iPhone Mania

The blogosphere is going crazy with activity around the imminent launch of the Apple iPhone in the US this week. How would you like to see this level of activity…before your product and campaign has even been launched! The ability to see potential demand well in advance is one of the key benefits of Web 2.0 that I think is largely undervalued by marketers at the moment.

BlogPulse shows a rocketing level of activity over the last 2 months.

Meanwhile Technorati has so far tracked 182,971 posts tagged with “iphone”.

This must be the most widely anticipated mobile device product launch ever. Everyone is excited including this guy with his post “I can’t wait to steal the new iPhone!“. Kids on the streets of London had to stop wearing the distinctive white iPod ear phones as they were an open invitation to get mugged and have your shiny new iPod stolen. I wonder if iPhone is going to ignite another wave of street crime.

Here’s Apple’s official video demo of the iPhone:

Interestingly not many of the big tech bloggers seems to have been given preview handsets to review. The articles online so far seem mostly to be from mainstream media. Are Apple trying to avoid any Microsoft-stlye blogger outreach backlash? This is the most comprehensive review I have read on the Wall Street Journal.

Alas, the rest of the world must wait patiently for Apple to bestow iPhone status on them. No doubt UK will be next I think. I don’t know if you’ll be able to buy one overseas and then get it unlocked for a local GSM carrier, however, I’m sure some hacker/blogger will figure that out in a matter of weeks.