大象传媒

Rory - I think you have it just about right. Anyone who reads the normal tech blogs must have been aware that this was the major news item and has been for probably days if not weeks.

It would therefore be pretty strange if the 大象传媒 technology pages hadn't covered it.

It's not just this week....remember the Air unboxing? Pure fanboy rubbish and NOT what I come to the 大象传媒 for.

For this week? Probably not as WWDC was an important event.

Overall? Yes, I'm afraid so. The iPhone is a great device but it's nor really bringing anything new to the table with the exception of multitouch. If you compare the latest version to the units coming out - or indeed available from - Nokia, SE, LG and others it's actually pretty behind the curve.

I guess I'm just somewhat surprised at the amount of coverage one product from one manufacturer got when there are many other great phones out there.

How is Nokia bringing anything new to the smartphone market? It uses an outdated OS and functionality that has been seen in phones for more than a decade.

At least Apple is trying to innovate a fragmented market, where nothing really new or groundbreaking has emerged in recent years.

It is important for the tech section of a news website to be talking about the news within the technology world at this current time - and the major news this week is the iPhone 3G.

If Nokia or LG where to hold an event for 52,000 people about their latest device I'm sure there will be equal coverage on these pages.

The 大象传媒 isn't advertising or pandering to 'fanboys', it's just reporting the news in technology. Furthermore it's not rating the iPhone positively nor negatively.

I didn't notice excessive coverage.

As for "[It's] NOT what I come to the 大象传媒 for." I don't come to the 大象传媒 for the tennis coverage or the news from Northern Ireland. I find the best way to not come to the 大象传媒 for something is to not click on the links that I don't come for.

This is the internet, not broadcast media, you have a choice as to what you view. The 大象传媒 provides such wide coverage I find it is the best site to not come to for all the things I am not interested in. In fact, it's so good I often discover new things that I don't come here for, but that doesn't mean that other people might not not not come here for them.

@BenjaminBowles

If you don't think Nokia are bringing anything to the smartphone market then you clearly haven't been paying attention to the 'phone sector.

Which, if you had been, you would have noticed there were actually 5,200 attendees at WWDC, not 52,000.

@BenjaminBowles

Nokia N95 launched before the iPhone and had 3G HSDPA, GPS, 5 Mega Pixel camera, Real Player, WPA2 Enterprise. All features not on the iPhone.

So in what way are Nokia behind the times?

iPhone 2.0:

No extra storage
No better camera
No picture messaging
No video
No Bluetooth audio
No copy and paste

Christ, it's hardly better than iPhone 1.0 let alone phones from other manufacturers.......

As for bringing something new to the handheld market, I'm afraid nothing on the iPhone was new, not even the touchscreen interface (Neonode, LG anyone?).

In answer to Revolution Blues
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about...
iPhone2
has Bluetooth Apple sells a bluetooth headset for it .....
No Picture messaging ???? right well it does actually...
No Copy and paste ?????
It runs OS X of course it has copy Paste....
No extra storage...... How much do you need on a Phone it has 16gb ?????
The phone is new as it runs a fully fledged copy of os x which means thousands of apps will just run on it....

@Rory,

I was the commenter you quoted in your opening.

THANK YOU for at least addressing my actual question. I know the 大象传媒 have some very strict rules on how stories are covered.

I simply asked why there was so much pre-launch iPhone coverage. I wanted to know, and still do, what the dividing line is between reporting on a product launch and actually providing pre-launch publicity.

Don't suppose you would like to answer Rory? If you do, I PROMISE to post it, in full on my blog! (with your permission sir)


Jim Connolly

I think the coverage has been spot on.

Every other tech website and blog has been awash with Apple news this week, and for the 大象传媒 to not report it would be a failure to provide its public service.

The fact is that Apple make products that people want. One can argue until the cows come home whether they're the best, or the most innovative, or give value for money, or are the most shiny, or whatever, but at the end of the day the sales figures speak for themselves.

@Bizniss

Well, yes, they do which is why we should probably hear more about HP - I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be any mention of the new VooDoo machines released considering the Envy is thinner then the Air - or Dell (and, in fairness, the blog did report that they're entering the UMPC market although I think they missed the merger of the XPS and Alienware brands) as well as the major phone companies as they all comprehensively outsell Apple.

This is the main point - I would have no argument with substantive posts about Apple if equal - or perhaps greater considering the wider range of products - coverage was given to other industry leaders and, frankly, it just isn't.

@morepeace: In your head maybe. And good on you to say I don't know what I'm talking about then only choosing to challenge half of my list.

@Bizness: What are you talking about, sales figures?! Seen how many iPhones are sold compared to Nokias, SEs?! It bombed in the UK! (See that up top? bbc.co.uk. So much for public service....).

@RevolutionBlues Oh you mean the half that was wrong, just plain wrong, the rest was irrelevent, you have not retracted your incorrect statements how can you come back bold as brass when you made 50% factual errors ?? what exactly are you achieving ???

Unfortunately for you, you have 'problems' with both Apple lovers and haters.

The Apple fans are still annoyed with the iPlayer situation, and how you are too connected to the company in Redmond. In my opinion, I expected an optimised iPlayer for the iPhone / iPod touch, but not a big deal.

However, the Apple haters doesn't like the fact that the iPhone gets special treatment. So does it? In my opinion, NO! If you love or hate the device, you can not deny the positive results it is having on the industry. Innovation has entered the industry finally. Over the next few years, no matter what phone you have, the introduction of the iPhone will have a positive effect on it.

I do feel sorry for the 大象传媒 with this issue. I remember an episode of Click, where viewers' emails were all concerned about how you were not reporting enough on Apple or Microsoft.

You can never win with some people.

PS. I do like your blogs. I like the more personal journalism with them, that you would not get in a normal article.

Thanks.

@morepeace

What are you talking about? As an Apple fan I know what is missing on the phone.

It does not run the exact same OS X as you see on the desktop. Yes there will be applications for it, but not how you are describing it.

@RevBlues

No extra storage .......... Well yeah that is true. I can live with 8Gb though.

No better camera .......... I expected an upgrade from the 2MP!

No picture messaging .......... I didn't think it was a big deal. Didn't believe people used MMS. Turns out they do!

No video .......... I still think the issue with this is that the screen on the phone is great, and therefore video from a 2MP camera would look crap.

No Bluetooth audio .......... Yup, BT (On the first one - Not sure for the new one) does suck.

No copy and paste .......... This would be a great feature. Still not sure how they would implement it though.

Hi Rory-

I notice there's a link that says 'complain about this post' underneath everyone's missives. Any chance I could complain about them all? They seem to be written by deranged lunatics with a shaky grasp of the English language and an even shakier grasp on reality.

Bet this gets moderated.

Namaste,
Hedley

It's hard to imagine a technology site not reporting on this and I really don't understand the criticism of the 大象传媒.

It's no secret that big product launches are aimed at catching press attention. I'm not talking about just technology and product launches. Companies provide journalists with statistics in the hope their name will be mentioned, and stage charity events to get column inches. They pay PR companies to do just that. Such practice isn't just limited to companies, but political parties do it too.

The extent to which the 大象传媒 bows to these tactics is an interesting debate. They have to report as much news as they can to remain competitive, and a lot of news comes from press releases and events, but they also have a reputation for impartiality to consider.

The difficulty is that Apple, more than most, has a reputation for relying on media hype to fuel sales. Relaying the hype, or even objectively reporting on the hype, can be seen as playing into Apple's hands.

I don't think the iPhone launch was covered too much by the 大象传媒. I'm an iPhone owner, so obviously I have a vested interest, I must admit that. However, the articles by the 大象传媒 were balanced in my opinion. And a blog from the event itself should report on the event itself.

The iPhone has changed the mobile phone market. I think it's a hard argument to win if you say it hasn't. The iPod has made history because it brought existing technology to the masses by making it easy to use, and dare I say it 'cool'. The speculation is whether Apple will achieve the same in the mobile phone market.

I think the 大象传媒 needs to be careful, but given the significance of the product and the style of the articles, I think the balance was right. As I said, it's hard to imagine a technology site not reporting on the new iPhone launch.

I think this weeks reporting has been justified, but it just seems to be the tip of the iceberg. Macs are still very much in the minority yet they seem to have a huge amount of coverage on this blog.

@morepeace, are you serious?! Since when do you decide on behalf of me and everyone else which mobile phone feature is relevant and which is not!? [What arrogance.]

I do not accept that any of my claims were wrong and you have offered no evidence to support you strong assertion that they were. [Another big dose of arrogance.]

Your claim that the iPhone runs full OS X shows you are the one talking rubbish. It runs "iPhone OS" not "Mac OS X". I suggest you learn the difference - Wikipedia will oblige. [Adds some ignorance to the mix.]

I suggest you do what many Apple fanboys should actually do. You know, buy an Apple product and truly find out for yourself rather than repeat internet rumour and hype.

I'm an Apple fan. I have an iMac and an iPhone and my next laptop will of course be a MacBook.

However, I think the 大象传媒 hasn't done the best job of the iPhone 3G coverage because they have been a little too 'worshippy'.

Frankly I was disappointed yesterday. I love my iPhone, but, I thought for sure we would be getting something much better in the 2nd generation.

A better camera and a new front facing video calling camera were the two big hardware changes I was hoping for and they didn't materialise.

Then there is the 2.0 software. Where is MMS support? The voice dialling? The A2DP Bluetooth? These are all things that would actually make the iPhone as good as the hype.

More relevant to your post however, where is the 大象传媒's criticism that the iPhone is still lacking these features?

Of course, I'll upgrade to the new iPhone, but I won't do it with the huge smile on my face that I was hoping to have.

Coverage of the iPhone is fine... but I'd like to see coverage of Nokia's new N96 when that comes out.

(etc. etc.)

"Seen how many iPhones are sold compared to Nokias, SEs?!"

This is the sort of comment I continually fail to understand. Everyone is coming out with some sort of stat about how many Nokias are sold compared to iPhones. How can you possibly compare the sale of one companies entire portfolio of mobile phones (in Nokia's case, hundreds) to another company's one model.

Like the sensible people are saying, if the 大象传媒 didn't cover this there would be something wrong. At least they didn't start posting pictures of photoshopped iPhones that people had been coming up with day after day like the main fanboy/tech sites.

Also, I agree with RJTysoe, if you don't come here to read about iPhone, don't click on any link with "iPhone" written in it...simple.

There was one news story and a blog published on it. Hardly over the top I'd say.

I think it's totally right for the 大象传媒 to cover the iPhone seeing as it is a revolution in mobile computing.

I am in no doubt the 大象传媒 should cover the release of the iPhone, but in my view the articles should have been far more balanced. From the comments I've seen posted so far, there is still a lot of information we need to be presented with. If the 大象传媒 is going to tell us the features the iPhone 2 has, why is there not more coverage of what it lacks? Why is the iPhone seen as a revolutionary product when practically all of the features it has have been in the market for years?

I have been hoping for some time now that there would be an article on Apple's marketing techniques. As far as I can tell, the majority of the iPhone's success is due to the way apple have marketed it. When the original iPhone was released, there were competing products on the market offering the same features, if not better and the same seems to be happening with iPhone 2. Is this due to Apple's PR department? What causes the fervour in Apple fans for the latest product? Where are their competitors going wrong when they release seemingly better products that don't get as much attention?

I enjoy reading the 大象传媒's Ad Breakdowns, maybe we could have a special on the phenomenon that has been Apple's rebirth as a computer manufacturer, through it's iPod days up to today's iPhone mania?

All these people ticking off feature lists "it hasn't got this, it hasn't got that"

Did any of you even WATCH the demo?? Did anyone see the man from MimVista demo the iPhone displaying body scans over the network? Did any see the US Army IT boffin saying the iPhone is a revelation? Did anyone see the Disney IT CEO saying he had hundreds of calls from people wanting an iPhone when the 2.0 software was announced? Did anyone see the brilliant 'Band' software from a British Guy (can't remember his name, but WOW!)

This is what it's about people - SOFTWARE! The beauty of the iPhone is it is the software that dominates the device, not the specifications of the hardware.

If I see one more post like "waaaah it hasn't got a 7MP camera" I think I'll go beserk! The camera is not a professional camera. It's for an architect to snap a quick pic to show the builder is not doing something right. It's for when someone clips the wing mirror of your car, to show the insurance people the damage. If you need a professional camera you do not use an N95 - megapixel measurements are, once again, only one part of a bigger picture (no pun intended).

It's the software, stupid. The sooner people realise this, the sooner they will realise that this device IS a big deal.

Keep up the good work, Rory.

I am not sure that it is right for the 大象传媒 to focus on the product launch in such a way...
Did you focus on the HTC phones in the same way?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

As I posted on the previous thread, I wonder whether any of the journalists writing these Apple puff pieces are prepared to declare whether they have ever taken advantage of the discount Apple offers to journalists on its products?

So Twitter's the benchmark of newsworthiness? Sigh...

'What causes the fervour in Apple fans for the latest product? Where are their competitors going wrong when they release seemingly better products that don't get as much attention?'

One thing that Apple have got supremely right is their valuation of truly integrating design intelligence into product development, marketing and packaging. It feeds straight into their bottom line in terms of the added mark-up it facilitates.

Apple products are their corporate identity, made flesh. Owning one signifies one's approval of, and alignment with, those brand values in a way that no other company in the sector has achieved.

Apple products are distinctively, consistently and recognisably, 'of Apple'.

Once people make the emotional investment in the idea that they are expressing something of themselves in buying Apple products then they are primed for further purchases and defending their choice.

The other major manufacturers may have some consistency across a product category, at any given moment, but the totality of their output says nothing about their corporate philosophy.

They have no identity to evangelise.

As a user of 'Smartphones' over the past 8 years the current crop from the usual suspects are severely lacking in usability. They may have a lot of features but they are either unreliable or unaccessible without remembering a myriad of hoops to jump through to use them.

The iPhone is a fresh look at the "smartphone". The feature set is not as rich as others in the market but that isn't what its about. Its about the interface to the features it has. My hope is that it makes the like of Nokia, Sony-Ericsson etc take a long hard look at their interfaces and declutter them making things much easier to use.

Its about time that the technology worked how people want to use it rather than people having to learn how to use the technology.

@Lennie99, so nice of Apple to sell you a phone supposedly capable of all those things but you have to go on to the internet and find out how to hack your phone, or buy new software, or download new programs before you can actually do it.

Or you can buy another phone and do it straight out of the box. Of course, it's not really about features is it, but how slim and shiny it looks, and how colourful the UI is. Which is why when someone says "Nokia N95" the iFanboys shreek "But look how THICK it is!".

As a man once said, "It's all about the pinstripes".........

I think a lot of people are missing the point here - it's not about what the iPhone can or can't do, it's about the amount of coverage given to one product from one band and whether or not this is disproportionate.

Rory, I take your point about the technology index having more traffic to this story than anything else - and since WWDC is a big event then that's understandable - but must point out that if you don't actually publish articles about other manufacturer's products/developments they're not going to get any traffic at all!

@RevolutionBlues

That's the point you're missing, the iPhone is capable of so much more if you have the invention, desire and need. I'm an N95 owner but have used the iPhone and I use 5% of the N95s features because the UI is awkward and slow. The iPhone is undoubtably more intuitive and certainly innovative if you look beyond the gloss.

As I said, I don't own an iPhone, but I do own a Mac. If you've used Apple's fantastically intuitive Mail software then you'll understand how using the iPhone for email, especially with IMAP, is a massive step forward from the sluggish Symbian OS email system. And with Exchange functionality promoted in iPhone 2.0 software Windows users can be just as happy.

If everything was 'out-of-the-box', then there'd be no need for 3rd-party developers and we'd be stuck with a poor phone and then you'd be right. But, because of the clever open OS we can quite rightly say the iPhone is the most innovative smart phone on the market.

If you think camera's are what phone innovation is all about then I think you're missing the point.

Most of iPhone 3G's new features are designed to address shortcomings in the earlier release: namely enterprise services, wi-fi support, activation of GPS etc.

The software side is more impressive (I especially liked Band which, let's be honest, is basically Garageband for the iPhone).

The facts are simple though, iPhone largely designed to please a US audience. The markets in Japan and Europe are more advanced and demand better features. Good cameras, decent bluetooth and video are more commonly a part of this in these markets. Apple has only gone part of the way to addressing these things. Memory is also an issue. What use is 16GB to me? I have a 30GB iPod that's just about full. I vaguely hoped for a higher price point 30GB model.

Apple do vertical integration. This is how the manage to maintain these fantastically well designed services, including .Mac, sorry MobileMe. companies like Nokia (and Microsoft) tend to work horizontally, which causes its own problems.

I watched the WWDC keynote with interest becasu eit seemed to be much more filler than killer this time round. Lots of the demos were nice, but had the whiff of padding an announcement that wasn't that momentous. But hey, that's what Apple do.

What Microsoft should worry about though, is that all the touch and gesture features run in an OS X kernel on the phone. how much effort is it to port this to a desktop so that Windows 7's much-touted touch features may be behind the curve even at launch? Not much I bet. I suspect that (10.6) Snow Leopard's feature set is not fully revealed yet, and these features would not damage stability. Apple's take on Snow Leopard is more interesting, as they seem to be taking a line of it being the "anti-Vista" and not jammed with new stuff. We shall see

I think the 大象传媒 coverage of this devices launch is comparible to the huge amounts of coverage for Android, and the N95 I have seen on here.

Its obviously the big tech news story of the week, and the cult of Apple that Jobs has built, with the 5200 (nice extra 0 on their benjaminbowles!) black turtleneck wearing devotees at WWDC mean that the event itself, and the launch is more than your average tech story. Apple has tapped into the market in a very interesting way in the last 10 years and it causes heavy debate.

I was one of the people that was very critical of the original device, but they've managed to turn my viewpoint around with their app store, developer licenses, percentage based commission, and of course adding 3G and GPS. Unless Google present something more concrete to me about Android in the next 4 weeks, I'm afraid that money for my HTC Android phone may very well be placed in Apple's pocket.

One thing is for sure, Windows Mobile is so far behind the curve now, I am wondering if it will ever catch up, Asus and HTC's funky front ends also taken in account. If Microsoft is serious about mobile, they need to rebuild WM from the ground up and not continually try to polish the original Windows CE code.

Sod the publicity! I can read it, or not, my choice.

However when's the iPlayer going to support Symbian (or any other platform). The 大象传媒 have decided to add it exclusively to the iPhone, one of the least used platforms in their home country, whilst ignoring the majority of us who use Nokia smartphones. We still pay our licensing fee, don't we?

I must say that I am rather sick of all the free publicity that the iPhone is getting.

Everyone is talking about all the postives of the iPhone yet no broadcaster is actually showing the negatives of the iPhone!

The iPhone is around 4 years + behind in its features. Apple missed the boat last year and it looks like they will miss the boat in Europe and Asia with the iPhone 2.

It's almost as if the media is worried about getting on the wrong side of Apple...

I think its been pretty balanced coverage from the 大象传媒. For example i can remember a huge amount of coverage of Microsoft Zune, and i have never seen anybody use one.
I think the problem for the 大象传媒 is that unlike other equipment designers and producers information from Apple is very tightly controlled. I have a mate who is a journalist and his mailbox is choc full of press releases from other companies on their products.
Any product information from Apple is very limited so gets a bit more coverage when it is launched.

@Hooligooner you are spot on.

Apple's one phone product has lead to more people using a mobile phone to access the internet than all the other smartphones put together. (I'd source the statistics but I don't seem to get my post accepted when I include a link). This is despite (as has been pointed out) the fact that the iPhone is still small player in the smartphone market, and there are more users of other smartphones.
That makes the iPhone newsworthy in my opinion.
Should the 大象传媒 cover the launch of a new version?
Yes. This is a market changing product, that is now more affordable and has a faster network connection than previously. This may put it in the hands of many more people.
Even if the iPhone is playing catch-up with technology and market share, it is already ahead of the game in terms of actual usage of the 'smart' part of the phone!

@mrmaffster

I think that had more to do with the unlimited data contracts than the 'surfing experience'.

In addition, in the UK, the iPhone is well off the pace in terms of mobile browsing as the May edition of PC Pro shows:

1. PSP - 23.7%
2. Nokia N95 - 20.2%
3. iPAQ HX series - 20.1%
4. Palm TX - 3.6%
5. Apple iPhone - 3.4%

So, no, it's not a market changing product here.

@ Mark_MWFC

"I think that had more to do with the unlimited data contracts than the 'surfing experience'. "

You think. That's the problem with a lot of your statements, they're just your thoughts. Anyone can make statements like you do Mark, the hard part is proving what you say is true.

So, in keeping with the theme - I think it has more to do with the fact Safari on the iPhone/iPod touch is easy to use and presents websites how they are intended than an unlimited data plan.

Provide proof for your comments, and maybe people will start to believe you.

@twelveightyone

Provide proof?

You mean other than the reference to PC Pro's survey and the extract of data usage in the UK from the article?

Honestly, grow up. Apple are just a company who make nice products and have probably the best marketing department in the world. They're not your family and you don't have to get upset when people crticise them.

twelveightyone,

I got my stats from marketshare.hitslink.com
who supply stats for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Macworld amongst others.

They monitor 1000s of websites to generate stats on Operating Systems, browsers, ISPs, search engines etc.

Basic Stats on OS in May:
Windows: 91.13%
Mac: 7.83%
Linux: 0.68%
iPhone: 0.16%
Playstation: 0.03%

The breakdown shows:
iPhone: 0.16%
Windows CE (smart phone): 0.06%
PSP: 0.02%
S60 (N65 and others): 0.02%

This somewhat contradicts your statistics, however you state yours are UK survey results whereas mine are Global, so it may explain the discrepancy (I could get uk specific stats, but I don't fancy paying the $99!).
Does PC Pro state it's source?

A quick updated for those interested
The European marketshare (stats provided by XiTi) give the following stats for April:

iPhone: 0.05%
PSP: 0.03%
Windows CE: 0.02%

With no stats for the S60 OS.

So of the mobile platforms covered, the iPhone has the largest market share...

Too much Firefox?

The top story today advertises the new browser's features, the launch time and the record breaking attempt. A nice big Firefox logo at the top.

Can you imagine if it were Apple's free download of Safari! It would cause outrage!

The new iphone probably did warrant a mention. I think though the issue is the lack of balance we see in certain elements of the 大象传媒's tech reporting. Hundreds of phones are launched each year, many with new and interesting features and yet only apple gets reported and then in a way that reads more advertising copy than a genuine news item.
The same goes for the ipod, all apple has to do is change it's colour and the 大象传媒 will give it a new advert.
The same for laptops; the likes of ASUS are kicking off a revolution in low cost sub notebooks but the only piece judged newsworthy is an apple device costing four times the price and whose only selling point is that it's thin.
The list goes on, any time apple does anything it seems the 大象传媒 suspends all critical thinking and fires out a front page news article that reads more like an advert than the kind of balanced report we expect from the 大象传媒.
Not that this is limited to apple, sony get similar treatment particularly in the gaming market - although this has become more balanced of late.