1 Email, 15 Million Shares, and a 23 Minute Lie: The iPhone Phenomenon Continues

You may or may not feel that Engadget did anything wrong in their handling of this mini-scandal. I have read many articles that take the position that Engadget was lax in their duties as journalists. Preferring to publish a sensational rumor instead of a more pedestrian truth. Because, after all, the truth isn’t nearly as exciting. Or you may feel that Engadget was just doing what every major news outlet does and that if Fox News, CNN, and the New York Times can get away with it, so should they. But I’m not here to talk about Engadget and their journalistic integrity (or lack thereof), I’m here to talk about the iPhone. I think, after this little incident, it is safe to say that more than a couple of people are interested in the iPhone. If you had any doubts that the industry didn’t care, they can now be laid to rest.

But let us sit back and marvel at this for a moment, shall we? Apple’s stock took a vicious beating, losing about 5% of its value in a 23 minute period all because of one email. A lot of people who should have known better bit hard on this one. Millions of dollars were lost by some (and of course gained by others) because of one email. And did I mention it only took 23 minutes? That is about one episode of Seinfeld. So, in about the time that George was losing another job or Jerry was cracking jokes about airports, Apple’s stock was going nuts. Microsoft should take note of this. If I were Ballmer I would have a division created tomorrow whose only goal was to send Engadget fake stories in hopes of messing up Apple’s mojo.

Might as well, right? Its not like anything else is working really well for them at the moment.

But getting back to the iPhone. I think that this one device has now created more hype than any other product, real or imagined, that has ever been associated with Apple. There is only one month to go and the insanity continues to increase. The iPod has been out for what, six years or so? Go to Google and search for iPod and you will get around 222 million hits. That’s right, it has been out for six years, has seen five different revisions, currently comes in three different product lines and returns 222 million hits (and that is including all the iPod-related products, reviews, etc.). The iPhone has been announced for all of less than five months and already it returns 53 million hits. The desire for this product, hell, for information about this product, blows my mind.

So mark your calendars because the shock wave hits in June. After its release every cellphone, PDA, and MP3 player will be measured against the iPhone. And to a certain extent, I don’t think it will matter how good the iPhone is; everything will be compared to it by default. And personally, while I think it will be an amazing device, I think it will be much like the original iPod. Very cool, full of promise, but needing one more iteration before it really becomes perfect. And I don’t think Apple will have a problem hitting its sales targets. How do I know? Call it a hunch.