Apple today announced that iPhone™ will deliver significantly longer battery life when it ships on June 29 than was originally estimated when iPhone was unveiled in January - ‘Cmon Steve, you expect me to believe this is a last minute improvement?

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also upgraded iPhone’s entire top surface from plastic to optical-quality glass for superior scratch resistance and clarity”. - is there such a thing as PRE launch upgrade?

A truly remarkable news release by Apple today. Not because we are 11 days away from the iPhone’s being in a regular users hand but mostly because at this stage this is a great ‘pumping of the guns’ move by Apple (showing up in blogs like mushrooms after the rain) . What will they discover 5 days before launch? - That it folds in half? that bold people are showing signs of new hair growth, that the blue pill is no longer needed (it will most certainly become a sign of manhood right )

Regardless, my guess is that this announcement has been planed for months before…why not fool around with the press and let everyone talk about possible battery problems ONLY to come out with the great news just before launch and fuel the hype.

“The entire top surface…” , as well as the “battery life extension” are logistic tasks that take months to execute. From testing, ordering, building up stock, replacing existing…etc. - this is NO last minute swicharoo. No way Steve got his team together two months ago and said…“listen guys…we can’t launch like this…you got to do better with the battery life problem…give me solutions people…go-go-go…and wait…while you are at it…lets upgrade the screen cover” .

It doesn’t work this way. To serve the expected nationwide supply, iPhones have been gathering dust in the stock rooms for many, many months now.
Once again, this is a classic Apple / Steve Jobs marketing hype case study - nice one Steve…I like it.

      

The video you are about to watch is very special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOXoplVTcfY

I didn’t plan on take this footage or write about it, but it turned out more than post worthy. What you are witnessing is the first time my son has ever used an iPod. As you can see, for him its bliss. A simple, innocent, unpretentious, pure moment where beat meets mind and mind moves body. That, in itself, is probably of no interest to anyone but myself, so why do I care to put it here and write about it? Well, encapsulated in this moment are a few notes that represent how far we have advanced and how backwards we still are:

1. Past sharing = take a vinyl to a friend and play it. No piracy issues. Today = filetype? zune? iPod? player? protected? criminal?

2. Past song=song. Today Song=song/rintone/truetone/mp3/wav/drm/vidclip/cover/bitrate

3. Past music capacity = house shelf space. Today = disk space = $ dad will pay for next iPod.

4. Past 1000 songs = truck. Today 10,000 songs = pocket.

5. Past music = moving parts. Today music = on the move.

6. Past sharing = serenade. Today sharing = P2P

7. Past selling point = city center. Today selling point = planet earth.

8. Past phone = speak. Today (mobile) phone = another music player.

9. Past download = garbage in the house. Today download = music from net.

10. Past (corporate) promotion = Top of the Pops. Today (self) promotion = myspace.

11. Past recommend = talk to friend. Today recommend = something.web20.com

There is no doubt we have come a long way. A very long way. The biggest open issues remain compatibility and legality. The fact that 30 years ago it was easier to go places and “just play a song” whereas today it turns into a techno_legal symposium is mind boggling.

Over time this absurd will be resolved. By the time my son will be my age he will be able to continue to do what everyone should when listing to music - simply, innocently, unpretentiously, purely… dance!