Wolf Tracking

While I typically LOVE anything new, especially mobile phones, I won’t be one of the millions of people who are expected to switch from current cell phone providers to AT&T (I’m a Sprint customer), trade in their current mobile devices (I have a Blackberry 8703e) and plop down more than $499 for a new Apple iPhone – today.

According to Apple and AT&T, the iPhone is expected to be a “revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service. And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want - just like email.

Personally, I don’t feel the need to be that cool AND I’m not going to spend such an insane amount of money customizing my service plan. I mean, who wants a basic iPhone without all the bells and whistles. It’s like buying a Cadillac Escalade without the rims!

I’ve also heard that there are very slow Internet speeds and some issues with the keyboards. Of course, to be expected with the first-generation release of this product.

But let’s switch gears on the product aspects to talk about the sheer media frenzy of it all.

Talk about dominating the news, media and pop culture. This iPhone is being written about, blogged about, talked about and Googled more than when news hit that Paris Hilton was prematurely released from jail and then sent back to the slammer crying.

Case in point, when I Googled Paris Hilton there were approximately 71,200,000 and when I Googled the Apple iPhone, it took the lead with 72,900,000 results in 0.9 seconds. Ok, granted this is not a true numerical calculation since we’re off by fractions of a second – but I know you get my drift.

My advice to anyone considering buying the iPhone on Friday is this:

• Read the product reviews; just check out this Reuters article in InformationWeek.
• If you’re not a current AT&T/Cingular customer, contact your mobile provider to ask about early termination fees (my early termination fee through Sprint is $250).

There has been a moment in every Internet voyager’s life, where you have asked yourself, ‘I wonder what the Internet has to say about me’. We have all done it, sheepishly looked around to make sure no one is watching and typed our name into Google, waiting on the edge of our seats until we realize the only thing that is published on the Internet about us is our name on the ninth grade honor roll. There is even a new play called I Google Myself that deals with this very phenomenon. And while the play appears to be a manufactured drama about a man trying to find the meaning of life through an Internet search, it reflects a very human instinct—the instinct to locate ourselves in the ever burgeoning world of new media and technology, to question how we fit into the ever expanding web of knowledge and information that is available to us. But as our access to this web grows, we cannot help but ask the question, is there any privacy in the world of the Internet?

Based upon the growing number of social networking sites, it appears that privacy is the last thing that Internet users want—this is an age where you can search for your ex-girlfriend on Facebook, or look up your blind date for Wednesday night on Myspace or read your neighbors Blog posting. And it is exactly this voyeuristic desire that has lead to a new spawn of information data bases, like Stalkerati a website that searches all social networking sites and creates a profile of the person being searched. That’s right… it is the ultimate Internet stalking site. While the appearance of this type of database may seem alarming and invasive, is going to one site to do “Internet stalking” any different then spending time searching up old friends and foes on Facebook and Myspace? The site boasts itself as “a little hack” put together in two hours in order to eliminate going to various networks in order to track someone down, however it somehow feels much more invasive and foreboding…especially because the creator uses the world “cyberstalk” to describe his vision.

It is one thing to sign up for a service that allows you to create a profile, and quite another to be subject to random searches from a third-party source—but where is the line drawn? And do we as Internet users who voluntarily sign up for networking sites have a right to police this type of activity?

This type of access to information however, does not stop or even start with “little hack” sites like Stalkerati, it extends to the big bad wolf of search engines, Google. And even sites like Google do not eschew our privacy anxieties. Recently some 27 countries from the European Union have launched an investigation on exactly how Google stores its user information. And this concern is not unfounded. Google surveys and stores the words visitors’ type into its site, and also tracks surfing behavior between websites searched. And while this is different then providing personal information it comes dangerously close to painting an intimate picture of the user. This lack of Internet privacy is not just alarming because any hacking capable stranger can find information about our favorite websites, movies, or personal photos, but because as The Wall Street Journal notes, this access to information does not stop there. In a recent article about Internet privacy Jason Fry, assistant managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Online and fellow Blogger writes,

“Property deeds, marriage and divorce records, court files, motor-vehicle information and tax documents are increasingly being digitized, and contain a wealth of information that few of us would want online: Social Security numbers, birth dates, maiden names and images of our signatures. Local governments have rushed to put those documents online for a decade or so, often without scrubbing them of such information. And that’s made them potentially fertile ground for busybodies, stalkers and identity thieves. ”

It is for these very personal reasons, that the increasing access to information from the smallest scale of sites like Stalkerati, to the conglomerates like Google, is alarming. Because how do you selectively control information that is all just out there, in the great unknown abyss of the Internet? As the network of social media grows, and we excitedly gather a greater level of knowledge and social connectedness, we are also charting a new territory—a territory ripe with questions of where our desire for unlimited access ends and where our personal privacy begins. This is just something to ask yourself the next time you do a little Internet spying.

The increase in the number of reality television programs over the last five years has been quite dramatic. We’ve seen everything from new game shows to talent contents, to makeover efforts. But have you read this description of a reality show? A “dying” woman, suffering a brain disease has to choose who gets her healthy kidney among three contestants in need of a transplant. From the looks of it, this was not going to be your average reality show.

Produced by Endemol NV, the creators of Big Brother, the program was entitled, “The Big Donor Show” and was picked up by a Dutch television station. Three days before airing, it was revealed that the whole thing was a hoax. Though the show was labeled distasteful and unethical and didn’t take off in an “airing” sense, it did take off in a “conversation” sense. Reality television has changed the way we interpret television entertainment and more importantly changed the way marketing messages are relayed to the consumer.

Reality TV has been such a gold mine for companies and advertisers. Viewers have made stronger connections to these reality stars. Anything that the reality star uses, the viewer has taken stronger notice of as well. Stronger connections have allowed the unveiling of each new reality television show the opportunity for differentiated and targeted branding. This is what drives the conversation. Multiple dialogues get created among the targeted audiences. Buzz is generated and companies are effectively getting their messages across while successfully adapting to this changing television landscape.

So what was so different about this reality show in terms of engaging consumers? The show would have shown the harsh realities of life and yes, it would have come off as unethical, but the idea of influencing the consumer remained the same, it just went with a very risky topic. Just like in every other reality show, a product was indirectly trying to be sold, in this case, donor programs. The show created multiple forms of dialogue and resulted in viewers calling into the local health centers and Googling kidney websites. It was reported that thousands of people started downloading donor forms. Though off the beaten path in their show production, the producers’ ability to engage consumers was quite a success in this ever changing media environment.

After years of widespread rumors, we watched as Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s iPhone during his Macworld keynote in January, an announcement that took the mobile and consumer electronics industries by storm.

While the infamous Consumer Electronics Show was underway, in a brilliant marketing ploy, Jobs completely swept the thunder from all of his competitors (who at the time were undoubtedly clamoring for the attention of David Pogue, Walter Mossberg, and the like) as his announcement incited “iPhone-mania.”

As Jobs promised, the iPhone should be ready to ship later this month, and six months since his speech, Jobs’ wonder-phone is still making headlines as fever builds for the big debut.

So what’s all the hype? We all have a cell phone, a music device, access to the Web, right?

Apple’s marketing muscle.

Jobs has driven one of the most impactful marketing campaigns in modern history, successfully building expectations for what some have called “the God machine” as iPhone hysteria is beginning to reach levels usually reserved for the newest video game system at Christmas time.

Despite the device’s lofty price tag – $600 – both Apple and AT&T (exclusive service provider) have received more than one million inquiries about the product’s availability.

Well, for all those eager consumers, the answer’s here. Continuing its aggressive marketing strategy, Apple confirmed it will release the iPhone on June 29 through a series of commercials on Sunday promoting the combination mobile phone and iPod music player.

The company’s promotional strategy has employed a clever mix of traditional television ads (such as those we saw this weekend), well-timed announcements (any recollection of a CES product announcement?) and stunts only the elite few playing in Jobs’ sandbox can pull off. During a recent appearance at a technology industry conference in Southern California, Jobs teased the audience by pulling an iPhone out of his pocket and quickly slipping it back in.

Typical of Jobs’ impressive track record of executing ingenious marketing programs (iPod did pretty well, huh?), his timing again seems perfect this time around. Apple appears to have entered the mobile market at precisely the right moment in technology and consumerism to merge computers with phones.

Most analysts believe that Apple will easily exceed its initial goal of selling 10 million phones by the end of next year. Investors seem to agree – Apple’s stock has skyrocketed due to speculation and excitement over the iPhone in recent months.

But how well has Apple managed the public’s expectations of the iPhone’s performance?

First generation iPods had a host of problems and bugs that were quickly fixed in subsequent generations, but excitement for the music player at the time was nowhere near that of the iPhone today.

It will be interesting to watch how Apple rolls out the product and harnesses its marketing prowess to circumnavigate the bumpy road that will surely follow.