Trying to conjecture on what is behind this iPhone frenzy and what does it say about the future of marketing/promotion?My feeling is that in categories with very high rate of innovation, the template for marketing increasingly follows that of film promotions, where you maximize returns in a short span through a sensational build-up of curiosity. Mr. Jobs introduced the trailer to iPhone 6 months back and since then with selective dissemination of information/rumor/trivia etc. the audience has been kept sufficiently appetized. Now, the off-take needs to be maximized before a Nokia or a Motorola introduces the next great thing in mobiles and therefore all the hype and the mega-event of the release.
Incidentally, films are also seeing an interesting phenomenon. A recent Economist study shows how the highest grosser these days are grossing much higher amounts in much shorter time compared to say 8-10 years ago. People do not remember the movie 3 years down the line but consistently the record for gross collection is getting broken in successive years.
According to Shekhar Kapur, the day is not far when a movie will be launched as an event on the net - say Steven Spielberg's next big movie will be available for a download between 12am and 3am on XYZ date against a payment of K dollars- which will reduce the distribution cost to zero, eliminate any loss due to piracy etc. and curiosity of the early adopter will ensure that people across the globe will get online and download it.
With the explosion of creativity in category after category, this phenomena is only going to get accentuated as a brand's ability to be the in-thing is only as long or short as the launch of the next innovation. And personal gadgets (Faith Popcorn calls them 'accessible luxury'), in particular, have become central definers of personal identity leading people to heightened levels of desperation to acquire them to live up to their self image of being with-it!
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