolate/) as well. For one, there's no way Apple took this design from an unreleased LG phone-- there just wasn't time. Second, if you look at the LG screen shot, with the OS X wallpaper, it almost looks like LG was trying to preempt Apple.

[pth-webdev]

Isn't this just plain denial? I mean, this man probably wants this device, but he knows his boss won't give it and he probably can't explain to his wife what he needs it for, so the best strategy is to bash it, pretending not to give a damn.

And he tries to sneak in a wish list of things that might have helped him with this lost battle against his boss and wife. So, he obviously is giving it a great deal of thought.

He is not saying: "Apple is taking unnessecary risks" or something of that order. No, he bluntly says that Apple blew it.

Many of the features represent the way Apple approaches his customers. E.g. Exchange versus IMAP (you do know that Mail.app on MacOSX already can connect to Exchange, don't you?). It means the difference of letting the user in control rather then an IT department. Perhaps business users need to be bound and gagged, but Apple looks at the needs of an end-user first.

Apple, with this device, will introduce a new experience. Having an avalance of third-party apps that don't abide the Human Interface Guidelines, at least at this point, won't do the platform much good.

Through this introduction, things will change. Hopefully will Apple be able to come out standing (and some companies might get crushed). Isn't that what is most important? The future of Apple.

[iMeowbot]

He makes a few good points here and there (not 6 of them, mind you), but then he loses all credibility by not even mentioning the FCC point that Jobs specifically made in his keynote.
That only accounts for two months, not five.

[MacBoobsPro]

With a phone it makes sense to annouce it early so people dont get locked into new contracts and so put off purchasing the new phone.

Also letting out something like this early will have the phone companies jostling for position to be the first to offer services for the phone.

Its like :apple: TV. Announce it early to entice the movie studios to get their asses into gear and get content on iTunes. The more studios that join will help push sales of iTV when its released.

Some products benefit from a sneak peak. Apple know this.

Also FCC is not an issue. It basically means they cant sell it until approval is granted. Its only a phone not a nuclear bomb so approval will most likely come without any problems.

[chasemac]

The touch screen iPhone is an awesome device. But I don't need a phone like this. An iPod like this yes! We got 6 months to ponder or not?

[Passante]

Did Micro$oft ever get slammed for pre-announcing a product to freeze out competition ? Nope. The Apple bashers have their shorts tied in a knot because they loudly predicted the demise of the iPod and Apple. History has shown their predictions to be as accurate as the US governments Iraq war policy. The Apple bashers need an Apple product failure so badly they can taste it. Hence all these derivative articles on why the iPhone will fail.

THe only thing I regret about the 6 month pre announcement of the iPhone is waiting for the phone to be released.

[Jerry Spoon]

He makes a few good points here and there (not 6 of them, mind you), but then he loses all credibility by not even mentioning the FCC point that Jobs specifically made in his keynote. You can agree or disagree with it, but at least act like you listened.

And I have to disagree with the comments on the LG phone (http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/15/the-lg-ke850-touchable-chocolate/) as well. For one, there's no way Apple took this design from an unreleased LG phone-- there just wasn't time. Second, if you look at the LG screen shot, with the OS X wallpaper, it almost looks like LG was trying to preempt Apple.

I have to say that from the beginning, I've taken Job's FCC point as "spin" on why it was being shown so early. As iMeowbot states above, that only accounts for two months, and we all know that Apple isn't tied to MacWorld as their only stage to announce new products at this point. I think there are good reasons for Apple to have announced this phone early and reasons why it might not have been such a good idea. The more I think about it, the more I think that it might not have been the best idea. The biggest reason for this in my mind is the opportunity for other companies to counter with new features of their own or at least to come up with a strategy to counter the phone.
If Steve could have announced the phone in summer 07 and had it available immediately (and I don't even know if this would have been possible) not only would there have been the stories of the phone, but you could have had several days of stories scattered across different networks and cities about how people are waiting in line for it/it's sold out/etc.
Also, even if you're not planning on buying an iPhone, how many people are waiting on a full screen iPod to replace the high end iPods? I'm definitely falling into that category. Maybe those sales would have waited anyway. I don't know.

[dejo]

It contained 6 discussion points spanned across 4 pages, so I refused to read it.

[Qunchuy]

If Steve could have announced the phone in summer 07 and had it available immediately (and I don't even know if this would have been possible) not only would there have been the stories of the phone, but you could have had several days of stories scattered across different networks and cities about how people are waiting in line for it/it's sold out/etc.
I'm sure many people would be ready to jump to the iPhone if it suddenly appeared without advance warning. However, the typical cellular telephone service contract isn't all that easy to terminate at a moment's notice. It seems to me that announcing it six months before it's available is just about right.

[Jerry Spoon]

I'm sure many people would be ready to jump to the iPhone if it suddenly appeared without advance warning. However, the typical cellular telephone service contract isn't all that easy to terminate at a moment's notice. It seems to me that announcing it six months before it's available is just about right.

You may be right. I just know there was a massive amount of press for this phone, much more than I anticipated. I'm also wondering if there will be a similar amount of press when the product is actually released (similar to the press when a new gaming console is released maybe) or possibly after people start using it.

I'm thinking to the massive amount of press for the Zune (I know they are two completely different products) the days surrounding its actual release. Will the iPhone be able to get some of that same press when it is released?

[emptyCup]

They announced the phone at the vaporware stage ...

Vaporware in the sense that you can not buy it. In that sense non-corporate Vista is also vaporware. In both cases the products exists, the majority of features are known, and independent people have seen and reviewed the product. This is much different from Copland or Cairo or Duke Nukem. Jobs has announced many products as shipping in the future, the new Shuffle most recently, and I don't recall anyone calling them vaporware.

[balamw]

That only accounts for two months, not five.
You really think they'd start volume manufacturing w/o FCC approval? Some parts on the BOM might have an 8 week lead.

B

[shamino]

I see this pre-announcement as a necessary move when marketing a phone.

People are known to impulse-buy computers, iPods, PDAs, etc. But they don't do this with phones. People go shopping for a new phone when their service contract expires, and their carrier offers discounts to encourage contract renewal.

With typical contracts in the US lasting two years, 25% of the population will be replacing their phones in the next six months. By announcing the iPhone now, a lot of these people will wait until June and buy an iPhone. Without the announcement, these people would buy something else as soon as their contract expires, and wouldn't consider buying an iPhone for another two years.

[Nym]

I didn't even read the article mainly because I trust the general opinion here when you say the guy is only bashing Apple due to some frustration, still... don't you think that nowadays it's kinda "cool" to hate Apple?

I mean, once it used to be "fashion" and cool to use Apple stuff (Mac's or iPod's) but now it looks like the shift is stuck in reverse and everybody's like "Oh, Apple sucks, the iPhone has no functionality and will flop", and even here at MacRumors we're seeing posts like this.

My question is, what did Apple do to these people? lol, don't know, maybe this is all in my head but, especially since the iPhone was revealed, I've been feeling this "unusual hate" quite often.

[Nutter]

My question is, what did Apple do to these people? lol, don't know, maybe this is all in my head but, especially since the iPhone was revealed, I've been feeling this "unusual hate" quite often.

This is just a run-of-the-mill press backlash against a popular story. They realise that "iPhone is great" isn't a story, so they prefer to run with "iPhone already a flop?", "iPhone old news in Japan", or, in this case, "iPhone: I could have done better than Steve".

Despite this, the press Apple receives today is, on the whole, practically gushing compared to the 90s.

[iMeowbot]

You really think they'd start volume manufacturing w/o FCC approval? Some parts on the BOM might have an 8 week lead.
The testing is done independently of the government and they certainly could have made sure everything complied before the official process started. And yes, they could put many things in place in anticipation.

None of that, of course, has any bearing on their choice to announce several months early. Apple equipment has gone though this kind of process and years and years, they aren't new to this game. Up until several years ago, even their non-radio products had to go though the regulatory and manufacturing ramp-up processes, and they still remained secret until they were good and ready.

Jobs mentioned the FCC process as one part of the reason the phone wouldn't be immediately available (the main reason, of course, is that they haven't finished developing the thing). This idea that their hand was forced by anything more than marketing is pure silliness.