i-News... Why does Apple Inc. get a free ride?

[J Kendrick]

What now gives with Apple Inc. ... that every time the company sneezes all of the world's broadcast and print media now fall all over themselves just to make it front page news?

Samsung just came out with its Galaxy Note 10.0... a notepad that -- unlike the iPad -- works with an electronic pen and you can make actually make phone calls with it. Did this new product get any free front page news coverage like Apple just did for its iPad4? Answer: No.

Nokia has just come out with its 808 Pureview... a new phone with a phenomenal 41-megapixel image sensor by Carl Zeiss with totally unmatched photo quality. Again, did this new product get any free front page news coverage like Apple just did for its iPad4? Answer: No.

Anyone else calling any news room looking for a little free ink or broadcast time for their latest new product would be promptly redirected to the sales department... but not Apple. For some unknown reason Apple Inc. keeps getting a free ride, where they should be getting told that they must pay to advertise their new product releases just like everyone else.

No wonder Apple is now the biggest freely traded company on the planet. All of the world's print and broadcast media are now allowing their biggest possible advertising cash cow to get away scot-free... because all that Apple Inc. now has to do is have one of its employees "accidentally" leave a sample of its newest product on a bar somewhere and the result is instantly guaranteed free publicity.

Why is this now being allowed to happen? Never before in the history of journalism has any single company been given the sort of free ride that Apple Inc. is now getting. Apple Inc. should be made to pay for its broadcast time just like every other company that is looking to advertise its products. The same goes for Facebook and Twitter.

[CKNF]

Wait...there's an iPad 4??

Woo hoo!

[Big Voice]

Kendrick,
I think it's called brilliant, world class marketing, of a product that captured the imagination of the majority of the marketplace.

[CKNF]

Kendrick,
I think it's called brilliant, world class marketing, of a product that captured the imagination of the majority of the marketplace.

Agreed.

It was a little over a decade ago when nobody could give a rats ass about Apple and many speculated that they were pretty much finished as they faded into obscurity. Look at them today. It's really quite a remarkable story how a computer company has been able to innovate products that have captured people's hearts the way they have.

Did Apple invent the mp3 player? Nope. But they made one that people wanted. Did they invent the tablet computer? Nope. However, prior to the iPad, tablets were generally clumsy and overpriced and usually required some kind of a stylus for interfacing with it. Again, they made something that people wanted. Apple didn't invent the smart phone either, but prior to the iPhone, smart phones were relegated to geeks and business types and were generally considered beyond what most people wanted or needed for a mobile communications device. Apple brought it to the people with a line-up of 'apps' that made the smart phone a wanted commodity and pretty much changed not only the way people communicate but also entertain themselves.

All of these Android products coming out now are pretty much in response to Apple's innovation and how they have changed the consumer electronics landscape.
In short, it was their innovation with compelling products (and a few marketing geniuses) that drove them to their success and now yes, they are getting a lot of free publicity...but that's because whether you like it or not, people care and are intrigued by Apple's products. Just the way it is. It's their time in the sun now. Tomorrow? Who knows. Trends change over time...and right now, Apple is the 'in' thing.

I remember a time when people would line up with excitement and anticipation for the next Microsoft Windows version. There was also a time when owning a Sony product meant something. Remember the Walkman and how any other portable music player just didn't seem to cut it? Times have certainly changed.

And before anyone accuses me of being an Apple fan boy, I'm not. I'm typing all of this from an HP Windows 7 notebook which I enjoy using.
Just calling it the way I see it.

[J Kendrick]

Wait...there's an iPad 4??

Woo hoo!

...iPad 4 is expected in October...

Innovative or not... they still shouldn't be getting a free ride. They still should be paying for all the free advertising they now get.

New kitchen appliances don't get news headlines. New car models don't get news headlines. New soaps and shampoos don't get news headlines. Even new phones, computers, and flat screens don't get news headlines... if they're not Apple.

Neither should they.

[CKNF]

...iPad 4 is expected in October...

The third generation iPad was just announced yesterday and will be released on the 16th. There is no such thing as an iPad 4 and Apple doesn't release iPads in October. It's always been around this time of the year (March/April).

Innovative or not... they still shouldn't be getting a free ride. They still should be paying for all the free advertising they now get.

So any publicity a successful organization gets because of their success needs to be paid for?

What you're saying is Apple is only successful because they're getting all this 'free advertising'. I'm afraid it doesn't quite work that way. The fact of the matter is, they get all of this attention because of their success in what they've been able to do in the marketplace...and yes, the end result ends up being some exposure in the media that works to their benefit. I certainly can't blame them for that.

I assure you, there's no Apple world domination conspiracy here. I'm pretty sure when Samsung releases a revolutionary product that takes the world by storm, there will be a place on the pedestal for them as well. Until then, let's face it. That new Galaxy tablet may be a fantastic unit, but it only exists because of the iPad and will always be in the iPad's shadow.

Oh...and just to touch on something you mentioned above:

Samsung just came out with its Galaxy Note 10.0... a notepad that -- unlike the iPad -- works with an electronic pen and you can make actually make phone calls with it. Did this new product get any free front page news coverage like Apple just did for its iPad4? Answer: No.

The iPad doesn't really need an electronic pen however, a stylus can be obtained for about 10 bucks if you really want it...and yes, phone calls can be made on the iPad. All you need is a VIOP app which can be obtained for free.

Also, please don't take any of this as a personal attack towards you. I assume by expressing your opinion here, that you were also looking for others opinions too. That's all.

[CKNF]

Sorry, I meant VoIP not VIOP. That no editing after ten minutes rule really sucks sometimes!

[Howaboutthat]

Again, did this new product get any free front page news coverage like Apple just did for its iPad4?

There isn't even an iPad 3 yet! Yesterday the 'new' iPad was unveiled. 3 was never used.

They still should be paying for all the free advertising they now get.

Why would they pay for Free advertising?

Now go back to your 8-track.

[Big Voice]

I just got tweeted that Apple intends to send out cheques to the media to pay for the free advertising. I guess Apple felt guilty.

[J Kendrick]

I assume by expressing your opinion here, that you were also looking for others opinions too. That's all.

Unless they have actually managed to re-invent the wheel, no new model launch of an already existing product is ever worthy of headline news coverage... simply because of the name of the company that makes it.

Mass Effect 3 was released on Tuesday -- the newest video game in which gamers world-wide are now being challenged to head off an alien invasion of the City of Vancouver -- but nobody has yet dared to make a news story out of that because it's not news... and because it's not Apple.

Any print or broadcast medium that hears from Apple Inc. again should be telling them to contact the Sales Department.

[CKNF]

Unless they have actually managed to re-invent the wheel, no new model launch of an already existing product is ever worthy of headline news coverage... simply because of the name of the company that makes it.

Mass Effect 3 was released on Tuesday -- the newest video game in which gamers world-wide are now being challenged to head off an alien invasion of the City of Vancouver -- but nobody has yet dared to make a news story out of that because it's not news... and because it's not Apple.

Any print or broadcast medium that hears from Apple Inc. again should be telling them to contact the Sales Department.

So I take it you won't be purchasing a new iPad anytime soon?

[J Kendrick]

So I take it you won't be purchasing a new iPad anytime soon?

Makes no difference either way. Unless one of their products suddenly starts over-heating and catching fire, the products of Apple Inc. deserve no more special treatment by the news media than any other commercial product from any other manufacturer.

[Big Voice]

Kendrick, it’s obvious you have a strange fixation on Apple’s free publicity, but it seems a little over the top.
Why do you care so much about a company that has so masterfully captured the imagination of not only the public, but the media?
Why aren’t you sitting back and congratulating them on a Hell of a great job!
I’ve been assuming that you’re a guy?
Maybe not, maybe you’re a woman?
You’re bitching more than my ex-wife?

[J Kendrick]

Why do you care so much about a company that has so masterfully captured the imagination of not only the public, but the media?
Why aren’t you sitting back and congratulating them on a Hell of a great job!

...a hell of a great job of turning the public.. and the media.. into lemmings.
Phineas T. Barnum certainly would have been impressed.

Apple's competitors now take a very different view of the public's constant fawning over every new i-Gadget upgrade...
As an example... See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa6lvDqGdKI

[jon]

I don't wish to get in an argument with those who have spent their career in Radio News, but for the banter in Morning Shows fed by recent News items, it makes total sense to me that, when you talk about technology News, you would talk most about the technology products used and deemed most important by the largest number of your listeners, and the companies that make them. The iPod is definitely one of those products, especially when you factor in the skewing most managers would have you, as a Morning Show Host, do towards the most desirable Demographics of your listeners and potential listeners. Which means talking about Apple.

It is a tad complicated getting valid statistics to back up this statement: "The iPod has a market share exceeding 95% in the MP3 player business." The problem is that most cell phones and a sizable number of new cars have MP3 player capabilities that virtually no one uses, but that almost everyone has (one or the other -- car or cell phone). Those, of course, are not Apple and, even those that are, are not iPods. Which means that the statement should talk about hours per week usage to deliver a SHARE number like the BBM ratings for MP3 players, and I doubt anyone has done that kind of research.

From the retired Computer guy (me), who specialized in buying technology for corporations, technical support and writing -- magazine articles and "how to" documentation -- point of view, the dominance of the iPod is almost unparalleled in history. Most previous examples are based on patents, like Xerox had with the fundamental technology behind photocopiers in the 1960s.

As for the late Steve Jobs never having had an original idea in this life, although I'm not a Jobs fan, I tend to think of him as Thomas Edison: most of what he created was not his own invention. But he (Edison and Jobs) was the guy to make it a practical product that could be, and was, mass produced for the world to use. A really bad paraphrase of a famous saying: "If an inventor invents something in the forest and never tells anyone, does it matter?" Answer: only to the Patent Office. It takes an Edison or Jobs to make it matter to the world.