“Sometimes, the media can’t cover a cough,” Marek Fuchs writes for MarketWatch. “That is perhaps never more apparent than when it comes to a pending product introduction — namely Apple’s iPhone 6, which apparently will be unveiled on September 9.”
“Truth is, we know how the media handles these things. It’s not as simple as saying that they are merely going to hype a new product to the heavens,” Fuchs writes. “That’s only part of what they do. What they actually do is more complex, but predictable. Call it the four stages of stock hype.”
1. The ‘hyperbole’ stage: During this stage, we get a guessing game of cartoonish proportions about the product’s new features, which no one knows for certain.
2. The ‘from murderously bad to O.K.’ stage: As the actual release date approaches, Apple will want to more finely calibrate expectations. At that point, information will leak.
3. The ‘back in bad’ stage: Once the product is introduced but before its actually released, the media are faced with a quandary: How do you write about an exciting product you haven’t handled for long? Easy: Just do it. That’s why coverage in the immediate aftermath of a release tends to be as overheated as the original coverage.
4. The ‘settle down’ stage: In may take a week or two after the actual product release, but eventually the media will return to what passes for its senses.
Read more in the full article here.
Hacks.
He forgot a earlier stage where a key component is not being produced in sufficient quantities thus delaying shipment of the mythical product.
Yes, those are planted by competitors who hope to sell their products to those who need a new phone or computer soon. If they can convince those buyers that the Apple product is being delayed they have a chance to sell their otherwise undesirable products now.
Nobody cares anymore. Rumors and analysis are just synonyms.
If you think that for one moment that financials are the only thing that can move a stock price, think again. And, it’s not irrational.
You write about technology markets for a living.
It’s getting near the end of the hyperbole part of the cycle, because the splog of rumours have been rehashed into an unappetising soufflé.
There’s little left to write about, but a self-referential piece should serve as a placeholder until an actual product is announced.
You wonder, for the nth time, how technology writing devolved into gossip mongering. You consider writing about food instead.
I have been for a long time in love with you.
Even as a child, I deliberately coloured outside the lines. The brightest of the boys tended to approve 🙂
Yer kellerin’ is purty.
this is how an average reporter ACTUALLY thinks :
— what’s the best angle (to get readers) for the story?
Everybody knows apple is good, so an ‘apple is good’ story is BORiNG. So find a sensationalist angle….. Apple is BAD! ah ha!… string some fudge facts together and viola! ANTENNAGATE!! MAPGATE!!! That zooms to the top of the tech pages and gets on twitter etc…
— most of my income a year writing articles is NOT from Apple. I get more money writing dozens of articles for android devices so do i want to jeopardize that by saying “Apple and iOS is so much better? you’re safe malware, you actually get OS updates ?” etc…… NOOOOOOO…. thats going to blow my earnings (can’t live on one iPhone review a year) and Samsung, HTC, LG, etc might not send me new phones to review so I’m going to temper my enthusiasm for Apple.
Besides the publisher and Editor in Chief LOVES all those ads Samsung puts in the magazine (and I want to keep my job) . So 5 stars for iPhone vs 5 stars for Galaxy S sounds right (although really the Galaxy sucks) ….
THATS HOW REPORTERS ACTUALLY THINK.
(I sort of joking above but i actually worked in the magazine business for awhile in New York)
(as an aside, I don’t really know the reasons but Apple fans Mossberg and Pogue no longer work for the WSJ and NYTs… )