Apple basks in iPhone buzz

A two-phase approach
That's because there are two phases to Apple's marketing. It has to satisfy its loyal audience that loves Apple's design aesthetic with ads showing off those capabilities. But to really "revolutionize" the mobile phone industry it also has to win over the broader market, those folks who may own an iPod but are still using an inexpensive phone that came along with their carrier contract because they aren't email addicts dependent on a BlackBerry or Treo.

Apple isn't going after the current smart phone market of business users. It's focusing on regular people who probably don't own a smart phone by emphasizing that the iPhone is a music player, a pocket-size Internet access device, and a phone--with email as just another add-in, Rubin said.

Those people aren't likely to be wowed by speeds and feeds, which Apple has judiciously avoided including in its marketing messages in favor of slick videos that highlight the way an iPhone user checks voice mail, watches videos or browses the Internet.

"It's easy to get the tech enthusiasts to line up, but the mass market consumer, that's another story," Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wrote on his blog last week. The last time he could recall consumers--not gamers revved up over new consoles--but regular people lined up for a technology launch, was Microsoft's launch of Windows 95 more than a decade ago.

But Apple appears to have succeeded in attracting the interest of those folks, as lines are forecast to appear at Apple stores around the country. Competitors and those in other industries are attempting to figure out exactly how Apple managed to accomplish that, but in Rubin's mind, it's very simple: When people want what you're selling, it's easier to sell it to them.

"For years, before the announcement of the iPhone, there had been a tremendous amount of speculation and expressed interest from Apple's customer base for a phone by the company," he said.

Now Apple has to make sure that buzz doesn't backfire once people get their hands on the device, and a full accounting of its capabilities and limitations can be complied. After all, some very successful marketing campaigns haven't translated into successful products. A separate set of business students could one day be studying how to manage consumer expectations for a first-generation product if the iPhone fails to deliver.