Apples Astute Marketing Made The iPhone A Global Success
When people refer to the iphone as a normal cell phone, its a bit offensive to the professional iphone user. It may have a couple of similarities of a normal cellular phone, like voice call and text, but that is where the similarities end. Complete with its state of the art touch screen control and its high tec adapted Linux operating system, it is easy to see why it has created such a stir. When the downloadable apps came along a few months later and you could customise your iphone, it was no wonder that each release that followed was greeted like some sort of divine revelation.
What created the big sensation over the Apple iPhone when it emerged out was the brand new touch screen technologies, mixed with the phone, texting and world wide web capabilities that already existed in other products, such as the Blackberry. But as enhancement progressed, people began hearing iPhone apps news, that is, information that they’d be able to design or download unique applications to personalize their iphones. This created a new fired up hype even whilst people were still enamoured of the locked 2007 version.
The initial iPhone was released gradually in several countries around the world. Its launch started in the USA in the summer of 2007. It was slowly rolled out in other mostly European countries in the subsequent months, as distribution agreements were reached with large European network operators on an exclusive basis. As the iphone distribution spread around the globe, the ques of people willing to pay a high price for the iphone did not falter.
Apple have used some very tactical marketing with the iphone, small upgrades to keep the device buzz alive and in great demand. The distinction between the 3G and 3GS variations was mainly one of performance and a few additional video capabilities, but it was the leap in function between the 2007 Apple iPhone and the 3G version in 2008 that really pushed it over the top. Even with some concern over high prices, the capability to download beneficial apps has taken the concept of a simple cell phone and raised into another realm completely.
Other phone manufactures have jumped on the band wagon and tried to create a competitor for the iphone, but I think it would be fair to say, no one has really got close to creating any real competition for the iconic Apple handset.
A good example of some hoped competition for the iPhone would be the HTC Hero that was launched in the second half of 2009. It reportedly was going to compete with the iphone, but although there was quite a buzz about the HTC device, it never really hit the mark. Its operating system, the Googles Android system was great, along with the choice of thousands of downloadable apps. Unfortunately for HTC it was let down by a low spec hardware and painfully slow processor, along with several clumsy hardware buttons at the bottom of the screen that could be pressed in error, rapidly closing your session.
About the author:
David Stuart is a self employed advertiser and marketing expert in the UK. Working from home he runs a small mobile phone insurance company on the World Wide Web, providing gadget insurance cover such as mobile phone insurance right through to laptop computers and even iPad Insurance for apples latest offering.