“According to industry reports, Apple only sent out 100 or so invitations to publishers and journalists, but as is the case with anything Apple, the announcements were bound to grab the headlines. The invitations only included an image of a calendar with Feb. 28th as the announcement date. Granted that this doesn’t prove much, but the location of the launch (Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California) does suggest something. Moreover, I hardly doubt a company would label its major product update as ‘…fun, new products.’ Of course, it could be misinterpreted, which is exactly what happened in this case, but a speck of common sense could’ve prevented the media from a lot of reader embarrassment,” Gundeep Hora writes for CoolTechZone.
“As soon as the invitations made their rounds, the media (and bloggers) went haywire with speculations and expectations baselessly. Once the day came and Apple released a few average products that no one anticipated, the media criticized Apple for not living up to its expectations. I might’ve missed the memo, but Apple never hyped this press conference. It was the journalists who decided to do a story on the upcoming launch, and seemingly gathered the news from a mere phrase and a corresponding image. When they finally realized that Apple had made them look childish, they went after Apple for no apparent reason… the fact of the matter is that Apple was the innocent party in this uncalled for fiasco. Maybe if the media doesn’t try to makeup stories without supporting facts, it wouldn’t be so disappointed, but I doubt this would be a lesson well learned,” Hora writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Maybe if the media doesn’t try to makeup stories without supporting facts?” What an strange and alien world that would be, huh? If the amount of errors in articles about tech products from Apple Computer are any guide, then media stories about supposedly “important” subjects [fill in your cause here] are full of half-truths, myths, and general poppycock. Which, of course, they are; often to the brim. We do agree that the hyping of Apple’s last “special media event” was caused by the media, but abetted by Apple’s pathological need for mystery to drive press coverage. In the future, Apple should add a little more detail to the invites or leak nice meaningful tidbits to the right sources in order to throttle expectations as needed.
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