(Although “all publicity is good publicity” can work as a
marketing mantra, it doesn’t necessarily translate well to business
strategy)

You can’t call yourself a blogger these days unless you write an
article about the iPhone. You know how it goes: “Apple has done it
again! The iPhone is the future of cell phones! I’m going to switch
cell phone carriers/move to the United States/sell a kidney to buy an
iPhone!”

This article is going to be a little different. It’s going to focus
on everything Steve Jobs and friends may have done to screw up the
launch of the iPhone.

You heard me correctly – Apple may have screwed up the launch of the iPhone. How you may ask? Computerworld had a great article on just this topic, which raises some very interesting points:

1. The announcement was premature

• The hundreds of millions of dollars of free media exposure Apple
  got for the iPhone release was truly amazing. Will they get an
  equivalent amount 4 months from now when the phone is actually on the
  shelf, available for sale?
• A premature announcement allows competitors to respond to the iPhone even before it hits store shelves. Whether it be similar user interfaces, or marketing – why spend all that effort trying to hide the iPhone’s development,
  and then announce it well before you’re able to sell a single unit?
  (Steve Job’s explanation to this question, that the FCC would announce
  it if Apple didn’t, is addressed towards the end of this article)

2. The iPhone announcement could have a negative effect on ipod sales

• Assuming the iPhone is a replacement for the iPod, the iPhone could already be cannibalizing the iPod’s sales.

3.The iPhone trademark is still up in the air

• Whose idea was it to announce Apple’s use of someone else’s trademark before the negotiations were 100% settled?

4. Steve Jobs over-hyped the iPhone.
How can you overhype something? By creating expectations for it which
are impossible to fulfill. The iPhone is really, really cool. But
because it has been so hyped-up, consumers may expect it to be cooler
than it actually is, and as a result be even more disappointed than
usual at its shortcomings, which are numerous:

• The iPhone price was understated by 20-40%, as Steve assumed anyone
  who buys the iPhone will be signing a 2-3 year contract at the same
  time.
• Mr. Jobs also forgot to mention that other phones not available in the US yet, like the LG KE850, already have the nifty touch screen interface.
• There was also the point that both the internal storage for videos and music, as well as the phone’s battery are not upgradeable or customer serviceable.
• And of course, Steve forgot to mention the iPhone doesn’t support Microsoft Outlook, the #1 office / organizer package
• Finally, Apple set some very ambitious goals for the iPhone -
  selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. In other words, Apple
  believes they will sell close to double the number of Blackberrys
  sold by RIM last year. Let’s not forget though that unlike Apple, RIM
  offers a selection of different phones in their Blackberry line, and
  their phones are available worldwide from a number of different
  cellphone service providers. The Blackberry also retails (on average)
  for less than 50% of the iPhone’s sticker price.

5. The overhype of the iPhone left the AppleTV behind

• Have you ever heard of the AppleTV?
  No? Well let me fill you in - it was the 2nd product Steve announced at
  his Macworld 2007 keynote address. If the iPhone wasn’t announced,
  although the media frenzy might have been smaller, it would have been
  100% focused on the AppleTV, a product which Apple is already accepting orders for on their website.

In all fairness, the Computer World article did manage to forget one
very significant point which Steve Jobs mentioned in his presentation -
that the reason Apple announced the iPhone early was because if they
didn’t, the FCC would (as the iPhone would need to be cleared by the
FCC before it could be sold on store shelves), and Steve wanted to
break the news of the iPhone to the world himself.

That being said, if I were Steve I would have just kept my mouth
shut. The Apple fan boys have known Apple is developing an phone for a
while now, mainly based on Apple’s patent filings.
And although I’m sure there would be some mention of Apple filing FCC
papers in the technology and investing papers, Apple would not have
gotten nearly the same amount of press as they did with the Macworld
Presentation.

I therefore agree with the author of the Computer World article in
his conclusion that from the business strategy perspective, Steve Jobs
should have waited on the iPhone announcement.