Perspective: Apple's Cabbage Patch doll

When the press botches a story, it's cause for the usual glee with the gotcha crowd.

So it is that Engadget is taking its lumps after a very public screwup this week. But there'll be no crowing about a rival's discomfort in this corner. After all, there but for the grace of God go I.

On Wednesday, Engadget reported that Apple was going to further delay the release of its Leopard operating system. It also claimed that Apple would delay the release of its upcoming iPhone, perhaps the most anticipated (or hyped) product in the company's history. The reaction was instantaneous: Apple's shares fell 2.2 percent on the news. Then less than half an hour later, Engadget began to back off its original claims.

The story got emended several times and by the time Engadget posted its final version, we learned that the initial story was based on a purportedly internal memo detailing the delays. Unfortunately for Engadget, the memo turned out to be a prank.

Welcome to the fast and furious world of Internet reporting. The reaction--perhaps it's more accurate to qualify it as an "over-reaction"--to the faux news underscored the hair-trigger times in which we live.

Welcome to the fast and furious world of Internet reporting. The reaction
--perhaps it's more accurate to qualify it as an "over-reaction"
--to the faux news underscored the hair-trigger times in which we live.

So far, no evidence has turned up to suggest the memo originated on an Apple e-mail server. A more likely scenario is that somebody outside the company sent it hoping to mess with the heads of Apple employees. As we near the midway point of 2007, it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that e-mail is quite easy to forge.

The episode also demonstrated the frenzy surrounding the iPhone.

As a colleague of mine noted, everyone covering the Apple beat would be willing to sell their firstborn to get an iPhone scoop. To be sure, ever since Steve Jobs first showed off the iPhone at Macworld 2007 in San Francisco, the hysteria surrounding the device has been staggering.

What we know about the product is the following: The mobile device has built-in features such as music and video playback, plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a digital camera. The 4GB version is priced at $499 with a two-year contract; the 8GB version, $599. And it's made by Apple, so by definition, we have come to believe, it has to be cool.

Beyond the raw specs, nobody really has a true sense of how the product will work. That's hardly an accident, because the mystery leads to intense speculation and debate that feeds on itself. Will it be enough to guarantee a hit? That's the $64,000 question. Apple doesn't usually announce products six months in advance of their official launch. But the company is so practiced in manipulating the message to fire up anticipation that the frenzied atmosphere around the upcoming launch of this product is no surprise.

In that sense, I can understand the financial markets' bout of temporary insanity after Engadget's report went live. (Of course, why anybody with brains in their head would dump stock on the basis of an unsubstantiated blog post speaks volumes about the irrationally exuberant times that we inhabit. But that's fodder for another day.)

The purported tip and subsequent stock sell-off showcased in a very concrete way how quickly information can spread in the Internet era, reaching the point where things take on a life of their own. Engadget was just playing into that. Granted, it wasn't doing it so effectively, but the blog site is hardly the only outfit that would have pursued such an e-mail. And it's going to stay this way until Apple officially declares the release date.

How crazy can it yet become? Just wait for the madhouse when the first review models become available. Cabbage Patch dolls, anyone?

Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.

More Perspectives

[deggie]

What frenzy?

The only frenzy I've seen on the iPhone is some (and it is a small
some) in the Apple discussions site. Your article is the first one
I've seen in any media (I read both local papers in a major area
and NY Times and Washington Post feeds) that said there is a
"frenzy" over the iPhone. Even Apple's advertising has been
subdued and limited, although I think that is about to change.

The Cnet article about some con artists saying they would have
iPhones on eBay is also bogus as all of those sites are now off
eBay.

Sorry, but I think engadget should have been more careful about
this story and I think their credibility is now in the toilet.

[Lindy01]

Frenzy my.....

NOT. This is not some new game console everyone has been waiting 3 or 4 years for. (It cost more than some though) There wont be people sleeping on the pavment outside of Cingular stores waiting to get one of these.

Its cool looking and from a looks stand point probably the coolest looking phone around. That said its non-replacable battery, lack of 3G and native support for MS Exchange is going to kill its popularity in the buisness world.

In the Joe consumer world it will never be popular unless the price comes way down.

If I walk into a Cingular store after this phone comes out am I going to spend $499-$599 for an iphone, or am I going to pick one of these up

http://business.cingular.com/businesscenter/8525/index.jsp

for $399....that has 3G (plug into your notebook and surf the internet on Wireless Broad band), MS Exchange wifi syncing support, IM from AOL, MSN, or Yahoo....and the ability to pop out the battery, load thousands of programs and hey play music that is synced to your phone from your PC. You can find 2gb memory cards for less than $25 http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Micro-SD-2-GB/dp/B000JLP5UK

Got to have it to show of....geeks will rush to buy the iphone, and so will the buy anything Apple, worship Jobs hate anything MS drones. The rest of the public will thinks its really cool...and then pass when they see that you could buy a Wii and a Core Xbox 360 for the price of a high end iphone.

[dansterpower]

This frenzy

It is everywhere -- my god.

My neighbor has offered up his 19 year old daughter and his wife
for one.

The neighbor kids have iPhone tatooed onto their arms.

Everywhere, everyone, wants one.

[chrisrindone]

Check your facts

It is widely reported elsewhere that the memo did in fact originate from Apple's mail server. Also, Engadget attempted to verify the memo with Apple's PR department, and received no response for two hours.

In the world of faster than fast information it is a precarious path for any journalist - whether a member of big media, or casual blogger - which is why verifying facts is absolutely vital.

I sympathize with any journalist who falls victim to a hoax, especially where the target - in this case Apple - was way behind the curve of the story.

[nicmart]

How silly

It's ridiculous to suggest that it is the fault of the victim of
bogus reporting not to have responded more quickly. The story
shouldn't have been posted until it was verified, even if it took a
day.

You demonstrate nicely the problem with the rush to scoop. It
sacrifices truth for haste. Turning ethics upside down, you
blame Apple.

What was the great hurry to report this story? Was Apple about
to invade Iran? Was it about to lob nukes at North Korea?

[TowerTone]

Actually, you are wrong

"There wont be people sleeping on the pavment outside of
Cingular stores waiting to get one of these."

Yes, there will. It won't be me, as I am looking forward to the
2nd revision.
However, your total lack of insight as to what many-although
not EVERYONE-wants, a gadget that does many things, and does
them without the hassle of Windows, is a bit apparent.
This is not designed for the corporate world. Many may find it
useful, but its core target are people who want to carry one
piece of equipment that does many things well.

[dotmike]

Actually, he may be right

They won't be sleeping outside Cingular stores... they'll be sleeping
outside Apple stores! Both Apple and AT&T are selling it.

And they won't be sleeping, they'll be using the free WiFi.

[smithjones]

edited?

I think editing has been done to the talkback section..., I do not see
my prior post along with 2 other post. Interesting!

[smithjones]

oops, my bad...

similar story on cnet..., wrong story. : P

[Solaris_User]

except.. its not a real product yet..

"What we know about the product is the following: The mobile device has built-in features such as music and video playback, plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a digital camera. The 4GB version is priced at $499 with a two-year contract; the 8GB version, $599. And it's made by Apple, so by definition, we have come to believe, it has to be cool."

Funny.. thats all anyone has ever known about it. I think is really amusing how people are out there saying "Oh the iPhone is os and so, and it will appeal to this certain market, but not the business market because its not business savvy etc.."

To this day.. nobody has even seen and iPhone. How do that know what it will do? Also I swear Cingular put out some "Test ad's" with the price set to $299 to see how it would be received. So.. if its popular.. you might expect them to drop the cost..

[Orion Blastar]

Careful now

The Cabbage Patch Doll did great at first, but it was a fad. Eventually Coleco lost money trying to sell them after the 15 minutes of fame the Cabbage Patch Dolls had faded out. The same thing happened with the ColecoVision when Coleco tried to make it a computer called the Adam.

If Apple has the next Cabbage Patch Doll, it means it will be profitable for a few years, and then tank and cause massive loses for Apple, until another company buys it out ten years later and tries to bring it back.

[charlie cooper]

Not quite

Seems that you're talking about something else. I remember the Coleco episode. My Cabbage Patch reference was with regard to the frenzy of media coverage (and reviews) to be expected when the iPhone finally hits the market.

Regards

[PCCRomeo]

The iPhone can wait!

I don't give a **** about the iPhone, limited to only Cingular "now
AT&T" customers. I am buying a MacBook this fall and if it doesn't
come with the new OS, which I really want it to, I'm not paying
extra to upgrade to it later.

[jmdunys]

iPhone's already a hit

The media coverage is not all. I live in the UK and people in the street talk about the iPhone - even it's only out of curiosity.

I've got 4 grown up kids and I purchased a phone for each of them. They don't care about the network. They care about the phone. It needs to look cool, it needs to play music, it needs a camera. They hate the different keyboards and would welcome a touch screen phone. And all their friends from school, college, university think the same. For them, price is not such a big problem (like buying clothes from expensive names).

A quick calculation tells me that for every 'good-enough-phone-with-all-the-bells-and-whistles' business user I know, there are at least about 20 other users ready to jump on the 'upcoming cool multimedia phone'.

At 20 to 1, If I was Apple, I wouldn't belosing sleep over the WiFi/G3/OUtlook-sync/256M-Ram/2G-HDD/and-whatever-you can-throw-at-it-but-it's-still-a 'normal'-mobile phone.