Apple uses downtime as viral marketing?!?
The Apple Store went down this morning. Nothing unusual about that; they have routinely taken the store down every Tuesday this year so far to introduce updated iPods, MacBooks, Time Capsule etc. Today was apparently just maintenance.
It isn’t common practice however to take down an online store to add new products. Imagine if Amazon did the same. It has been claimed by people on the inside that it is actually an architectural limitation of the store itself. It has to be re-published in its entirety – a requirement you could justifiably call poor design.
Apple’s relationship with the web conflicts with its image. They provide tools to write a blog but notoriously forbid their own employees from doing so. They are secretive and openly hostile to rumour sites (Think Secret the latest casualty). Bizarrely, their management of the store seems to be an exception.
A company with Apple’s resources could easily build a new store, but they choose to persevere with the old one. Why? It can only be the excitement and speculation that spreads through the mac websites like wildfire the moment that little “We’ll be back soon” post-it note appears on the page.
Call it PR, call it the Reality Distortion Field at work. Only Apple could spin a flaw in their service into a social marketing campaign. If I was a conspiracy theorist I might imagine Phil Schiller sat at his desk, leaking “rumours” to the web…
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March 12th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I never thought of it like that well spotted. There is certainly a buzz and excitment created by these downtime periods, only to reveal they’ve given the MacBooks slightly faster processors or something.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Apple’s secrecy Vs Microsoft’s openness seems more peculiar as time goes on.
They can’t keep products under-wraps as effectively as they used to. The new MacBooks were released ahead of schedule because Intel’s processor roadmap forced their hand.
Steve Jobs is a showman by nature though, so stunts like taking down the store must have their use…