Why did people go crazy after the iPhone? Why did it generate so much public hysteria?
By Zafar Anjum
29 Aug 2008
The midnight Singapore launch of the iPhone last week created quite a frenzy—obviously you’d know that unless you were in Timbuktu with your fingers stuck in your ears.
For the record, the sensation-creating Apple device was first launched in July. In round two, it was launched in 22 countries on August 22 (you notice the 22s?).
Among the 22 countries, only four countries in Asia got the iPhone in this round: India, Macau, the Philippines, and of course, Singapore. Hong Kong and Japan had already received it in the first round of the launch itself, on July 11.
I don’t know how much passion the phone’s launch generated in Macau and the Philippines, but I surely want to talk about the launch in Singapore and India.
Upbeat in Singapore
In Singapore, iPhone aficionados were up all night to grab a piece of the wonder. Even at midnight, snaking lines were seen around SingTel’s Comcenter headquarters and at other outlets thereafter, despite the inclement weather. A gleeful Joel Pan became the first person to buy the iPhone 3G in Singapore (Will it go to the Guinness Book of Records? I wonder).
The question I want to ask is this: Why did people go crazy after the iPhone? Why did it generate so much public hysteria? After all, it was just a phone. Ok, not just a phone but a smartphone. Ok, not just a smartphone but one from the stable of Steve Job’s Apple. So?
The local media reported how no other mobile phone launch had ever attracted so much consumer affection. In short, the iPhone got a red carpet reception worthy of a superstar. But why?
I think the geeks, ever since the first launch of the iPhone, were scratching their palms. Once in their hands, they could love it or they could hate it but ignore it they could not. They had to have a taste of the cherry. They had to be the first ones to sample this virgin product and boast to the world how it tasted for their palates. Chew on it, folks!
Others did it to look ubercool—the ones who go with the zeitgeist of the times. In their opinion, they seized the day, if you will. Carpe diem guys!
Yet others did it for love—boyfriends wanting to give it to their girlfriends or boyfriends (we are not here to debate orientations of any sort) or vice versa. The cool gadget became the latest (or ‘in’) beast of burden to carry their message of love. Wink, wink mates!
However, there were many who were enthusiastic about the product but are not happy with the pricing of the iPhone here—so they might have chosen to wait and watch before taking the plunge. For them publicity hasn’t got the better of their sensibility!
Because, hidden behind all this passion for a gadget, is the power of publicity (and Apple’s reputation for combining winning design with killer functionality). I cannot agree more with what Gartner research director Robin Simpson said in an interview with MIS Australia (“iPhone - is the hype justified?” See the video here).
Simpson said that Apple has become a master of garnering free publicity in last few years. As he admits, certainly they have done a great job of innovating and bundling of innovations (not necessarily made by them) together as a product that end users find easy to use or stylish.
Disappointment in India
However, as I have read in reports and the blogs, the power of publicity could not do much for the iPhone in India.
According to Raju Narisetti’s blog in Mint (a Delhi-based financial daily that Narisetti edits), the launch response was muted in India amid reports of the steep prices for iPhones there--at least three times more than what they retail for in the US with service restrictions.
For Indian standards, the iPhone’s prices are so steep that even Narisetti says he is not in a hurry to buy one: “As for me, if I had Rs37,000 (US$7,000) to burn, I know exactly what Sandeep Biswas archival photograph I am going to buy.”
According to one Biswajeet Das who responded to Narisetti’s blog entry, a few factors dampened the iPhone launch in India. “Reports suggested that sales were extremely slow - clearly indicating that the Indians still want a “Value For Money” product,” he opined.
The other factors he enumerated were how Indian business people still loved their Blackberries (which has a QWERTY keyboard) and lack of a customized marketing campaign for India (unlike Nokia which does a lot of local campaigns).
Makes sense to me as well.
But the most interesting aspect of the whole iPhone affair, in India, is the strange case of “reverse racism” in the sale of iPhones that Narisetti has pointed out. Apparently, Bharti Airtel Ltd. CEO Manoj Kohli said in an interview with Mint: “Most consumers seem to prefer the black iPhone, unlike the white (body) model that is popular elsewhere in the world. We need to order more of the black ones.” (Like SingTel, Bharti Airtel is distributing the iPhones in India; SingTel has some stake in the Indian telco too).
Quoting the report, he writes: “It is interesting how Indians have a different preference when it comes to the skin (ceramic or plastic) of inanimate objects (think about money for a second here) they lust after and want to show off.”
Well, that’s like taking the topic in a completely different direction, but the point that I am trying to make here is how adoption of technology or its products, can indicate nuances of human behaviour or have sociological connotations.
Zafar Anjum is the online editor of the MIS Asia portal.
