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Apple’s manufactured scarcity, free publicity, playing for the analysts

• ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  Even Gruber, who previously dismissed every Android phone with line based logic: "There will never be an Android phone that people line up for like they did for Windows 95 — or like they do today, once or twice a year, for major new products from Apple." [1] and hyped the Verizon iPhone, not on sales, but on its ability to generate lines: "Is it going to be a lines-around-the-block situation, like the last four summer iPhone debuts on AT&T? Or is it going to be un-sensational — on the grounds that the sort of people who’d wait for hours in line to get an iPhone as soon as possible already have one on AT&T? I’m going to say it’d be an event. I don’t think the lines would be as long as they were this summer for the iPhone 4 on AT&T, but I think there are going to be lines — especially in places where AT&T service is poor, like New York and San Francisco." [2] seems to have twigged that Apple manufactures these as part of its symbiotic relationship with the media: "Can’t help but think that pre-orders (such that they’d arrive in customers’ hands tomorrow) weren’t available because Apple wants to see lines outside Apple Stores around the country." [3] [1] http://daringfireball.net/2010/12/emotional_rescue http://daringfireball.net/2010/12/emotional_rescue [2] http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/n92 http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/n92 [3] http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/10/ipad-2 http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/10/ipad-2